Essa matéria escrita por Kimbal Taylor, para o Site da ESPN americana, mostra o quanto o nosso esporte influenciou 

e continua influenciando o Surfe. Ela diz que, mesmo não recebendo o mesmo dinheiro, ou a mesma exposição na 

mídia, somos nós bodyboarders os responsáveis pela ondas mais sinistras, como Teahupoo, que primeiro foi surfada

pelo Mike e depois os surfistas, como também a maioria das ondas sinistras descobertas recentemente na australia.

Antes de um surfista começar a surfar, havia há muito tempo algum maluco de bodyboarder se jogando de cabeça, 

sem que ninguem soubesse. Além disso, destaca que oe melhores fotógrafos de surfe, foram ou são bodyboarders.

Será porque?

Vale a pena ler, muito interessante!

Call it a punchline, but bodyboarding's influence in surf runs deep.

A quick look around average breaks might suggest that the sport of bodyboarding may be going the 

way of the kneelo (that's right, cousin to the prone people, kneeboarding has been all but extinct for 

some years now ... apparently with the exception Jeff McCallum). There are no bodyboarding magazines 

in the U.S., little to no sponsorship from clothing companies, and no recognition from the "surf" 

magazines. When was the last time you saw a bodyboarding photo or advertisement in Surfer, Surfing, 

or TransWorld Surf?

It's that lack of support that's sited as a major factor in the demise of the one-time rival to traditional 

surfing. That intense rivalry is also responsible for such derogatory name calling as half-men, boogers, 

spongers, speed bumps, dick-draggers, lids, and the like.

But what most surfers today don't realize is that spongers are, and have been, pushing the sport by 

example, and promoting it with documentary skills no upright surfer has yet developed -- and they've 

been risking their lives to do it.

Surfer magazine staff photographer Todd Glaser says that when he encounters his former pro 

bodyboarding compatriots, the ones still in the game, he gives them a big hug and says, "I'm glad that 

you're still alive." This is because the nucleus of hardcore bodyboarders have gone nuclear in their 

attack on barrels, slabs, and heavy waves -- a realm so scary, most surfers merely flirt with it, and the 

best surfers do what they can to match it.

Nearly every heavy-water discovery in Australia over the past decade -- including jaw-dropping, new-

age slabs like Cyclops and Shipsterns Bluff -- was first sniffed out by a bodyboarder.

"To tell you the truth, boogie boarders found 'em all," told Justin "Jughead" Allport, a West Oz standup 

slab lunatic. "They left us going hunting, we just had to scathe, and go hanging around, hunting all the 

spots looking on Google Web and stuff. Most of the time we'd find out that boogie boarders had already 

been there for awhile. That, umm, I know it sounds sad."

Then there's the spot that changed surfing as we know it: Tahiti's Teahupoo. Local Raimana Van 

Bastolaer put it on the map, and he did it on a bodyboard. A mid-90s trip by Hawaiians Mike Stewart and 

Ben Severson showed the world its potential, and it's safe to say Laird Hamilton, Cory Lopez, and the 

rest of the guys that charge the place wouldn't be there without some pioneering of the prone kind.

Bodyboarding has developed such a flare for the litmus edge, that its culture competes primarily via 

YouTube, Facebook and a handful of bodyboarding websites. "I implore you," writes award-winning 

photographer and bodyboarder Ray Collins, "Google 'Brendan Newton' if you have a spare five minutes."

These "lid riders" often embarrass, if only in increments, their hardcore, well-paid, standup surfing 

counterparts. And they're doing it on a shoestring. But this is a generous crowd, so selfless in fact, a 

majority of the big names in surf photography are current and former bodyboarders working hard, and 

often risking their skins, to put standup surfers into the moneymaking limelight. Even a partial list is a 

substantial chunk of surf photography's best: Scott Aichner, Chris Burkard, Ray Collins, Jeff Flindt, Todd 

Glaser, Tim Jones, Ross McBride, Daniel Russo, Mickey Smith, Seth Stafford, and Scott Winer, to name a 

few. Nine-time bodyboarding champ Mike Stewart has some impressive film credits on his resume as 

well, including work on Thomas Campbell's "The Presesnt." And every winner of the Follow the 

Light. Foundation grant, an award given in honor of 30-year Surfing magazine photo editor Larry Moore, 

has been a bodyboarder.

There's definitely a link in the skill sets between spongers and water photographers. Scott Aicher, ten-

year Surfer staff photographer and one of Pipeline's gnarliest water photogs points out that "you're 

used to the fins and in bodyboarding, you're constantly dodging the lip -- falling during barrel rolls, being 

low and timing it."

 

Waimea só os bodyboarders se divertem!

Surfing magazine's Jeff Flindt says, "Most surfers don't surf shorebreaks and crazy slabs. Shooting 

bodyboarding is way harder because the waves are heavier. When I shoot with surfers they want to 

look for good waves that are surfable, not death. When I used to shoot with bodyboarders they were 

looking for death slabs and the craziest wedges."

Considering the decline in bodyboarding popularity, it's easy to wonder if we're witnessing an end of an 

era. Surfer magazine's Todd Glaser holds out hope. "I think the sport of bodyboarding is growing in a 

very positive direction for the core that does it. Bodyboarders have been on the forefront of nearly every 

slab discovery for the past several years and will continue to do so because of their passion, lack of 

commercial influence, and skill. It would be very interesting to see what would happen if bodyboarders 

received the support that surfers receive."

It might be a tough pill to swallow, but the very wave-riders who we looked down our noses at, are not 

only tougher than our heroes, they're working hard to make them look good. Maybe it's time to rethink 

our prejudices.