Bodyboarding - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Bodyboarding is a surface water sport

Surface water sports

The following is a list of surface water sports; these are sports which are performed atop a body of water.-Discing:Discing consists of standing on a circular wooden disc and being towed behind the boat. The disc supports the rider by means of spreading the weight out evenly across the water...

(sometimes called Boogieboarding, from the inventor Tom Morey

Tom Morey

Tom Morey also known by the moniker "Y" is a musician, engineer, and surfer responsible for several technological innovations that have heavily influenced modern developments in surfing equipment design....

, of the "Boogie Board" where Boogie is an original brand in the greater bodyboard industry/market). The average board consists of a small, rectangular piece of hydrodynamic foam, sometimes containing a ridged spine called a 'stringer'. Bodyboarders typically use swim-fins for additional propulsion into and control while riding a wave.

The boards are shaped to the rider's specific needs such as height, weight and riding style. Those styles include prone (layout flat on your belly), dropknee (one foot forward and flat on the deck of the board and the back leg has its knee to ankle on the deck), and stand-up (both feet on the deck). Bodyboarding originated in the Hawaiian islands on "Paipo" (PIPE OH) boards. The decades from 1970 to 2010 have seen the birth and rapid growth in popularity of the modern foam-based version of this sport that predates the first stand-up surfing

Surfing

Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...

by hundreds of years.
Prior to 1971, bodyboards were made from wood or fiberglass and foam, and called paipo boards . Paipos made from wood generally do not have fins, but fiberglass/foam boards usually do. Modern popularization of the sport was made possible by Tom Morey

Tom Morey

who designed the first mass-produced bodyboard coined the "Morey 'Boogie' Board". Though the initial rider for Morey was Mike Stewart

Mike Stewart

Mike Stewart is a nine-time World Champion bodyboarder, one of the early pioneers of the bodyboarding sport, a pioneer of big-wave tow-in surfing and also a champion bodysurfer.- Biography :...

, as the years progressed and the sport went to higher levels, competing became a larger aspect of the sport.

The board

The bodyboard differs from a surfboard

Surfboard

A surfboard is an elongated platform used in the sport of surfing. Surfboards are relatively light, but are strong enough to support an individual standing on them while riding a breaking wave...

in the fact that it is much shorter and made out of foam. Bodyboarding has been around since ancient Hawaiian days, it was called "Paipo" and was made out of koa wood. The modern board consists of a foam 'core' encapsulated by a plastic bottom and a softer foam top known as the deck. The core is made up from dow/polyethylene

Polyethylene

Polyethylene or polythene is the most widely used plastic, with an annual production of approximately 80 million metric tons...

, arcel

Arcel

ARCEL advanced foam resin consists of polystyrene and polyethylene, providing exceptional toughness, flexibility and durability in a lightweight foam. Produced by NOVA Chemicals, ARCEL resin creates a resilient foam that can be molded into numerous, complex, and intricate forms, including...

or, more recently, polypropylene

Polypropylene

Polypropylene , also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications including packaging, textiles , stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers of various types, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive components, and polymer banknotes...

. Each type of foam

Foam

-Definition:A foam is a substance that is formed by trapping gas in a liquid or solid in a divided form, i.e. by forming gas regions inside liquid regions, leading to different kinds of dispersed media...

gives the bodyboard a different amount of flex and control for the rider. Dow/polyethelene cores are best suited to cooler waters as they can be too flexible in warm water and the board does not flex properly. The type of foam is also consistent with the ride on the wave. Stiffer foams provide the rider with suitable riding conditions to make sure the bottom of the board does not turn out and snap in half.

Some boards contain one or two rods (usually of carbon or graphite) called stringers to strengthen the board, reduce deformation, and add stiffness and recoil to the core, giving greater speed from bottom turns. If a single stringer is used, it is placed in the center of the board running parallel to the rails. If two are used, they are placed symmetrically about the y-axis. Knowing the number of stringers and their placements is important to prevent damage to the board when punching a hole for a leash plug. Adding a stringer to a polypropylene/arcel core can make it too stiff for cool water. Speed from the bottom turn is increased when a bodyboarder bottom turns and the board flexes and recoils, releasing energy. If the board flexes too little or too easily, speed is lost.

Most modern boards are equipped with channels that increase surface area in the critical parts of the board which, in turn, allow it to have greater wave hold and control. The use of these channels also means that the tail of the board is free to move. Occasionally, skeg

Skeg

A skeg is a sternward extension of the keel of boats and ships which have a rudder mounted on the centre line. The term also applies to the lowest point on an outboard motor or the outdrive of an inboard/outboard...

s are installed to decrease slippage on a wave face. However, it also decreases the looseness and maneuverability required for many moves, leading to a decrease in their use. Skegs are very rarely used and even then almost exclusively by drop-knee or stand-up bodyboarders.

