Bodyboarding is a water sport in which the surfer rides a bodyboard on the crest, face, and curl of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore. Bodyboarding is also referred to as Boogieboarding due to the invention of the "Boogie Board" by Tom Morey in 1971. The average bodyboard consists of a short, rectangular piece of hydrodynamic foam. Bodyboarders typically use swim fins for additional propulsion and control while riding a breaking wave.
Michael Lee Moorer is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2008. He won a world championship on four occasions in two weight classes, having held the WBO light heavyweight title from 1988 to 1991; compiling 22 straight KOs in 22 fights and the WBO heavyweight title from 1992 to 1993; the unified WBA, IBF and lineal heavyweight titles in 1994; and regained the IBF heavyweight title again from 1996 to 1997 becoming a three-time heavyweight world champion.
Robert Kelly Slater is an American professional surfer, best known for being crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. Slater is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time.
Mike Stewart is a nine-time World Champion bodyboarder, one of the early pioneers of the bodyboarding sport, a pioneer of big-wave tow-in surfing and also a champion bodysurfer.
Damian King is an Australian professional bodyboarder. He was World Bodyboarding Champion twice, in 2003 and 2004. In 2011 he won the Dropknee World Tour becoming the first bodyboarder in history to win both prone and dropknee world titles.
Michael "Eppo" Eppelstun is an Australian professional bodyboarder who won the bodyboarding world championship in 1993. In winning the competition, he became the first Australian and the first non-Hawaiian to win the World title. Eppo helped develop two new moves in the bodyboarding world which ushered in whole new gymnastic approach to riding a bodyboard. First came the Air Roll Spin and shortly later the Blackflip.
Jeff Hubbard is the 2012 IBA World Tour bodyboarder champion from Kauai, Hawaii. His brother David also won a bodyboarding world title: the 2009 IBA Drop Knee World Tour. Jeff won his first IBA World Title in 2006 and the second in 2009 and third in 2012.
The Shark Island Challenge (SIC), held near Cronulla, New South Wales, Australia, is the most celebrated World Tour event in bodyboarding since the elimination of the Teahupoo Challenge (Teahupoo) from the world bodyboarding tour.
José Otavio, or Zé Otavio, is the given name of a Brazilian bodyboarder. He was born in the landlocked state of Minas Gerais. He started to surf in Guriri, Espírito Santo, and he developed his skills as a bodyboarder on the beaches of Niterói, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Otavio has continued his career by surfing Brazil's most sought after bodyboarding waves at Itacoatiara beach. He was the first bodyboarder to execute a 720° reverse air spinner caught on tape, which can be seen in the bodyboarding video movie QUE! Mutação.
The Banzai Pipeline, or simply Pipeline or Pipe, is a surf reef break located in Hawaii, off Ehukai Beach Park in Pupukea on O'ahu's North Shore. A reef break is an area in the ocean where waves start to break once they reach the shallows of a reef. Pipeline is known for huge waves that break in shallow water just above a sharp and cavernous reef, forming large, hollow, thick curls of water that surfers can tube ride. There are three reefs at Pipeline in progressively deeper water farther out to sea that activate according to the increasing size of approaching ocean swells.
Alexandre de Pontes (1968–1993), also known as Xandinho, was a Brazilian bodyboarder, and one of the first Brazilians to gain widespread international recognition in the sport. He was the first Brazilian to reach the finals in the Pipeline world bodyboarding championship. He died in a car accident in Portugal when returning to the airport for a flight back to Brazil.
Ben Severson is a Sandy Beach bodyboarder. He was the 1986 world bodyboarding champion.
Ben Player is an Australian bodyboarder who was world champion in 2005, 2007 and 2013. His 2007 victory came after placing second in the 2006 Pipeline final. He has finished #2 overall on the World Bodyboarding Tour several times. Ben now also helps run Movement Bodyboarding magazine.
Flowriding or Flowboarding is a late-20th century alternative boardsport incorporating elements of surfing, bodyboarding, skateboarding, skimboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding.
John "John John" Alexander Florence is an American professional surfer. He is known as "one of the most dominant pipe surfers of his era" and won back-to-back world titles on the 2016 World Surf League and 2017 World Surf League Men's Championship Tour. He is the first Hawaii-born surfer to win back-to-back world titles since the late Andy Irons and one of five to ever achieve the feat. In 2019, Florence qualified to represent the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics in surfing.
James Duncan O'Brien was born on June 9, 1983. He is a professional surfer from the North Shore, Hawaii.
Gabriel Medina Pinto Ferreira is a Brazilian professional surfer who won the 2014, 2018 and 2021 WSL World Championships. With 16 WSL Championship Tour (CT) event wins and 29 Final appearances under his belt, Medina is one of the most experienced surfers when it comes to producing the best surfing under pressure. Medina is 2nd only to Kelly Slater for the most World Titles among surfers currently on the CT.
Mathieu Schiller was a French bodyboarder. Crowned French champion in 1993, he later won the team event of the European championships in 1995. He died in a shark attack off Saint-Gilles, Réunion. The attack was likely caused by multiple tiger shark or bull sharks. The presence of sharks and turbulent conditions forced rescuers to abandon an immediate attempt to retrieve his body; his remains were never recovered.
South Africa