All Things Bodysurfing
Bodysurfing is an ancient, global pastime that predates both board surfing and written history. Many Indigenous peoples developed and practiced recreational bodysurfing independently of each other for millennia. But it was in Polynesia that the sport evolved into what it is today. Sadly, no historian has written a comprehensive history of bodysurfing. But several old books, newspaper and magazine articles,…
As a surfer, building confidence in the ocean is key to your safety and survival. The best way to build confidence is by spending more time in the ocean without a surfboard—swimming and bodysurfing. Surfboards are great floatation devices. But what happens when you wipeout, break your leash, and have to swim back to the beach? Are you confident in…
Are you interested in learning how to bodysurf in the warm, tropical waters of Costa Rica? Then you should join us at Playa Grande, Guanacaste, Costa Rica in February of 2025. We will be co-hosting a how to bodysurf retreat with Viva Adventures at the beautiful Sol Sanctuary Retreat Center. The Essence of Bodysurfing retreat will run February 15-22, 2025.…
It’s difficult to put into words how good bodysurfing feels. However, some bodysurfers have been successful in describing the experience, and their writing is featured in this post—An Anthology of Bodysurf Writing. Humans have been bodysurfing for thousands of years, but have only written about the experience for several hundred. One of the earliest descriptions of bodysurfing (see below) was…
Jeff Johnson is a freelance photographer, director, writer, brand ambassador and former North Shore lifeguard. He became Patagonia’s first staff photographer in the early aughts. Johnson is also passionate about bodysurfing. In 2001, he wrote an adventure piece for the Surfer’s Journal titled The Body Will Suffice: Self-Propelled Through Primordia. This article details a “feral” bodysurfing mission along a rugged…
If you’re looking for inspiration to start swimming, look no further than Bonnie Tsui’s Why We Swim. This bestselling book will not only explain why swimming is good for you physically, but also mentally and emotionally. Swimming is a great way to improve your aerobic endurance and anaerobic threshold for bodysurfing. It’s a simple equation: the better you are at…
I vividly remember the day I fell in love with bodysurfing. I was on vacation in Hawaii and the weather was perfect—hot, sunny, dry, clear skies. As I headed out to hike a rugged stretch of coastline, I noticed a beautiful, empty wave not far from the trailhead. With swim fins and trunks in the backseat of the rental car,…
Bodysurfing is an ancient, global pastime that predates written history. Many indigenous coastal communities throughout the world developed and practiced bodysurfing. Unfortunately, historians have largely overlooked bodysurfing history. As far as I know, no comprehensive global history of bodysurfing currently exists. Thus, I have decided to take a crack at it. I use the word “unofficial” in the title of…
Where’s the wildest place you’ve been cold water bodysurfing? For me, it was in the frigid waters off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. My dear friend and talented in-water videographer, Hannah Walsh, joined me for a cold water bodysurfing session and captured some beautiful moments (see video below) before brain freeze took over. Here’s what Hannah…
Bodysurf, eat, sleep, repeat. That pretty much sums up our daily agenda during a three-day bodysurfing adventure along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. And that’s exactly what we’d hoped for when we set out on the 16-hour roundtrip adventure. No time to relax when the swell is pumping (5ft @ 9s). Our Pura Vida Bodysurfing film crew—Felipe, Pablo, and…
In the early 1960s, Candy Calhoun became the first woman to bodysurf both the Newport Wedge and the Banzai Pipeline. Note: Hawaiian women likely bodysurfed Pipeline long before Calhoun, but there is no record of it. Former world champion surfer Mike Doyle once said of Calhoun, “Candy was like a seal. She liked being in the water more than on…
Richard Buffalo Keaulana easily makes my list of the top five bodysurfers of all time. But he is so much more than just a bodysurfer. Buffalo was practically homeless for much of his childhood and spent most of his time at Makaha Beach on Oahu where he would spearfish daily for food. In fact, Keaulana spent so much time in…