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Welcome to the 8th edition of The Bodyboard Report! 🤙
Coming to you a bit later this Thursday, but my baby blue eyes are bugging out…
Salt water and computer screens don’t mix too well…
This week’s report drifts slightly beyond contest results and swell forecasts and into something deeper.
Into identity. Into instinct. 🤔
Into the strange and fascinating reality that people exposed to the exact same environments often choose completely different ways to move through them.
Whether it is the ocean, the mountains, the streets, or the skatepark, certain disciplines seem to connect with certain people on a level that goes beyond logic.
The question is not always which craft is more popular or commercially accepted.
Sometimes the real question is simply this…
Which one feels most like you?
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Who chooses? The body or the mind?
There is a point in every ocean rider’s life where the fork in the road appears. One path leads toward stand up surfing. The other leads toward bodyboarding.
For some people that decision is influenced by friends, family, or what they first saw in magazines and videos. But for many of us, the choice runs deeper than that. It feels instinctive. Almost physical.
Some people look at a wave and imagine themselves standing tall above it. Others look at the same wave and imagine themselves driving through its most critical section, compressed close to the face, feeling every contour and every vibration of the water underneath them.
Neither approach is more legitimate than the other. They are simply different expressions of the same attraction to the ocean.
It’s all water, but…🤙
It is similar to what happens in the mountains with skiing and snowboarding.
Some riders naturally gravitate toward skis because the movement feels balanced and independent. Others strap sideways onto a snowboard for the first time and immediately feel connected to the mountain in a more fluid and natural way.
The body decides before the mind fully understands why.
The equipment becomes less like a tool and more like an extension of the rider itself.
That is the thing many non bodyboarders never fully understand. Riding a bodyboard is not a lesser version of surfing. For the people who truly love it, it is the purest version of wave riding they can imagine.
It places the rider deeper inside the wave’s energy field. Closer to the water. Closer to the speed. Closer to the moment where chaos and control overlap for a split second before everything detonates around you.
Bodyboarding also rewards a different type of connection with the ocean. The learning curve is immediate enough for beginners to feel the rush early on, but the ceiling is infinitely high once the rider starts exploring barrels, heavy slabs, aerial control, and wave positioning.
It becomes less about standing on water and more about becoming part of it. That sensation is difficult to explain to outsiders because it is felt more than understood.
And maybe that is why so many lifelong bodyboarders never leave the sport behind. Even when they have access to surfboards, longboards, or every other option imaginable, they keep returning to the craft that feels most natural beneath them.
The one that allows them to express themselves without resistance or pretence. The one that feels like home.
I am one of those riders, and that journey inspired this piece…
Tony Hawk. Which way will he go?
Skating this way or that..?
The same pattern can be seen when comparing skateboarding and aggressive inline skating.
Skateboarding slowly clawed its way into mainstream culture over decades before eventually becoming commercialised and fragmented by trends, while aggressive inline skating exploded almost overnight during the 1990s because it offered something visually radical and deeply expressive.
For many riders, the idea of facing forward instead of sideways felt immediately more natural, even though the learning curve was steep and the consequences were brutal.
Pioneer skaters like Arlo Eisenberg and Chris “Air Man” Edwards pushed the sport into territory that looked almost superhuman, blending street aggression with fluid body movement in ways that felt less mechanical and more instinctive.
I was one of those skaters.
I took to facing foward (and even skating backwards) instantly, compared to sideways skateboarding.
Check out Mad Beef - A skate film featuring Arlo and Chris which had a big impact on me in the 90’s.
Chris Edwards was also the stunt double / real skater of the 1993 cult film Airborne - A story that combined the rollerblade x surf lifestyle and passions in a cool way.
Many aggressive inline skaters have described the skates as extensions of their bodies rather than separate equipment, and there may be a direct parallel there with bodyboarding.
The sensation of being aligned with the natural orientation and movement of the human body perhaps explains why some people never fully connect with stand up surfing, even when they admire it.
The body often decides first.
The rider merely follows.
Arlo Eisenberg - Bio 540, Venice ’96
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One knee, or two?
