I grew up on the windward side of Oahu in Hawaii. For most of the time the surf was onshore junk. As I kid I didn’t care or really know the difference between onshore or offshore conditions. The ocean was just somewhere I spent as much time as I could playing in it. Of course body surfing was a big part of that play...
Text by Jack McCoy
I’m sure that early training riding funky waves helped me as time went on with all kinds of rhythm of the sea knowledge. Actually, now that I think about it, a lot of Kailua surfers went on to be great watermen. BK, Turk, Big Roy, and Chris Green. Several years later down the track guys like Buzzy Kerbox, Don King and Robbie Naish all did their younger years in the onshore junk in the Kailua shorebreaks.
Of course when I got older and started travelling to town or the country it suddenly dawned on me that the surf is so much better when it’s offshore. You can imagine my stoke when my Dad moved us to the south east shore during my high school years with the north east trade being offshore on all of the reefs.
For me the beauty of that move was not only were there several great surf spots between Koko Head and Diamond Head, but Sandy Beach and Makapuu were just around the corner. Whenever there was no surf on the south shore, we’d go straight to Sandy and body surf till dark. Every now and then, to get longer rides we’d go around the corner a little further and get some waves at beautiful Makapuu.
Growing up bodysurfing was really a big part of our lives. Remember this is before leg ropes and your bodysurfing skills were a big part of getting back on your board quicker.
I can clearly remember the first time I ever saw someone body surfing under and behind the wave. It was in a Bud Browne film. Larry Lunbeck came gliding by in slow motion, behind the wave, just beneath the lip. His skin was rippling from the water flow and it made him look like he was made of rubber. It blew my mind, and everyone else who saw it. Buds passion was bodysurfing so it didn’t surprise me that my cinematograph hero had captured this amazing feat.
It wasn’t until I got out to the country on a small clean day at Eaikai that I tried to do it myself. It wasn’t easy to start but I did get dragged along for several yards that first go. It felt great. I didn’t get a chance to do much more after that because my two main body surfing spots close to home were not an idea wave to underwater bodysurf. It would be suicide to do it at Sandy, although a few of the guns do underwater take offs there.
Over the years I’ve always wanted to shoot the underwater bodysurfing and asked mostly all of the Hawaiians I worked with if they knew how. No one raised their hand.
In 2000 I was invited to work with Oxbow, Tim McKenna and Laird in Tahiti. It was there on that shoot I had an opportunity to shoot the footage that up until then I’d only been dreaming about.
It was a couple of days before Laird rode that epic wave that changed Tow Surfing forever that we were out at Teahupoo hoping to get some shots of Jason Polakow wind surfing. The surf was about 4 to 5 ft with a strong cross-onshore wind blowing from the south. It just was not strong enough to windsurf but a few of the guys were surfing it anyway. I went out with my water camera and soon looked underwater and noticed how clear it was. So far on that trip Laird had been doing everything from stand up paddling (way before it was fashionable), surfing, tow surfing, foiling (this was real early days, still with wake boards), and everything else in between. I remember asking him at the start of the trip if he knew how to underwater bodysurf. Stupid question actually, but of course he said he could.
Laird was in the boat and I swam over and told him how clear the water was and asked if he wanted to underwater bodysurf for my camera. As soon as I mentioned it he’d grabbed his “VOIT DUCK FEET” and jumped over the side.
We swam into the line up and you can imagine the smile on my face when I saw him come gliding by, skin rippling and all on the first wave. Wow, “I’m onto this” I said to myself and proceed to shoot two rolls of film within about 30 to 40 minutes. I shot the first roll with a 10 mm that gave me the close ups and then grabbed my other camera with the 3.5mm on it to get some extreme wide shots. I was editing a sequence as I shot it, knowing I needed to get a variety of shots to tell the whole story. The shots appeared in a little short film I made with all my other film footage from that trip. It was called “: The Morning Glass” that appeared as a bonus for my film TO DAY OF DAYS. My good friend Tim was all over it too and got some amazing pictures also.
My next underwater bodysurfing subject was Rasta. When I started Blue Horizon I went up to his house and talked about the things I wanted to achieve for the film. I showed him TO and then TMG and I could see his eyes light up when he saw the underwater bodysurfing. Do you know how to do this? I asked “No, but I’ll learn.” I knew this was not necessarily because he wanted to do it for the film, but because he knew immediately this was as close to dolphining as you could get as a surfer. Dave in case you don’t already know was a dolphin in his past life.
A few weeks later he called me at my office in Sydney all excited about how he’d be practicing UWBS at every opportunity and was feeling sooooooooooooo good.
About 6 months later we were in Samoa and the wind had gone onshore when I asked if he felt he could underwater body surf his very shallow reef that had a bit of a close out ending. “Sure” was his reply. Then I realized that he didn’t have fins and flashed that I’d missed an opportunity in this clear water. “I don’t need fins” he called out as he swam out the back to catch one. Hummmmmm I thought, this will be interesting…
And interesting it was. The first wave I knew I was in for a good session. Once again I shot two rolls and edited the sequence in my head as to what to shoot.
Dave, in just a few months had become as proficient as Laird, and where Laird had fins and no mask, Dave had a mask and no fins. How’s that for balanced.
I used a couple of shots in that session in Blue Horizon, Rasta’s sequence to the Jimi Hendrix song. This was a string up of what I felt were the best high-speed shot’s I’d taken over the two years of production. I wanted to put all of his underwater bodysurfing shot in that sequence but the song was not long enough. I had to settle for a bonus sequence again in the special features of BH and it’s a sequence I’m really proud of.
It had been over 5 years since I’d seen any other underwater bodysurfing shots anywhere. It was from Tim again who blew my mind with some still pictures he’s taken of Potto going off at Teahupoo and Taapuna. Laird had inspired Poto with this aspect of waterman that he’d been doing it regularly since 2000 and the pictures were proof of his proficiency.
The next day I was out at Taapuna with my underwater jet ski filming scooter when Patrice Chanzy came out on his stand up paddle board, tied it up to the channel marker and swam over into the line up with his swimmer’s goggles and fins on. During the filming of Blue Horizon he had become facanated by Dave’s underwater act.
It was grey overcast and only about 3 ft but Patrice put on quite a show. It allowed me a chance to get some time in the saddle with my new toy. One shot I did that I’ve never been about to do with just swimming with the camera. I started filming about 50 yards out from the break and followed a swell in as Patrice started to swim hard to catch the wave. I then keep following him into the shallows ending his ride and then keep going as he swims back out. All one shot.
Patrice and I sat out the back waiting for another wave. The stoke on his face said it all. The underwater bodysurfing experience is amazing. I believe it’s the purest form of surfing.
That night as I put a little sequence together from the days shoot, I was smiling to myself thinking what Bud would think. Not only with the unheard of underwater tracking shots, but the fact that the challenging, beautiful, amazing underwater bodysurfing was alive and well. I’m sure he’s smiling too.
PS Don’t know if Patrices 3 ft grey day session will make the cut of my new film A DEEPER SHADE OF BLUE, however I’ll try and fit it on in the bonus special features.
Jack McCoy
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