Watch: What Is Bodysurfing?
It's the oldest and purest form of surfing, an uncomplicated means to an endorphin high. But bodysurfing's simplicity also meant the performance ceiling was lower than that of board riding. As surf craft progressed so did the feats of board riders while bodysurfers did what they'd done for hundreds of years.
Recently a bunch of East Coast bodysurfers have been readressing the limits of bodysurfing. It's not enough to kick into undersucking slabs and pull into the pit, they're also now making the barrels and in turn redefining what bodysurfing is.
Rikki Gilbey runs WAW Handplanes, and he's one of the new crew of slab bodysurfers.
Over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two forms belly sliding: good ol’ bodybashing and bodysurfing.
So, what’s the difference?
While both involve using just your body to catch and ride waves, they are in fact very different. The term bash is by definition to be bashed, or struck with a heavy or crushing blow, which in bodybashing terms, equates to a collapsing wall of water. And the term surf is...well, we all know what surfing is.
For me, bodybashing is all about fun, it’s not to be taken too seriously. It’s the most popular and the purest form of surfing, and with good reason: it’s easy, it’s fun, and you can do it with next to no equipment. Just swim into an oncoming wave and allow its energy to carry you towards the beach.
You can even level up from here and trim sideways across the wave, and, if you’re lucky, get swallowed up in a nice hollow shorey. After a bodybash it’s extremely hard to leave the water without a big smile on your face.
Over the years I’ve discovered that a lot of people, when they think of bodysurfing, are in fact thinking of ‘bodybashing’, and the general assumption is that bodysurfers ride the white water till they’re eventually smashed, bashed, wiped out, or gently rolled up onto the beach.
Yet for many years, decades even, bodysurfers have been taking on larger, steeper, and more challenging waves. The kind of waves that people expect to be surfed on surfboards or bodyboards. These people are bodysurfers.
When bodysurfing, as with regular surfing, the mission is simple: catch the wave, ride the wave, then exit the wave cleanly. With the ultimate goal of making it in and out of a pitching barrel.
To do this, bodysurfers really need to surf the wave. For starters, you need to drop in at the optimal take off spot, getting into the wave nice and early, utilising strong swimming strokes, and in many cases, specialised bodysurfing swim fins and handplanes to generate extra lift and power. Once up and planing, keep your body up on the water’s surface so it mimics a surfboard. From here, the body is lengthened and manipulated in order to navigate across the wave’s face, and to stay in the pocket to maximise speed and pull off tricks and manoeuvres. On steeper barrelling sections you can even use your arms and legs to stall and extend the barrell time.
Now, even amongst those that understand what bodysurfing is, there’s still a general assumption that those who slide on their belly, don’t make it out of barrels. “That’s for the guys on surfboards and bodyboards”. But I’m here to tell you, that’s not the case. As with any other form of surfing, with the right technique, positioning, timing, and wave selection, making a barrel whilst bodysurfing is highly achievable.
Once a bodysurfer is locked into a barrel, exiting it is the next mission. To do this, speed must be maintained, so staying high on the wave and keeping the body up on the water’s surface is critical. A good handplane can only help in this situation as it lessens the drag. Sometimes the foamball must be negotiated - absorbing the blast while navigating its lumps and bump. Then, as the lip peels back, the bodysurfer is shot out on the face where they can pull out over the shoulder nice and cleanly.
Don’t believe me? Click play.
Comments
Fuck yeah! That was sick.
Thanks dude!
got a mate who's a boat builder and he made us two mad, teak hand planes. we used to share an old pair of fins (one each) and go mad getting pit after pit and getting whomped.
who doesn't love a good body bash? it's so liberating.
Do proper bodysurfers swap hands with the handplanes so it's always on the inner hand?
Serious question! I can only use mine on my left hand (feels weird on my right) so I can only go left.
Is this normal??
