South African slang is a crazy mixture of languages and cultures. There are influences from the Cape Malay people, the Afrikaners and indigenous people, notably the Xhosa, Zulu and Sotho people.

There are 11 official languages. European and Eastern settlers have arrived on our shores over the years since the 1820s, when the first wave of English settlers arrived. People from Holland, France, Java, India, China, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and Italy have helped to create a vast, linguistically disparate, melting pot.

Surfers, with their own unique style of speaking, have borrowed from this great semantic source and mixed in global surf terms to create a truly dynamic dictionary.

Take a look at our comprehensive glossary. If you have a fragile temperament, stop here. The words listed in the glossary are from a several subcultures.

Some of the more unsavoury ones do not necessarily represent the South African surfing culture. Some words are outdated. With the advent of the new South Africa, a few have fallen into disuse.However, they are so colourful and weird, we have retained them.