Functional Booging

I'll begin this post by saying that I am by no means an expert on the art of belly boarding. In fact, only over the last few years (since bro-ing down with the creators of this blog and their fellow 2515 pals) have I developed an appreciation for it at all as a sport. When your chosen surfcraft is ridden standing up and you are a Novocastrian, you are by nature hostile and intolerant. This was my attitude towards bodyboarding for the first 18 years of my life. The opinions of my peers only further cemented my ideology, particularly that of Matt 'The Fresh Prince of Woolgoolga' Worrad who assured me boogers only needed a take off to be satisfied. The only exposure I had was the small but excitable boogin' community of Redhead beach comprised mostly of Daniel 'Squid' Madden and Luke 'Halestorm' Hales.

Over the past five or so years I have spent many a misty afternoon in the Thirroul hinterland drinking spumante from a bottle and playing drinking games as the ambient crackle from a mid 90's tele plays indie tunes whilst Guilherme Tamega inverts to the beat. In between the sporadic laughter and 'is you's I came to enjoy the little fellas spinning and sliding across the screen.

I can fully appreciate the degree of difficulty involved in a 20ft air forward on a closeout section at bombie rights, but I'm a way bigger fan of dudes smashing a reverse to make sections, spinning in tubes and just generally utilising the whole wave. I like to call this Functional Bodyboarding.

I guess this might be kind of outdated look at the sport and probably comes from the ol' 'length of ride' days in competitive surfing, but there is something pretty about a dude getting shacked and doing 56 functional turns with some trickery on an end bowl.

The ironic thing is that competitive surfing has now evolved from 'length of ride' and 'four to the shore', stale 'QS surfing of the 90's and is awarding 8's and 9's for a single crazy turn. This I believe is being taken from the bodyboarding and skating worlds and is a definite step in the right direction.

It kinda sucks in vids though seeing 179823467 single manoeuvres, whether they are performed by Dane Reynolds or Dave Winchester. Here is a little taste of the booging I've come to revere.