That's the general rule yeah, Left hand for going left and right for right. Although not always the case. If you can only use the handplane on your left try going two hands on the plane when going right.
Around here everyone I know who bodysurfs sticks with the hand plane on the left hand with no problems going left and right..but I reckon on rights we are pulling the board back and pushing up so the chest is out of the water, and the right hand is back and flat to (dragging along) the face. Not like the article which says you should make yourself longer. Pull the board back so it's under your gut and you go that much faster + your pivot point changes and you can do cutbacks and bottom turns. But maybe that's just us.
FILTH, makes boogers look like even bigger pussy"s than they already are
hahahaha
i also can only go left body surfing...no handplane. it's to do with how i paddle for the wave that sets me up for having my left arm extended. trying to change that, but not much luck so far.
there's a guy at bondi that has been filming the bodysurfers and is making a movie.
The shot of the bird at the 1 minute mark is cool.
If that's the difference between body surfers and body basher then I'm calling it now. 90% of the croud our this morning at my local need to start calling themselves board bashers caus they sure as hell weren't exiting waves cleanly and mostly going straight with the whitewater. Don't get me started in the mal and sup bashers and clubbie bashers out there too
like
i've always struggled getting any direction except 5 degrees either way from straight. secret is in the hand, fins or whole body? looked like those fellas were totally bodyplaning whereas joe nobody who isn't on a nice big slab like these guys probably isn't planing as hard i would imagine?
The secret is mostly in your body position and cutting across the wave rather tahn down it and keeping yourself high on the face. If this is an area you are trying to improve on, a handplane is a great tool to keep you locked in nice and high on a wave and not sliding out into the flats.
That's pretty crazy....
I wonder if towed in would it be possible to actually surf a wave and get barrelled standing up without a board?...
Maybe with like very short very buoyant water ski's say 100mm longer than your foot front and back and 50mm wider on each side to give more planning surface.
You'd need some serious speed haha
Its the width and speed that's key - the wider the surface is, the lower speed needed to plane. So yeah, no reason it wouldn't be possible... control though - now that's another problem entirely!
Wawman...
You guys have more shoulder injuries using hand planes over normal? Looks a recipe for a separation or AC issue with the extra float under the extended arm..
I actually had a right shoulder reconstruction a couple years ago (water polo/rugby related), i can't bodysurf right without the handplane post surgery. I find as it slices through the water, it steadies my shoulder where as without it, your hand/arm/shoulder is more susceptible to the bump and chop on the wave face.
Thanks for the reply. You guys are all ripping!! Yew!
crg the only time I hurt my shoulder was when I went through something like a pothole on the wave face, why fault for not leaving a bit of bend in my elbow
The surfers journal ran this cover years ago.....
https://www.surfersjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/24_2__COVER_n…
If you look closely you'll see he has his handplane on his right hand while going left, though I don't think this is easy. If anything it looks extremely technical.
Small Black Rock is ideal for the hand plane. The rights are bowly and hollow and you can make it out of the barrels. Had some amazing waves in crystal clear waters over the shallow cunji reef.
So is Shippies...
keeeeeen!!!
I’ve always rated Rasta’s ability to porpoise, especially in small surf.
Skip to 1:20
wish I hadn't av watched that. Undoubtably Rasta fuckin rips- a total style master... but in this video he's fuckin trippin with his new age of capitalism where no harm is done. I'm calling massive bullshit.
AND I'm calling bullshit on "... it's all people that grew up here making it happen" - fuck off - its a hard-working (or not so hard working) privileged few that grew up there and scored the opportunity to stay. Most people who grew up there can't afford to live there... and is he oblivious to the effects of trust fund crew?...
-just what the world needs now: another ripping style-master with culthood influence on us minions spouting this shit.
Yeah, he’s a vacuous himbo no doubt.
Rips, but I just want to stab my own fucking eyes out when I see all the little bumfluff clones surfing logs in Cosmo Kramer shirts.
