Bodyboarding - Origin

Origin

Bodyboarding originates from an ancient form of riding waves (surfing) on one's belly. Polynesian people rode "alaia" (pronounced ah-lie-ah) boards either on their belly, knees, or feet (in rare instances). Alaia boards were generally made from the wood of Acacia koa and ranged in length and shape. They are distinct from the modern stand-up surfboards in that they had no ventral fins. Captain Cook was recorded seeing Hawaiian villagers riding such boards when he came to Hawaii in 1778. The boards he witnessed were about 3' to 6' and were ridden "prone" (on the belly) or on the knees. Alaia boards then evolved into the more modern "paipo" (pronounced pipe-oh) board. Paipo boards were either made of wood or fiberglass. Fiberglass boards usually had fins on the bottom. Tom Morey hybridized this form of riding waves on one's belly on a paipo to his craft of shaping stand-up surfboards.

On 9 July 1971, Tom Morey invented the modern bodyboard. His story is as follows:

Soon after arriving in Honolulu, Morey began toying with the idea of making a surfboard that would be "ultimately fast." He designed a six-foot-long board with a fiberglass bottom and soft polyethylene deck that would be ridden prone. "I finally got this board together, and it was just as I had designed it, but it was weak," says Morey. "While just paddling out in a Waikiki tide pool, a little four-inch wave broke the nose off. I thought to myself, 'Man, I've got some thinking to do on this. This design just isn't working.'"

A month later Morey moved to the Big Island to the town of Kailua where he lived just down the street from the surf break Honols. One hot July morning he awoke to perfect waves. The only problem was, he didn't have a board to ride.

He knew he wanted to make something out of his last nine-foot piece of polyethylene foam, but he didn't know what. "I grabbed a knife and cut it in half," says Morey. "There was no turning back at that point. I looked at the foam and then at the surf and began fooling around with a hot iron and an electric knife. I found that I could shape the foam using the iron if I put a sheet of newspaper down on the foam first. Later that night, I drew a few curves on the foam with a red marking pen and went to bed." Morey rose early on 9 July 1971, and cut and ironed out his planned shape. He left his board as wide as possible and left the nose square so that it would have more structural strength and so he could hold on to it. "I decided I'd shape the rails like those on a Hot Curl surfboard," says Morey. "Those were the boards from the 20s and 30s; built before boards had skegs. I cut 45-degree Hot Curl rails into my board. They looked great, but I still wasn't sure how it would ride."

Morey grabbed his board, ran across the street to Honols and the sport of bodyboarding was born. "I had a ball!" recalls Morey. "I could actually feel the wave through the board. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. On a surfboard you're not feeling every nuance of the wave; you're feeling how this seven-foot piece of fiberglass is chattering against the wave. But with my creation I could feel everything. I was thinking to myself, "This thing turns, it's durable, it can be made cheaply, it's lightweight, it's impenetrable...God, this could be a really big thing!'"

Morey was so pleased that the very next day he shaped a smaller board and sold it to a neighbor for fifteen dollars. "I had to know if anyone would buy it," said Morey. "After that sale I knew I would be able to sell it everywhere." During this time, Morey had become involved in the Bahai faith—a religion that stresses the principles of universal brotherhood. The Bahais believe everything done for the service of mankind is elevated to the state of worship, so when Morey asked to borrow some money to fund a move to the Mainland in order to market his board, his fellow believers were eager to help.

"One Bahai friend, Jack Spock, lent me 200 dollars," says Morey. "Then another friend, whose name I've forgotten, gave me 100 dollars. A couple of guys had vehicles they wanted to sell, so I fixed their cars. After we sold the cars, one guy, Ray Olivaras, split his earnings with me. Another guy, Roger Glick, let me keep the 250 dollars as an investment." Altogether Morey borrowed 1,000 dollars from his Bahai friends. He was ready for the Mainland.