Crescent tails provide the greatest amount of hold (keeping a rider on the board) in steep waves but make it difficult to slide the tail deliberately. Crescent tails are generally preferred by drop-knee riders because the shape interferes less. A bat tail

Bat tail

In reference to bodyboard design, Bat tail is used to describe a style of tail which was invented by Mike Stewart in the mid-1990s. The bat tail is essentially a combination of the clipped crescent tail and the square tail, which provides a balance of control and maneuverability...

is better suited for prone riders because it is easier to slide the tail. The bat tail also makes the bottom of the board slightly longer in the middle, helping to keep the rider's legs out of the water, reducing drag.

Glued, or more recently, bonded via a hot air lamination technique, to this core is a thick plastic bottom (known as the 'slick') which gives the board strength and speed. Two main types of 'slick' are present in modern day bodyboards: the first and better-performing of the two is surlyn providing much more strength and projection. Another cheaper type of slick is known as high-density polyethylene or HDPE, which does not perform to the same standard.

The top of the board (the 'deck') is made from a softer foam to give grip and cushioning to the rider. Bodyboarders frequently wax their boards to increase the coefficient of friction on contact surface areas.
The shape of the board affects how it works. If the wide point of the board is near the nose, the board is best suited to prone riding as the riders weight is further up on the board. Boards with rails that are more parallel or ones with a wide middle and a narrow nose are ideal for drop-knee and stand-up riding as the rider's center of gravity is further back. Some magazines have an annual Board Test where unsigned riders test the new season boards and give a review, such as Movement magazine's Board Test. and Riptide Magazine's Board Guide.

Invention of the modern bodyboard:

On July 9, 1971, Tom Morey invented the modern bodyboard. Soon after arriving in Honolulu, Morey began toying with the idea of making a surfboard that would be "ultimately fast." He designed a six-foot-long board with a fiberglass bottom and soft polyethylene deck that would be ridden prone.

A month later Morey moved to the Big Island to the town of Kailua where he lived just down the street from the surf break Honols. One hot July morning he awoke to perfect waves. The only problem was, he didn't have a board to ride.
He knew he wanted to make something out of his last nine-foot piece of polyethylene foam, but he didn't know what. "I grabbed a knife and cut it in half," says Morey. "There was no turning back at that point. I looked at the foam and then at the surf and began fooling around with a hot iron and an electric knife. I found that I could shape the foam using the iron if I put a sheet of newspaper down on the foam first. Later that night, I drew a few curves on the foam with a red marking pen and went to bed." Morey rose early on July 9, 1971, and cut and ironed out his planned shape. He left his board as wide as possible and left the nose square so that it would have more structural strength and so he could hold on to it. "I decided I'd shape the rails like those on a Hot Curl surfboard," says Morey. "Those were the boards from the 20s and 30s; built before boards had skegs. I cut 45-degree Hot Curl rails into my board. They looked great, but I still wasn't sure how it would ride."

Morey grabbed his board, ran across the street to Honols and the sport of bodyboarding was born. "I had a ball!" recalls Morey. "I could actually feel the wave through the board. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. On a surfboard you're not feeling every nuance of the wave; you're feeling how this seven-foot piece of fiberglass is chattering against the wave. But with my creation I could feel everything. I was thinking to myself, "This thing turns, it's durable, it can be made cheaply, it's lightweight, it's impenetrable...God, this could be a really big thing!'"
Morey was so pleased that the very next day he shaped a smaller board and sold it to a neighbor for ten dollars. "I had to know if anyone would buy it," said Morey. "After that sale I knew I would be able to sell it everywhere."
During this time, Morey had become involved in the Bahai faith—a religion that stresses the principles of universal brotherhood. The Bahais believe everything done for the service of mankind is elevated to the state of worship, so when Morey asked to borrow some money to fund a move to the Mainland in order to market his board, his fellow believers were eager to help.

"One Bahai friend, Jack Spock, lent me 200 dollars," says Morey. "Then another friend, whose name I've forgotten, gave me 100 dollars. A couple of guys had vehicles they wanted to sell, so I fixed their cars. After we sold the cars, one guy, Ray Olivaras, split his earnings with me. Another guy, Roger Glick, let me keep the 250 dollars as an investment." Altogether Morey borrowed 1,000 dollars from his Bahai friends. He was ready for the Mainland.