Love the bodysurfers; Dave Rastovich is a hoax
great stuff, thanks for finally showing some real surfing footage-ha ha but i bet everyone will be a bodysurfer now, in thing they say!!!!!!!
Dave!....thought about you while posting the story, and was wondering when you were gonna call by.
Count me in as a born again bodybogger (wishful bodysurfer).
You're welcome to come play anytime Dave. Super intrigued to see your style applied to slab waves. Keen for the next Patagonia bodysurfing movie.
Rikki
Rasta is the best body surfer iv'e seen by a country mile,had the pleasure of watching him body surf down thru Clark's a few years ago,waves were small but o'l Rasta would get 100 meter rides no worries.Talking to him after he said he learnt in Hawaii and you have to keep your body flat .And hes pretty skinny and uses his body like a board pretty much,pleasure to talk too as well.
WSL bodysurf league brought to you by slazenger...
J/k long hail the underground body surfers!
Sea creatures aside! Who maneuvers one wave Snapper to Greenmount without surf aids?
Just so you know! Always & Forever only Bodybasherz can claim such athletic surfing prize.
What use a handplane or cigar for Nazarre bodybasher Kalani? (I'm being serious!)
Megalithic Nazare tamed by a pinky finger!
2000-2010 You'd count 10 handplanes on Gold Coast. Today Handplanes taxi the runway.
More... craft/foils/legropes/kick pads/Oars/Jet Skis..more remote the surfing experience.
Handplanes are the [L] boards for Bodysurfing as in Surfschool [L] Boards
Handplane a wave face = Bodysurfing (Tick) Stand upright on Surfboard = Surfer (Tick)
20 years Goldy + Contests! I've seen Bladerz blend tricks but not match Bodysurfer's skills.
1930's Amphibious bodybasherz swan glided the wash zone. (Tough Crew)
Your typical Body Womp contest judge still today verses Dolphin...Butterfly songlines etc.
Bodybashers morph animals as such but can also marry song with free range Seascapes.
Also free to surf beneath,under ceiling,roll barrels also air rotations or cycle/walk the face.
Whereas pet surfcraft bosses their owners & prohibits surf freedom more so each design.
From dancing girls to walking the plank now shackled to cancer sticks. (Go Team Progress!)
WSL Wavepool toys with toddler straps are kinda cutesy chemtrail progressive.
Carcinogenic pro slops shut down WSL pool party. Surfers refuse to surf in own filth?
Top deck fever for all onboard. Hose down same all seasons ramp for multi sport deckerz.
In natures classiest pick up joint Skegz/Bladers fight to smack & cut the bitch up.
Mother nature is no man's bitch to be probed with boyz toyz. Playful wrestle if you must!
Bodybasherz are unrestrained creatures morphing thru many realms each wave.
Surfcreatures aim is to chalm Huey to bestow Bodybash'n Bunyip shapeshifting powers.
Surfjustsurf... unleashing your all empowering sea demon without fear!
Almost forgot to thank all for the brilliant Vid' & equally love reading super comments.
thanks Stu.Up till now I have not used a handplane or flippers because of my physiology. i don't swim madly to catch a wave. i dive under water as wave approaches and when i feel it's energy i head back to surface, pop up on face and away i go. Takes some practice to get timing right. This technique allows me to immediately be high on wave face to gain speed which is vital especially surfing sucky low tide drainers thru cooly.
I highly recommend this technique if you are going bodybashing because you get in early with speed and set up faster than swimming. Besides it's a great feeling being under/in the water when the waves energy picks you up. amps up the stoke meter in even average waves. The boys in the vid getting some good ones but bet they cop a few floggings as well trying to bodysurf that way. I had good week here getting some beauties but got creased coming in and poor old back feels like tractor ran over it.
The things you do for love, surfing, I mean. Happy surfing.
