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Welcome to the 12th edition of The Bodyboard Report! 🤙
There's a funny thing about bodyboarding.
The sport barely has a memory industry.
No official global Bodyboarding Hall of Fame with a gift shop, no museum wing, nothing official tracking who did what and when.
And yet somehow, the important stuff still gets passed down anyway.
A fin design from 1936 is still being made the same way it always was, just with a fresh coat of paint.
A 5 x world champion's daughter is winning the same wave her mom once owned.
And the woman who broke the glass ceiling for women's bodyboarding 30 years ago is still out there, still posting, still part of the conversation.
This week we're following that thread, from rubber to rankings, and looking at what actually gets handed down in this sport, and why it matters. 🤙
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The Fin That Started It All Just Turned 90 ❤️🔥
Churchill's new anniversary Makapuu, and where the dolphin tail came from
Churchill Swimfins just dropped something special.
A 90th Anniversary edition of the legendary Makapuu fin, done up in a black and gold marbled finish, hand poured, individually numbered, and made from 100% natural Malaysian rubber.
No two pairs are exactly alike, which feels right for a brand that's been doing things the same hands on way for nearly a century.
It got us wondering where this whole thing actually started. The dolphin tail shape that defines Churchill, and honestly defines what most of us think a swim fin should look like, traces back to an American sailor named Owen Churchill, who patented his version of the swim fin in 1940 after watching Tahitian divers use soft rubber and metal bands shaped like a fish tail to move through the water. He refined the shape, used vulcanized rubber, and the rest is history.
Almost 90 years later, that same silhouette is still standard issue for performance bodyboarding, worn by riders like Pierre Louis Costes and Amaury Lavernhe, both Churchill team athletes who grew up idolising the brand before getting their own signature models.
PLC has said Churchill was always synonymous with style and elegance in bodyboarding, and that having a signature model with the brand was something that made him genuinely proud.
So if you spot the new black and gold Makapuus floating around this winter, know you're looking at basically the same shape that's been on feet since before your grandparents were born, just dressed up for the occasion.
Shop these legacy legends on👉 ebodyboarding.com
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Luna and her mother Neymara
Like mother, like daughter
Luna Hardman, Neymara Carvalho, and a family that keeps showing up on top
If you want to see what "passed down" actually looks like in real time, look no further than Luna Hardman and her mom, Neymara Carvalho.
On Wednesday, June 3, Luna took second place at the Itacoatiara stage of the Brazilian Championship in Niterói, falling to Nicolle Calheiros in the final, while her mom competed in the same event before bowing out in the first phase.
It was Luna's first time back at Itacoatiara since missing it last year due to shoulder surgery, and she said it felt great to be back, strong and confident, ready to take on those big waves.
This isn't a one off. Neymara is a 5 x world champion and 3 x Pipeline winner, and earlier this year Luna won the 2026 Hawaii Pipeline Bodyboarding Championship herself, scoring a perfect 10 in the final heat.
Luna said afterwards it was an emotional win in a place that means so much, and thanked everyone who supported her along the way. With the runner up finish in Niterói, Luna has now reached 7 finals and claimed 5 titles since returning to competition in 2025, and she's heading to the Paraná stage in Pontal do Paraná next, running from July 16 to 19.
It runs deeper than just results.
Neymara actually competed while 5 months pregnant with Luna, so in a very literal sense Luna's been riding waves since before she was born. Luna started competing at age 12, with her mom as the obvious example to follow, and now at 20 she's locked into the professional category full time, sitting in the world's top 8 last season.
The pair train together, travel together, and compete in the same heats, sometimes against each other. Earlier this year at the Circuito Cearense opener, Luna beat her way to the final while Neymara made the semis on the same day, then both ended up on the same podium, Luna with gold and Neymara with bronze.
That's not a metaphor, that actually happened.
Luna claiming the Wahine Pro last year.
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The women's side of the sport is having a moment 👏
From Portugal to Brazil, and a pioneer who’s still in the mix
Zoom out from the Hardman family and there's a bigger picture here.
Earlier this year, Luna competed in the first stop of the Circuito Europeu de Bodyboarding, the Cascais Boogie Chicks event at Carcavelos Beach in Portugal, an all women's competition that brought together some of the best female riders in the world.
She went on to win it, her first title on European soil… uh, water…
Back in Brazil, the Wahine Bodyboarding Pro, founded and run by Neymara herself, has become one of the standout events on the women's calendar, drawing around 120 competitors from more than 10 countries in its last edition.
And here's where the legacy thread ties everything together.
Last year's Wahine Pro welcomed Claudia Ferrari, the very first official world champion in women's bodyboarding, crowned back in 1995 when the World Tour format was introduced for the first time.
Claudia competed as a guest in the Master's category, at Neymara's personal invitation, and said bodyboarding is the love of her life and that she's been following the Wahine event since its very first edition.
What's wild is that Claudia beat a field that season including Neymara herself, back when both were coming up.
Three decades later, they're sharing a beach again, except now one of them is watching the other's daughter take the next title. If that's not a full circle moment for women's bodyboarding, nothing is.
Wahine Bodyboarding Pro on 👉 Instagram
More about Claudia on 👉 claudiaferrari.com
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Wrapping up this session…
There's a thread running through all of this, and it's not really about fins, or trophies, or even waves.
It's about the stuff that gets handed from one generation to the next without anyone making a big deal of it. A shape, a title, an invitation to a beach in Brazil 30years later.
Churchill didn't need to reinvent the fin to celebrate 90 years, they just put new colours on the same idea that's always worked.
Neymara didn't need to retire quietly, she built an event and then watched her daughter inherit a wave she once owned.
And Cláudia didn't need to disappear after her title, she's still out there, still part of the story, still showing up when it counts.
Keep an eye on the women's side of this sport over the next few months.
Something's building…
Til next week, may the waves be with you.🤙
Did you miss last week’s publication? Check it out online here! 👇🌊
Disclaimer: The Bodyboard Report is published for informational and entertainment purposes only. All images, media, and referenced content remain the copyright of their respective owners and are used for editorial commentary and community sharing. The Bodyboard Report does not claim ownership of any third party content.