An equally interesting comparison exists between kneeboarding and drop knee bodyboarding.
At first glance it seems logical to assume that drop knee bodyboarding would eventually absorb most kneeboard riders because a bodyboard already allows prone riding, drop knee riding, and even occasional stand up transitions on the same craft.
Yet kneeboarding persists, even as it becomes increasingly niche.
There is clearly something unique in the sensation of being permanently locked into that low centre of gravity while drawing lines on a hard rail board built specifically for knee driven surfing.
The flow, projection, and carving style are fundamentally different from drop knee bodyboarding, even if outsiders struggle to see the distinction.
Still, the question remains whether kneeboarding is gradually becoming a dying discipline as younger wave riders gravitate toward crafts with broader versatility and stronger modern culture around them.
Perhaps kneeboarding survives for the same reason all specialised wave riding survives.
Not because it is mainstream, but because for a small group of people, it feels exactly right.
When you see a one-legged man doing the impossible on a waveski, then you have to ask yourself 👇
Did the body choose, or the mind?
Neal Stephenson was one of South Africa’s top bodyboarders during the 1990s before tragedy struck on 16 May 1998, when he was attacked by a great white shark at Keurbooms near Plettenberg Bay.
The attack cost him his right leg and nearly his life, but remarkably, Neal refused to walk away from wave riding. Instead, he reinvented himself through waveski surfing, reportedly taking up the discipline roughly a year after the attack.
By 2000, only two years after losing his leg, he shocked the waveski world by finishing third overall at the World Waveski Surfing Titles at Jeffreys Bay against some of the best riders on the planet. (I was there that day!)
Neal quickly became known not only for his resilience but for pushing technical progression in the sport. Despite riding with one leg strapped into the ski using a custom quad belt setup, he was filmed landing advanced aerial manoeuvres including an ARS style rotation as early as 1999. 👉 The Neal Flip
His approach helped inspire a new generation of waveski riders to think beyond traditional carving and begin pushing aerial surfing to more radical levels.
In many ways, Neal Stephenson’s story became bigger than competitive results alone. It became proof that wave riding is less about physical limitation and more about the connection between rider, equipment, and wave.
Neal Stephenson overcoming the impossible and doing just the same!
Jericco Rosero is your new DK World Champ!
The bee’s knees! 💪🍹
*A 1920s idiom meaning something is outstanding, excellent, or of the highest quality. It is also a classic Prohibition-era cocktail made with gin, lemon juice, and honey.
Antofagasta wrapped up👇
Passion and authenticity were on full display this past week at the IBC World Tour
stop in Chile, where the Antofagasta Bodyboard Festival delivered one of the standout events of the season.
Decent, clean conditions, heavy performances, and an electric atmosphere reminded everyone why this event has become one of the most respected contests in world bodyboarding.
South Africa’s Tristan Roberts continued his incredible run of form by taking the overall event victory, further cementing himself as the man to beat on the 2026 world tour.
Tristan has now backed up his Morocco victory with another dominant performance in Chile, showing the kind of consistency that world titles are built on.
The Drop Knee division also made history, with Ecuador’s Jericco Rosero being crowned the 2026 DK World Champion after a standout performance throughout the event.
His win marked the first bodyboarding world title for Ecuador and added another memorable chapter to the return of DK competition on the IBC world tour.
Massive respect and shout out to the IBC for putting together an exceptional event, and to the people of Antofagasta for once again hosting the festival with genuine passion and world class energy.
Events like this do more than crown champions.
They remind the global bodyboarding community why this culture continues to thrive.
“We are the champhions!”
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Wrapping up this session…
As always, bodyboarding continues to evolve in strange, passionate, and unpredictable ways.
From world tour performances in heavy waves to philosophical debates about why we ride what we ride, the culture remains alive because the people inside it continue asking questions and pushing boundaries.
Congratulations once again to Tristan Roberts and Jericco Rosero for their massive victories in Antofagasta, and respect to every rider around the world still choosing the craft that feels most natural beneath them.
Until next week, keep charging, keep questioning, and keep finding your own line through the noise.
Cheers! 🤙
Previous publicatons. 👇
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.