I like to think I make as many / get smudged on as many as the most of the stand up surfers out at these breaks. I definitely get more barreled on some days, but then the days with roll-in starts make it harder for me to vie for position with them. Would love to surf with you one day Dave! String-beans rule!!
indo-dreaming your way out there question deserves a far-out reply.
There are many ways to pussyfoot about the wave face.
We'll need to borrow burley bodybash'n bunyip's (Unfathomobile) Shh!
{Swellnet Exclusive} (100% FREE) No gear required.
(How to surf Barefoot)
This technique requires a forward racing Foamball (eg: Snapper).
As the foam ball lifts your body...curl & slowly recline as if back wrapping a Cannon ball.
X pattern is best but leaves one feeling sacrificial (Morph point) Surrender with intent.
Now wait for foamball to kick again raising your back upright to reach standing position.
All aboard the Huey Express!
Congratulations you are now barefoot surfing. (Note: Adjust crouching per foamball size)
Feet positioning is entirely dependent on Foam ball power. [DONT WALK] Standing only!
You walked! Capital letters I told you not to...Bloody Hell what a mess....
(How to step down a Waveface)
Trick requires a reverse breaking left.
Best if the wave is angled back on itself like a typical East Coast Left beachbreak.
Outgoing tide gatherers several lip faces now with that reverse flow lift chest from wave.
Only this time anchor back leg & lead arm.Forward and reverse thrust stasis.
Now feel free to step down the wave face. Match step speed slowly with your lead arm......
Walking on Waves......(Continues)
Using that slight forward thrust to begin your walk...
Your lead arm is still surfing! Right(Back) arm as your counterweight/feeler.
[IMPORTANT] You must stoop as a surfin'bird to suit wave and own surfability.
(How to ride a Wave cycle)
Combines a happy medium of both prior waves.
A reverse left but also with a Foamball.
Again let reverse thrust raise your chest now backing up into the foam ball. (Pause)
Careful not to fully surrender this time. You still need your back leg anchor as in stepping.
Once in stasis drop your front leg and saddle then slowly cycle the foam ball (Right leg)......
(Twinkle Toes) .....Continues
As foamball hollows out waste no time to unicycle then twinkle toe the face.
Tendency to tear off the wave as it doesn't feel natural.
Counter a stronger front line with left hand!
You can rotate to a slight Goofy walk by surfing into a right hand lead.(Walking the plank)
Best to stick with front on walk and just be happy with that. (Sorry?)
Bodybash'n maneuvers took 12 years to sort out. Swellnetonians gettin' a leg up for free.
I confess! I never rocked up wanting to walk a wave.
Brutally honest! I resorted to this haphazard trickery just in order to make shit hot waves.
As far as I know! No basher least of all me can perform miracles on request (Myth Busted?)
Young basherz reading this could easily signature these moves and good luck to them I say!
Anyhow! Bodybash History (Yes) Exhibitions(Yes) Contests(No)
(Which hand the Handplane?) (Learn to bodybash Tip)
Natural Surfer (Righthand) Blindly backhands a right wave extends rail speed-maneuvers.
Wide bottom turns or High lining is sought to gain a better eyeline.
(Best for faster Pointbreaks failing the blind spot)
Natural surfer (Lefthand) frontsides a right wave/gains vision/no face speed for maneuvers.
Double hand pumping or exaggerated arced line is sought to increase speed
(Ideal in slower reverse beachbreaks)
Note: A goofy combos (L/R) more often than naturals surfing a right wave.(Got that?)
Simply reverse these said natural traits for Goofy Bodybasherz.
PS: davetherave has the best take off tip! Essential for Heavy Snapper dirt-bombs.
Before leashes everyone bodysurfed, and quite well, especially if there were rocks around.
surfing-cronulla boardz'n'swimmers smashed into mixer all hail the 1970's OZ bodybasher.
Restock your local bodybasher battery. C'mon Aussie!
barrel_pig breezed thru heat of Wommin Womp Comp.
If you recall together on the shore... from all here I wished you luck...any news?
