About Bodyboarding

Bodyboarding is one of the fastest growing water sports in the world, and it is being practiced by all ages. It is a lot like surfing, but involves laying flat on a smaller board and riding a wave that way. Once the sport chosen by many young people who had not learned to surf, bodyboarding has been recently picked up by an older crowd looking to take the sport to extreme levels.

Features

The main feature in bodyboarding is the board. It is made of a hard foam interior that balances the whole board out, a plastic bottom and a soft foam top. The last part is known as the deck. The bodyboarder will lie face down on the board, with the board covering his torso. Much like surfing, the boarder will ride the board across waves, which will skim the surface of the wave thanks to the smooth bottom of the board.

Identification

Bodyboarding is easy to identify. When you see it happening, it looks much like surfing, except the person boarding is lying down. The board is also much shorter than a surf board, only meant to cover the top area of a person. The board itself, besides being short, is made of foam and can come in a variety of colors. It is usually concave at the bottom end and convex at the top end.

Board Parts

There are three main parts to the modern bodyboard. The first is the top of the board, which is called the deck. This is the softest foam used in a bodyboard so that it is easy for the rider to grip and also comfortable to ride. The middle part of the board is called the core. It is made of harder foam, namely dow and polyethelyne, arcel, or polyprophelene. This gives the board flexibility. On the bottom is a piece of the thick plastic that is bonded to the board, called the slick. It is responsible for the speed and strength of the board.

Riding Styles

The traditional bodyboarding style has been to ride a wave and perform very basic tricks, but modern bodyboarders rely less on tricks while riding the waves, and more on tricks performed while in the air. As far as riding styles go, most bodyboarders simply lay flat on the board, with their torso and head slightly raised. The drop-knee technique is becoming more popular, and it involves putting one foot forward onto the board, and then resting the opposite knee on the board just behind it. The newest style is called the stand-up technique, where riders ride a bodyboarding by standing up, much like a surfboard.

Geography

Bodyboarding may not be as popular a sport as surfing, yet, but there are still plenty of places that have become known as great spots to bodyboard. In the United States, the best spots are in California, though bodyboarders also head to New York, Delaware,and Rhode Island waters. The Canary Islands off the coast of Spain also hosts bodyboarding spots, as does the waters off England's Calgary. Bodyboarding is a global sport, with boarders traveling throughout South America, the Caribbean and Africa as well in search of great waves.

Resources

• Source for shopping for bodyboarding supplies