I came across this video on the excellent ourworldisblue.com website. I’m always proud to say I’m a bodyboarder, not just because its different from stand up surfing, not just because its nice to do something a little less mainstream, but because I love it. I love everything about it. The feeling you get when even after being stoked about seeing the weather reports, surf predictions and all the other ways you learn about what’s happening at your local break , you arrive at the shore line and see those waves with your own eyes and think “pretty soon, I’m going to be in that, doing what I love”. That rush you get when you catch the first wave of the session and the sensation of speed is mind blowing. The almost serene moment when you perform your bottom turn and you hit the line you want and the opportunities present themselves to you. Its like nothing on earth.
I’m going to try not to sound to much like a tripped out hippy here, but you don’t get much closer to nature than when you’re on a bodyboard. Lets face it, you’re laying on a thin board on the wave . You can feel exactly what the wave is doing (most of the time), you get in tune with it, albeit briefly. You’re not divorced from it at all. You’re there, not fighting against the wave that Mother Nature has given you at that moment in time, but working with it. In synch with it.
Don’t get me wrong, the stand-up guys must feel this as well (as well as the SUP folk , kite surfers, windsurfers etc), but I just feel a strong connection when I’m out in the ocean on my board.
Here’s the video I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post!
