Oahu, and the other Hawaiian islands have amazing and almost non-stop wave-action going on. Waves are nearly continually breaking somewhere on each island.
For the first year and a half or so I only bodyboarded. Bodyboarding was the biggest rush once I learned how to ride 4+ foot waves. I had heard about bodysurfing but didn’t really care for the longest time. What could be fun about swimming with a wave? Would that be better than bodyboarding? I didn’t think so.
Finally I tried it. I don’t know how I ended up without a bodyboard on the windward side of Oahu one time – but I did. Probably I lent my board to someone that was having a hell of a lot of fun while I watched. I decided I’d try bodysurfing.
It took about 20 tries to get something going which was a bit depressing. For surfing down a wave with your body the waves should be rolling in rather fast. On the northeast side, they are usually a bit choppy and bodysurfing the shore-break is no fun at all. Someone at Sandy Beach will tell you that! (wicked shorebreaks at Sandy’s).
Nobody can stand on you, you won’t be that much like a surfboard… but no matter. You can have a lot of fun bodysurfing yourself in small 2-4 foot waves.
Bodysurfing is the closest thing you can get to communing directly with the ocean. It’s better than soulsurfing a long board and hanging ten. It’s heaps of fun!
Aloha!
Peter Kay