Do you know anyone that does 'underwater' bodysurfing well, dolphin style?
Check out @seasidebodysurfer on Instagram. One of the better guys with submarine skills.
Flipper
Skip to 1.30 if you want to skip the booging. 2 wave is a bodysurfing flip!
thanks dandob, that was awesome stuff, just brilliant.
Its not bodysurfing... they're using a handplane.
Get real people
First and last guys in clip (Sperling/Brennan) are definitely without planes. Of 25 years at it I only started using one about 3 years ago, after being offered one by a handplane maker. I like it, I used to make barrels occasionally, now I make HEAPS. Feel free to call it whatever you want, I'm just out having fun.
rus... the porpoise pop is essential on Island rock shelves.
Also comes 2nd nature to shipwrecked souls as does overarm approach to Beach breaks.
An early example was noted by a lighthouse keeper in Tasmania.
He describes heaviest of seas then watching an Aboriginal woman surf beneath the wave.
Landing up the shore unscathed.
1938 The Powell brothers of Kirra would synchronize (said new style) "Torpedo shoots".
Lance ,Ivan & Laurie would Porpoise in unison under the wave. ( Photo in GC book)
Ivan lost his brotherly bodysurfing troupe in the war.
Lance was shot down over Burma & Laurie was killed on the Kokoda Trail.
Decades later in 1970's Ivan retired to Kirra.
Swellnetonians salute our pioneering Porpoise Pals. Lest we forget!
Thanks Truebluebasher, I've used this style for around 30 years now. I've been told I look like a dolphin , would love to see some footage of someone with a similar style
News on Saturday Morning of swimmer sucked out to sea off Burleigh beach.
Over 2hrs later some 6 + kms north they found him beyond Kurrawa Shark Nets .
Who's not exhausted reading that. Maybe trying to beat Nigel Butler's River 2 River record.
Boomerang Bash is back.
9 news tonight played outrageous vid of another (skeg wipeout/lazy bodybash/remount).
This one is the laziest craziest of all time. You just get...It's just like... It's just like!
Special request for Swellnet to give it a run! (You've been warned...A surfer dude classic!)
Over the ages Saltwater crew adapted bodysurfing to suit local wave breaks.
Styles also change to hunt with wind & tide .
Qld/Nsw saltwater people bodysurfed varied styles as with their surfcraft.
Several different canoe/swim styles naturally centred/evolved here at birthplace of waves.
Assume podding a waist vine of fish in heavy rock slabs...
Now picture a family's seasonal migration breasting around a fast running cape...
Canoe jump offs at speed with side lead arm to surf larger prey through wavezone.
Turtle/Dugong/Black Swan games trained kids to revere swimming creatures.
Others run a line to meet crest of shories then acrobat the wave face back to shore.
Bu-bu Sag-ul has kids vorticing own tide then backsurfing a chain.
Even more advanced version sees leader taper off recycling the speed to reflume the tail.
Stop & think what Gold medal Synchronized swim/bodysurf troupe is up for that?
Saltwater people mastering/trading many different bodysurf styles for hunting & fun.
Always love your insights truebluebasher
Wave of the day from legendary Bodysurfer Nicholas Brbot...Won't knock that back...Cheers!
Thanks also Nick & fellow Swellnetonians for sharing bodysurfing insights! (Classic troupe!)
NEWS Stu/Ben...I tried to feed this thru contact page as promised...(Twice No Luck)
Be cool if a kind fellow Swellnetonian could upload this vid' to head office...Thanks!
Boomerang bash re: above (Wipeout- Boadybash-Remount)...Surfer is Tanner Gudauskas
https://www.facebook.com/WSL/videos/10155664285322058/
Surf,bodysurf to surf again Tanner... -World Surf League - Facebook
https://www.theinertia.com.surf/This is the Best Possible Way to Recover from a Bogged Turn |
(Subscribe to play)9 News Brisbane (Sports @ 37:23) Expires Today(Monday 7/May/2018)
Bookend with Mickey Wright Boomerang (YouTube).
