HISTORY

When Mike Stewart was towed into Jaws in Maui it was at the time the biggest waves ever ridden by a bodyboarder. The session was featured in the Hollywood flick “In Gods Hands” in ’98 in which Mike had an acting role.It inspired a whole new generation of bodyboarders to start experimenting with towins and it opened up a whole new realm of big wave possibilities.

This pic below features Brazils hottest bodyboarder throughout the 80′s Alex De Pontes defeating the legendary Mike Stewart who was almost unbeatable around this era in France. Alex was the first Brazillian to achieve such a goal.

Mike flying high on a Morey Boogie Mach 7-7 from the pages of Surfer Magazine in 1984. Tomorrows moves today….

Jeffrey Dean Hubbard from Kaui in Hawaii changed the face of bodyboarding with his outrageous aerial assault in the ’90s. He took what Eppo was doing and then brought  it to another level. His tweaked airs and rotations above the lip were spectacular and some of the biggest boosts of all time. What set him apart, he was getting higher and doing it every session no matter what the waves were like. He introduced the Hubb move and then he was the first bodyboarder to pull  a 720 rotation captured on film. He sealed his fate when he won the World Title and entered the history books as one of the sports most innovative riders.Below Hubb getting vert at Shark Island. Click the link to see Hubb in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neglPqhJV58

Heres Pro Rider Tips a one off Rush mag edition from Australia with Lester on the cover and the short lived Option Magazine from the USA.

When Scotty Carters break through video The Inside came out in the mid 90′s it featured the mysterious Chad Barba the Californian underground soul man at his peak surfing The Wedge, south of the border in Mexico and other mysto spots.

Around ’96 Mike Stewart and the Morey Team embarked on a massive Summer Coaching tour up the East Coast of Australia. It pulled together a large crew of Morey team riders including Jay Reale, Bullet, Matt Percy, Nugget,Barney, Adrian “Slug” Hybner, Matt Riley, Tully Beevor and Mike to name just a few to teach bodyboarding to the masses. It was a large operation and the kids turned up in huge numbers from town to town to meet and get instructions, advice and tips from the Worlds best. Below Slug and Nigel Bollack teach a group at Wanda Beach.

Brian Press, 1st Pro BodyBoarding Win at Oceanside clip. Californian Brian Press renown for his small wave competitiveness and moves beats bodyboardings best in this Bud Tour Event.

Ross “Hellman “Hawke charging at Pipe in Hawaii. Circa mid 80′s.

Check the image below taken in ’81. This was high performance bodyboarding for the time. Riders like Daniel Kaimi were pulling tricks like this, the first version of the spinner, or spinning the board underneath them and basically ad libbing and making it up as they went.