The dynamics of spilling breakers in the presence of surfactants were studied experimentally. The breakers were produced from Froude-scaled mechanically generated dispersively focused wave packets with average frequencies of 1.15, 1.26 and 1.42 Hz. Separate experiments were performed with the same wave maker motions in clean water and in water with various bulk concentrations of the soluble surfactants Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate, Triton X-100 and Hemicyanine. For each surfactant condition, the surface pressure isotherms, equilibrium surface elasticity and surface viscosity were measured in situ in order to characterize the dynamic properties of the free surface. The histories of the crest profiles during breaking were measured with a laser-induced fluorescence technique and a high-speed digital camera. In clean water, all waves examined herein break without overturning of the free surface. This breaking process begins with the formation of a bulge on the forward face of the wave crest and with capillary waves forming upstream of the leading edge of the bulge (called the toe). After a short time, the flow separates under the toe and a turbulent flow is developed while the toe moves rapidly down the wave face. During the toe motion, a train of ripples appears between the toe and the crest and this train of ripples is swept downstream. For most surfactant conditions, the ”clean-water” breaking process is modified quantitatively but not qualitatively. In these cases, the bulge shape changes and its size generally decreases with increasing surfactant concentration. The capillary waves found upstream of the toe in the ”clean” water case are dramatically reduced at even the lowest concentrations of surfactants used herein. The transition to turbulent flow is still initiated when the toe begins to move down the forward face of the wave. The pattern of ripples generated between the toe and the crest of the wave during this phase of the breaking process varies with the concentration of surfactant. Various geometrical parameters of the wave crest profiles are analyzed by scaling them with the measured dynamic properties of the surfactants. Under a more restricted set of surfactant conditions, the transition to turbulent flow is initiated by the formation of a small plunging jet which sometimes issues from a place below the point of maximum surface elevation. The surfactant conditions under which these ”micro jets” appear are examined.