Fred Booth barreled…
David Rastovich - photo: Josh Kimball http://www.joshkimball.com/portfolio/index.html
Quote:
hey chip....off to hawaii tomorrow...nah not stoked....just grinnin from ear 2 ear
Aloha Cheyne
Haven’t seen you in a long time. Stop by my shop and say hello, I’ll take you to lunch.
Awesome Dale! The Dolphin style for sure…
A pic from Vince Cavataio of Clark shooting a warped one…
wow
did clark get sucked over , after that shot ?
that looks heavy and waaaay shallow
ben
Honestly… That wave is not as radical as the big days he shoots… He probably went out the back on that one… One day later when he gives me the green light I’ll post some absolutely crazy, warped out, inner views… You can drive a truck through type heaving contorted barrels… Just awesome stuff! He’ll be known for his crazy work once it starts going into publications…
…does brock ride these ? [bodysurfing]
Yup. Brock plays in sh*t like that as if its a kiddie pool… Don’t even get me started on Brock… The guy is a walking adventure! Hahahahaha!!! Its always a no big deal thing with him no matter how crazy things get… I’m talking everything from waves to motorcycles, stunt work, whatever… Very cool guy also…
Pete Halworth, early 1950’s. In flight at Rincon, nothing but man and wave. Photo by Bud Browne.
Get the underwater take off going by practicing pushing off into small or already broken waves from the bottom or with swim fins, momentum is mandatory, head down between your arms for streamlining and with body orientation slightly down toward bottom, you’ll feel the energy of the interior of the wave accelerate your body along with the wave as it moves along, it’ll take many sessions of practic, like a lifetime, to get the timing and position and body orientaion right before you can build up big energy underwater inside the wave but the energy you feel in there as you get pulled along is what you want to develop, sand bottom is best for starting because the good energy has a tendancy to rush toward the bottom slightly, as the energy gets to be too much rise to the surface still with orientation toward bottom, you’ll be in just the right position to be hit on the back of the head by the lip 
and you can spend the rest of your life trying to perfect your own underwater takeoff. John C.
Bodysurfing was the only way to catch a wave in the beginning for some of us. Swim or jump off the bottom like lightning in the direction of the energy flow, glide with an extended fluid body until its time to arch your back, pulling your arms forward from your side (swan dive style) as you crash on down with the thunder and explode forward like a rocket to Russia. Many ways to feel that energy and stretch your body to connect but the feeling of being inside an exploding beach break wave was what it was all about to me - even later when the boogie board came around and even later after that - when a friend brought a pair of dive fins to split in an attempt to get into some deeper water hurricane juice (it worked). My dad was bodysurfing as a kid in NY city in the 1940’s and taught me to do it in the 1960’s. (I like to imagine that the native American’s were doing it for hundreds of years before us - it just seems like a natural thing for a human living by the sea to want to do). Wasn’t until later that our older lifeguard cousins showed up with surfboards - surfing seemed like just an extension of bodysurfing at the time - but oh what an extension it turned out to be!!!
Hi,
Bodysurfing UK wish to feature good action bodysurfing photos on its website. Would you mind if some of these photos appeared there?
Regards
Andy
Go for it BSUK!!!
Just link the urls to the post…
Here’s a cool one of Clark back when he first started with a little low end camera… He was still learning how to position himself… This is the typical type day he likes… Hahahahahaha!! I told he’s freaking nuts!
KA-BOOM!!! Hee hee!
nuts !
gyro screwloose
good entertainment value for the lifeguards and ambulancemen …not !
I wonder if he has / is still eligible for health insurance any more ?
for some reason , this shot reminds me of shots of [?phyllis dameron, was it? ] , boogieboarding Waimea in the 1980s …
…whatever became of HER , I wonder ?
cheers
ben
that’s an amazing picture Dale!
is he cruising below the surface here?
speaking of ‘small waves’
[micro, in fact …]
at the other end of the size and fear spectrum ,
I’m trying to get some underwater shots of my own [I’ve been getting inspired by jack mcCoy , and also jack johnson’s , bodysurfing FOOTAGE , of course !]
…if I can’t at the moment get them of bodysurfing , or empty waves …then perhaps of eno and paz , mat riding ?!
Eno has the funky looking face mask …
… which enables me to get a clear view of both the camera , the sea floor , and hopefully , get the rider cruising by , as well.
it’s like shooting ?skeets? [are they called?] … but , maybe with 27 shots , and practice , I might hopefully get the occassional worthwhile one ? [shouldn’t have to worry so much about water droplets on the lens , this way , at least !]
q:
does anyone happen to have that issue of [which mag was it ? …‘er’ ? , or ‘ing’?] where tom servais did a photo article [?at cloudbreak? from memory ] …called 'over , under , sideways , down " ??
I remember those underwater shots of his , as epic ones ! [I think a poster or two may have eventuated from them , as well…]
cheers
ben
p.s. - ‘smallwaves’ …have YOU done any shots like these ?
…if so , I would LOVE to see them , please … cheers mate !
Hi Ben!
i’ve never done underwatershots 
the water is very very murky here, so you hardly see anything. Not much even on a clear summer day…
boooohoooooo
…it was cloudy here this morning
what i need is one of those glassy , and clear sky , mornings … autumn [‘fall’??] here is usually pretty good for those kinds of days [and swell, to boot , often !..that HELPS , for sure !]
I might need a helmet for the extreme shallowness , at the moment !
cheers
ben
A sad note really.
Before leashes, everyone could body surf, if you wanted to or not…
It made for healthy surfers and you learned alot about how the water moves while learning how to surf.
It also served to control the crowds, some surfing, some swimming, some paddling all the way back out, some looking for their board.
Now surfers are specialist and can’t swim.
oh well