The fading art of stand-up bodyboarding

Stand-up bodyboarding: upright boogie mode with the Original Beater

Grab a long bodyboard, take off your fins and try stand-up bodyboarding. Although it is not as easy as you might think, it will steal a jaw-dropping second from the crowd out in the beach, once you're trimming the surf line.

The bodyboarding community is less keen on riding waves in stand-up mode, but there is still a reserved group of usual prone riders who give it a go.

When summer hits the international shores, many lifeguards impose the yellow flag with the black spot. This means, no "hard boards" are allowed out in the water, so many surfers pick a bodyboard and ride it in upright position.

Stand-up bodyboarding requires surfing and bodyboarding techniques because you'll be riding a wave without board fins and bodyboard fins. A finless board and no foot fin boost.

Bodyboarding in upright position is better and easier to learn if you're a lightweight rider. Thinner men and women can quickly pop up on the board without causing unbalance.

It's important to compensate the absence of board fins with hip and heel weight, so that the rider and the board stay close to the pocket and to the wave face.

Stand-up bodyboards are usually narrower and bigger, similar to surfboards, and often embed three stringers to keep the board stiff.

Cavin Yap, Chris Won Taloa and Danny Kim were the pioneers of stand-up bodyboarding. They would pull aggressive carves, huge floaters, aerials and deep barrels in upright boogie mode, until the hype faded away, between the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Today, it's still possible to revive the classic stand-up bodyboarding days, with the "Beater", a bodyboard that is also a skimboard and surfboard, at the same time. For only $180, you can ride finless or finned in every type of wave.

The Summer Surf Gear Guide 2019