HISTORY

Paul Roach from Seaside Beach in California was responsible for bringing the big moves to Dropknee riding. He took what the Skaters and Surfers were doing and transferred it to his own riding around 89/90. Laybacks, DK airs ,tail slides, rail carving and with the lip launches .He modernised DK riding. What sets him apart from others was his ability to generate speed. His pictures in Bodyboarder Mag at the time revolutionised the sport proving that the bodyboard could do what any surfboard could. This pic was taken at Ehukai Beach Park on the Northshore in Jan 93. Roach and Aka were trading wave for wave in the shorey. Note Roach has dyed black punk hair photo Stroh.

This is young Aka back in ’91 pre tatts. Aka is best known for his Dropknee backside attack. Throughout the 90′s it was Paul Roach , Dave Ballard and Aka who were regarded as the leading edge of DK. Aka’s backside snaps and floats were honed at Waimea and later Euhaki Beach Park. With his frontside just as deadly, Aka earned himself a legion of fans worldwide and theres still debate even today as who was actually the best.

Bob Thomas and his wife Jan back in 1975 owned one of the first Morey Kit boards complete with glue and charged Pipe Littles and Sandy Beach. In the early 80s Bob was approached by Patti Serano from Morey to run contests in Hawaii. From that day on Bob was the driving force of competitive bodyboarding in Hawaii. Bobs early events allowed Mike Stewart, Ben Severson and Kainoa to get there first taste of competition.Bob went on to run the World B/B comps at Pipeline  and was the main man behind the Global Organisation of Bodyboarding (GOB). Today Bob and Jan are still the driving force in Hawaii turning young kids into champions. Pic by Hotshots

 Bobby Szabad was one of Tom Morey’s first backyard factory workers in the very early days as well as one of the first Morey Boogie team riders. After competing for a short time Bobby concentrated more and more on the manufacturing side of things. While head of production at the Morey’s Kransco plant, Bobby left to start his own company, named BZ. He eventually sold the brand name but still works for BZ today. Pic below was taken of Bobby in ’89 outside BZ headquarters.

Carol first started b/b around  ’89 at the age of 18. She soon gravitated to the Northshore when her family moved to Hawaii. Before long she was one of the first girl bodyboarders to start charging at big Pipe and one of the sports first female stars. Carol was joined in the lineup by other female b/b like Jen Mar,  Robin Cardoza, Guin Allen, Daina Pang and  Gloria, and Harima  making  the women bodyboarders hard to miss.  Carol was becoming well known for her role behind the scenes running and organising comps as well as some gutsy performances.It was one wave in particular that comes to mind, the  rag doll wipeout as it became known. Carol takes up the story.”I was straightening out on the wave, because it was closing out. It was one of those days when you couldn’t get a lot of waves, and you want a wave. I don’t know what happened. The lip like hit me, and blasted me in the air. And then it somehow sucked me back over the falls, and then tossed me out again. And, I was in the air most of the time so I didn’t get hurt, I didn’t hit the bottom or anything”. Below is a clip of Carol doing her thing on the Northshore.

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 Born in 1980 in South Africa, Dre was a local grom from North Durban Beach. He left school to go Pro by the age of 15 and planned his assault up the bodyboard ranks with his first season on the Northshore of Oahu. His performance in his first Pipe Comp was outstanding and his debut was the most impressive of any grommet to date. He surfed fearlessly and with a mop of blond hair and a mouth full of braces in one heat he scored a 10 out of 10 ride. By the time he was 17 he had won his first World Title then backed it up the next year winning two crowns back to back. Dre created history as the youngest World Champion ever . As the years passed Andre  built up a reputation as a big wave specialist. His wipeout at Teahupo was  legendary during the 2000 Tahiti Skins.Today Dre still travels the world bodyboarding hard and still pushing the limits   Pipe carve late 90′s photo Stroh

            Danny Kim was not the first to standup bodyboard but he was definitely one of the best. With specially made  BZ custom bodyboards he pulled amazing carving , floating and 360 moves and during the 80′s competed successfully on the Pro Tour. Danny from the Westside was a regular at Sandy Beach in the early days and his image graced many pages of  Bodyboarding magazine. His high performance riding inspired the next generation of standups including Chris Won and Kavan Yap. Today standup is a dying art but riders like Danny can still surf better than most fiberglas surfers.  pic Manly Beach late 80′s Danny was there competing and signing autographs  photo Stroh

      Kainoa was just a kid from Waikiki when he started making a name for himself . He began competing age 10 and won the first contest he entered. Using prone and Dropknee he was sponsored by Morey by the time he was 12. Numerous National titles later he went Pro. In 86 he surfed Pipe for the first time and the pair seemed made for one another. He was being claimed as the next big thing in Pro Bodyboarding and ended up 4 times World Title runner up. Uncle Kai survived a life threatening virus which kept him out of the surf for a time.Where Kainoa really excelled  was at 2nd Reef Pipe . He took Dropknee to a new level of big wave riding. Kainoa is still a standout at Pipe whether riding prone, DK or a surfboard he commands respect and is one of Pipelines most dynamic and fearless big wave performers today. This pic shows Kainoa sharing a Pipe barrel.   photo Chris Stroh

    Kavan Okamura was one of the sports pioneers and one of early Sandy Beach crew. Mike Stewart credits Kavan with inventing the invert air and the no hand spin. He was also one of the first rider shapers as well as pushing new design concepts. While surfing D Bah in Australia in ’87 he badly dislocated his shoulder in a wipeout and the injury which refused to heal fully eventually slowed down his career. Mike names  Kavan one of his earliest influences who was ahead of his time. After a rocky personal life today Kavan now lives with his family on the Westside and still bodyboarders.

        As bodyboarding began to take off in Australia in the late 80’s Youngy was one of the infamous Cronulla crew who dominated the Aussie media scene. He was a fearless Island charger and in the early days of Riptide his image was plastered across its pages. On land BY was a character who always loved a laugh and liked to shock people. As a member of the Skid Kids his outlaw antics were often looked down on by b/b heirachy. Youngy didn’t care too much and despised the local comp scene that frothed over contests in 1ft waves at Manly. Youngy was all about pulling into gnarly pits and had the same head pumping style as Pat Caldwell. Brett had tongues wagging when he performed a pop song in the video nasty Rip The Pit. He was highly criticized for his role and eventually packed his bags to move to Japan where he worked promoting his sponsor Manta. It was in Japan that BY was killed when the car he was driving on a express lane highway crashed. Today he is remembered with the annual Brett Young Trials part of The Shark Island Challenge. Below A very young Brett pulling in at The Point in the 80s pic Stroh