Male bodyboarders

Mike Stewart is considered the father of modern bodyboarding and holds an unprecedented 9 world titles. The current World Tour champion is French Amaury Lavernhe. The most successful competitor on this tour has been Brazilian Guilherme Tâmega. All are still competing against each other in the tour world tour. Some well known australian bodyboarders are, Michael Novy, Dallas Singer, Sam Bennett, Cade Sharp, Mitch rawlins, Ben Player, Ryan Hardy, Damian King and Jake Stone

Female bodyboarders

Phylis Dameron was the first person — male or female — to ride big Waimea, North Shore Hawaii in the late 1970s. Carol Philips

Carol Philips

Carol Philips a pioneers of big wave bodyboarding for women. She was the first woman to compete against the men at the Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore . She founded the World Championship of Women's Bodyboarding in Memory of Don and Josie Over in 1990...

was the first woman to ride big Pipe in the 1980s and to compete against the men at Pipeline, North Shore Hawaii. In Brazil during the early 1990s, Mariana Nogueira, Glenda Koslowski and Stephanie Petterson set standards that pushed women's bodyboarding to a world class level. Stephanie Petterson won the first official World Championship of Women's Bodyboarding at Pipeline in 1990. It was the first women's event ever held there and the longest running women's wave sport event in the world. 2009 marked the event's 20th anniversary.

Aspects of the 'revolution'

Old school bodyboarding praised a more fluid and easy going style of surfing. The standard tricks were spinners (360° spin) on the wave face either in normal or reverse direction, cut backs and the bodyboarding trademark El Rollo

El Rollo

An El Rollo is a bodyboarding trick performed when the bodyboarder hits the lip of the wave and uses its power to throw himself out with the lip in a perfect arc to complete a roll before landing on the wave surface or into the white water...

or barrell roll.

Modern bodyboarding, while still paying attention to style, focuses mainly on aerial manoeuvers in heavier and bigger waves, in which the waves become launching platforms for these manoeuvres. These include aerial spinners, aerial reverse 720s (Jeff Hubbard

Jeff Hubbard

Jeff Hubbard is the 2009 IBA World Tour bodyboarder champion from Kauai, Hawaii. His brother David also won a world title in 2009: the IBA Drop Knee World Tour. Jeff won his first IBA World Title in 2006....

and José Otávio

José Otávio

José Otavio, or Zé Otavio, is a Brazilian bodyboarder. He was born in the landlocked state of Minas Gerais. He started to surf in Guriri, Espírito Santo, and developed his skills as a bodyboarder on the beaches of Niterói, . Otavio has continued his career by surfing Brazil's most sought after...

are notable examples). El Rollos are mostly aerial too, and this basic trick evolved into critical variations, like the ARS

ARS (bodyboard)

An ARS, which stands for Air - Roll - Spin, is a bodyboarding trick that combines an El Rollo with a 360° spin while the bodyboarder is in the air. The bodyboarder starts off by approaching the lip and doing the El Rollo, and during the rotation throws him/herself into a forward 360° spin. Michael...

(Air Roll Spin) pioneered by Michael Eppelstun

Michael Eppelstun

Michael "Eppo" Eppelstun is an Australian professional bodyboarder who won the bodyboarding world championship in 1993. In winning the competition he became the first Australian and the first non-Hawaiian to win the World Title. Eppo helped develop two new moves in the bodyboarding world which...

(where the bodyboarder combines an aerial El Rollo with an 360° spinner).

Modern bodyboarders place a heavy emphasis on riding within the barrel of a wave as well as completing multiple tricks on the wave face in a single ride, including inverts, aerial spins (forward and reverse), reverse spins on the face, spins in the barrel, ARS's and backflips.

Note: Although the world tour and world women's tour changed names in the timespan the world titles below were recorded, this article assumes as world tour and world women's tour titles those earned after the establishment of the world tour by the current International Bodyboarding Association and its former incarnations.

Dropknee

Dropknee is another form of wave riding on a bodyboard. It consists of putting one's preferred foot at the front of the board while the other knee rests on the tail of the board. Its origins are generally unknown, however it has been suggested by various pioneers of the sport that Jack "the Ripper" Lindholm was one of the first to surf Hawaii and implement this stance. Peruvian rider Cesar Bauer is the reigning world champ of 2010 in his 1st year as a pro.

Stand-up

Stand-up style is another form of wave riding on a bodyboard. It consists of standing upright on the board and performing tricks on the face as well as in the air. It is not as popular today as it was in the 1980s.

World championships

From 1982-1993 the winner of the International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships at Pipeline was considered The World Champion. Since then The World Tour has determined the Champion and has undergone a few changes in names and regulations.

