HISTORY

Eppo once said that Toddy De Graaf was the best natural talented bodyboarder he had ever seen. Coming from the laid back Port MacQuarie area on the mid North Coast of N SW Toddy grew up on the sand at Lighthouse Beach . He  would often paddle across the river to the wedges at North Wall where the accompanying picture  was taken by Chris Stroh. Toddy was going off around this time and had a section in the Underground Tapes 6 video Seek and Destroy. Check out his unauthorised section downloaded on Youtube below.

Coming from Cronulla, young Andrew had a lot of tough competition surrounding him. As a member of the Emerald Club he soon moved up the ranks winning contest after contest. He also found a love for charging Shark Island following in the footsteps of Perce, Wazza, Bal, Nugget and Wingnut who pushed him to perform .Either you rip or you get written off and just dont get any waves out the Island. Andrew began winning his share of local contests and Aussie Tour Titles but his career peaked when he won The Pipe Title in 2001. Andrew is the nice guy of Aussie bodyboarding, always positive and never a bad word to say. Today he is the NSW rep for Turbo. Below one of the first photos taken by Chris Stroh of the young school kid at The Point after a session circa mid 90′s.

Jacky grew up riding at the The Wall at Waikiki in Hawaii imitating the moves he saw by his heroes like Kainoa McGee and Keith Sasaki. Gradually the regular footed Dropknee rider with the crazy forehand snap began entering and winning contests throughout the early 90′s. Jacky competed on the USA Amatuer cuircuit and eventually won the World Amatuer Title setting him up for a Pro career. Jacky’s moves were explosive especially his frontside layback snap making him a standout at Backdoor and Off The Wall. A few years back he suffered a life threatening disease which started as a virus and it  took him years to recover. Today he still lives in Town raising a family. The image below was taken at Off The Wall in the mid 90′s with Jacky busting out his signature move.  pic Chris Stroh

Before Mats and Bodyboarders conquered Shark Islands notorious barrels in the 70′s a brave crew of Body Surfers were already charging the notorious wave back in the Sixties. Here Geoff Love takes the drop at Surge.

Paipo (pipe-oh) is a Hawaiian word designating a short or small board. 
 Also known in Hawaiian as kioe, a body board, or belly board, from 2-to-4 feet long, ridden in the prone position.The Hawaiian paipo board was the ancient equivalent of today’s bodyboard or “boogie board.” Hawaiian paipos were  made of either breadfruit or wili wili. It measures 12 1/2″ at the nose, 9 1/2″ at the tail and is 56 1/2″ long. Its bottom is convex, with shaped rails, nose rocker and slightly concave deck. The drawing below was from from 1851 showing ancient Polynesians having fun in the Shorey.

Mitch Rawlins was already being claimed as the next big thing in the sport when aged around 15 he hit the Northshore of Hawaii for the first time. For a kid from the Gold Coast being thrown into a gladiator pit like Pipeline is pretty daunting. Only the strong will survive. This huge punt by Mitch on his Manta bodyboard was taken during this maiden trip and his performance soon had tongues wagging all around the planet.    pic Stroh

Nathan Purcell appeared on the Bodyboard scene in Australia in the early 90′s when he started ripping at Shark Island. He soon gained a reputation as a no holds barred charger as well as a real funny bastard.As part of the Skid Kids, Nugget and his mates ran amok and broke away from the sports clean cut image. It caused a riff in the bodyboard ranks but Nuggets riding ability soon over shadowed all the negativity on land. It was along with his mate Mark Fordham that the pair got up and running The Shark Island Challenge which is still one of the sports favourite events today. Nugget these days lives in West Oz and still getting up to mischief.  Below  Nugget at the Cronulla Pinny Parlour late 80′s  pic Stroh

The first issue of Bodyboarding Magazine  with Pat Caldwell on the cover was released in 1985. Tom Boyle was the driving force at the time and it was his dedication and persistence that got the people behind Surfing Mag to follow his dream. Tom was the sports first dedicated photographer and it was his unique camera angles at Sandy Beach of the sports first stars like Sevo, Stewart, Pat and Jack that gave the sport its own individual look. At first it was a Bi-Annual but by ’87 it was coming out Bi-monthly.

This pic of Eppo was the first time Michael Epplestun and photographer Chris Stroh met. The shot was taken at Maroubra in a Circus near the beach. Eppo saw the sign and gravitated to it straight away. This meeting would be the start of a long productive friendship as the pair worked together throughout the 90s photographing and videoing and later on releasing Eppos Freakshow on VHS. As bodyboarders go Eppo was never a dull moment according to Stroh. “On land or in the surf he would always be pulling something out of his bag of tricks. Eppo was unique, to bad there arent more riders like him”. pic Stroh