Boadybash? Oops! That should read {Boomerang Boardybash} .
Slydefest Australia Comp (Guest of Honour) Swellnetonian Nick Brbot
Organisers: Goldiesliders + North End Boardriders
Comp Results...
Migrating Humpback Whales (3 competitors)
1. That 'Big Lad' who hogged the line-up & stole the show (Awesome bodybash'n)
Mens.
1. Dylan Kelly (re: 3rd in Noosa 2018)
2. Don McCredie (DMC Fin'man...thanx for the gift)
3. Uga Mihailovic (Keel downunder)
4. Rikki Gilby (WAW)
Other Semi Finalists: Gus Williams / Ben Oakley / Jack Mc Crae / Simon Svensen
Note: Ladies / Juniors competed in Men's Heats (wave scores tally the winner)
Ladies (6 competitors)
1. Allana Glowaski (Countback) Note: 3rd win in a row for Allana (Go Go Glowaskis!)
2. Linda Franklin (re: 3rd in Noosa 2018)
Junior Men (Under 15)
1. Lewis Churchill ...(Like father like son...Churchills need a bigger trophy cabinet)
2. Ace Davies (Slyde's-Birthday Boy)
Masters (No Division)
GC masters Rowan Churchill & Rob Boynton starred in open men's comp.
tbb kept his right bank until heat 3...not easy breaking out of a Handboarders camp.
Invading hordes weren't as hostile as tbb made out...great crew & even greater day.
https://www.slydehandboards.com.au/blogs/slyde-australia-chronicles/sly…
An unseasonably warm winter’s day coincided with a LAGO. My boys and I decide it’s that kind of arvo, brave the boardies and head out for a quick dip before dinner.
Is there a better feeling than cool, salt water on the back after wearing rubber for months?
The pure and innocent joy of bodysurfing a small winter’s shorey can almost out do any surfing I’ve ever done.
Just you, your skin bag and the end of a long journey of energy; dissipating in a bubble bath of foam around your giggling form.
Psychologists should teach people to body surf. Heaven.
reckon it was @Jelly that posted this a while back. Find a driftwood fence-paling and be a (sometimes upside-down) warrior for an arvo. What a deadset legend. We lose our playfulness at our peril ; )
Nicely written. I often have more fun (and rack up more tube time) bodysurfing an onshore closeout than surfing pumping (crowded) waves...
I often wonder why I don’t do it more.
I keep two handplanes strapped to the outside of the wetty tub and a set of fins sit permanently inside it. Just an extension of the quiver.
whole heap of fun , body surfing a 2 ft shorey .
Body whatever is pure joy
Those hand planes put a fair bit of stress on your shoulder
I stopped doing it for that reason, however I recently started up again after buying a relatively tiny handplane from Ecto Handplanes. It's barely bigger than the outline of my hand, though still works great as a paddle, and it's made from 2mm thick metal so, again, there's barely any unwanted resistance.
Once you're up and going, however, it works like any other plane.
Haven't had any problems with it reefing my shoulder or whatever.
Speaking of the pure joy of bodysurfing a few small waves...... recently moved up north for the next chapter of life. Took the kids to a beach up here and lo and behold, a few small waves. I don't think I've been that happy to surf small onshore lumps anywhere. Pure joy.
My most memorable body surfing experience came from pushing my son into a quiet smaller day at Angourie. In between his waves I'd take the next one in to check he was alright on the inside. Had never body surfed a point like this before. It was as much fun as you can have with your pants on. It was like body surfing 'down hill', in the way the wave wraps back in on itself. No hand plane, just fins. You could hold your posy in the pocket the whole way. It felt so connected it wasn't funny, you weren't surfing, you were the wave.
Double handplane technique, wow...looks like i need to get another one!