World Champions

Year	Competition	Winner	Country
1982	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Daniel Kaimi	Hawaii
1983	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Mike Stewart	Hawaii
1984	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Mike Stewart	Hawaii
1985	Not held
1986	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Ben Severson	Hawaii
1987	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Mike Stewart	Hawaii
1988	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Mike Stewart	Hawaii
1989	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Mike Stewart	Hawaii
1990	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Mike Stewart	Hawaii
1991	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Mike Stewart	Hawaii
1992	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Mike Stewart	Hawaii
1993	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Michael Eppelstun Michael Eppelstun Michael "Eppo" Eppelstun is an Australian professional bodyboarder who won the bodyboarding world championship in 1993. In winning the competition he became the first Australian and the first non-Hawaiian to win the World Title. Eppo helped develop two new moves in the bodyboarding world which...	Australia
1994	International Morey Boogie Bodyboard Pro Championships	Guilherme Tamega Guilherme Tâmega Guilherme Tâmega is a six-time world bodyboarding champion.Born in Brazil, Tamega won the Shark Island Challenge bodyboarding event three times in a row. He also competes in the international bodyboarding World Tour.-References:...	Brazil
1995	GOB World Tour	Guilherme Tamega Guilherme Tâmega Guilherme Tâmega is a six-time world bodyboarding champion.Born in Brazil, Tamega won the Shark Island Challenge bodyboarding event three times in a row. He also competes in the international bodyboarding World Tour.-References:...	Brazil
1996	GOB World Tour	Guilherme Tamega Guilherme Tâmega Guilherme Tâmega is a six-time world bodyboarding champion.Born in Brazil, Tamega won the Shark Island Challenge bodyboarding event three times in a row. He also competes in the international bodyboarding World Tour.-References:...	Brazil
1997	GOB World Tour	Guilherme Tamega Guilherme Tâmega Guilherme Tâmega is a six-time world bodyboarding champion.Born in Brazil, Tamega won the Shark Island Challenge bodyboarding event three times in a row. He also competes in the international bodyboarding World Tour.-References:...	Brazil
1998	GOB World Tour	Andre Botha Andre Botha (bodyboarder) Andre Botha is a South African bodyboarder and the youngest bodyboarding world champion to date. Born in Durban in 1980, he left school at the age of 15 to become a professional bodyboarder and won his first world title at the age of 17 and his second at 18, winning both the World GOB Tour Series...	South Africa
1999	GOB World Tour	Andre Botha Andre Botha (bodyboarder) Andre Botha is a South African bodyboarder and the youngest bodyboarding world champion to date. Born in Durban in 1980, he left school at the age of 15 to become a professional bodyboarder and won his first world title at the age of 17 and his second at 18, winning both the World GOB Tour Series...	South Africa
2000	GOB Super Tour	Paulo Barcellos	Brazil
2001	GOB Super Tour	Guilherme Tamega Guilherme Tâmega Guilherme Tâmega is a six-time world bodyboarding champion.Born in Brazil, Tamega won the Shark Island Challenge bodyboarding event three times in a row. He also competes in the international bodyboarding World Tour.-References:...	Brazil
2002	GOB Super Tour	Guilherme Tamega Guilherme Tâmega Guilherme Tâmega is a six-time world bodyboarding champion.Born in Brazil, Tamega won the Shark Island Challenge bodyboarding event three times in a row. He also competes in the international bodyboarding World Tour.-References:...	Brazil
2003	IBA Tour	Damian King Damian King Damian King is an Australian professional bodyboarder. He was World Bodyboarding Champion twice, in 2003 and 2004.-Biography:Damian grew up in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, which is world renowned in bodyboarding culture for the level of talent and number of bodyboarders it has produced...	Australia
2004	IBA Tour	Damian King Damian King Damian King is an Australian professional bodyboarder. He was World Bodyboarding Champion twice, in 2003 and 2004.-Biography:Damian grew up in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, which is world renowned in bodyboarding culture for the level of talent and number of bodyboarders it has produced...	Australia
2005	IBA Tour	Ben Player Ben Player Ben Player is an Australian bodyboarder who was world champion in 2005 and 2007. His 2007 victory came after placing second in the 2006 Pipeline final. He has finished #2 overall on the World Bodyboarding Tour several times...	Australia
2006	IBA Tour	Jeff Hubbard Jeff Hubbard Jeff Hubbard is the 2009 IBA World Tour bodyboarder champion from Kauai, Hawaii. His brother David also won a world title in 2009: the IBA Drop Knee World Tour. Jeff won his first IBA World Title in 2006....	Hawaii
2007	IBA Tour	Ben Player Ben Player Ben Player is an Australian bodyboarder who was world champion in 2005 and 2007. His 2007 victory came after placing second in the 2006 Pipeline final. He has finished #2 overall on the World Bodyboarding Tour several times...	Australia
2008	IBA Tour	Uri Valadao	Brazil
2009	IBA Tour	Jeff Hubbard Jeff Hubbard Jeff Hubbard is the 2009 IBA World Tour bodyboarder champion from Kauai, Hawaii. His brother David also won a world title in 2009: the IBA Drop Knee World Tour. Jeff won his first IBA World Title in 2006....	Hawaii
2010	IBA Tour	Amaury Lavernhe	France