Stand Up Bodyboarding is a Thing!

"They just kicked off their fins out the back, paddled in and popped up on their feet, doing the same spins and floaters that the prone guys were doing."

Talk about a juxtaposition! Who's ever heard of stand up bodyboarding? This sport isn't just a thing that the grommies do when they're bored in the lineup, there's competitions for it!

That's right, standing up on a board designed to lay down on, who'd have thought? Maybe bodyboarders wanted a slice of the stand up paddle action, or they just wanted a better view? Actually, it's been around since the 80's when a couple of Hawaiian groms started doing it to show off in bodyboarding comps. They just kicked off their fins out the back, paddled in and popped up on their feet, doing the same spins and floaters that the prone guys were doing. Some companies even made pro models for the guys doing it regularly, like Chris Won and Danny Kim. These guys feature in some great vintage surf adverts like the one pictured above, clearly stoked at the ridiculous situation they put themselves in, standing on that little tiny board.

Bringing it to the attention of the masses, Jamie O'Brien recently won a SUB (Stand Up Bodyboarding) comp at Pipeline on Oahu. Master of surfing all things that probably shouldn't be surfed, Jamie ditched his shorty for a day and paddled out with 4ft of foam beneath him. Of course he absolutely shredded it, winning the finals against 3 other blokes who thought it might be fun to stand up n a bodyboard for a day.

Check out the little clip of a guy shredding a bodyboard on his feet, from El Salvador...