No Board, No Problem : The Few, the Fearless, Enjoy ‘Cheap Thrills’ of Bodysurfing

On a cold, blustery winter morning, Jim Isaac of Ventura pulled on a clammy wet suit and threw himself into a roiling ocean wave. An observer watched Isaac disappear into the frothy chop and wondered aloud why anybody would be that crazed about bodysurfing.

“Cheap thrills,” said Michelle Watson, volunteering the answer.

Isaac and Watson were among a few dozen competitors enduring the elements at the recent U.S. Coldwater Body Surfing Championships along the South Jetty in Ventura. Their presence affirmed their dedication to the sport and the fearlessness required to surf without a board.

“You’re really vulnerable on a wave,” said Dan Beach of Ojai. “Your (ride) can have a violent ending.”

Beach, a 50-year-old businessman, wasn’t simply speculating. A few months ago, his ride ended painfully when a wave “dumped” him and he landed headfirst in shallow water, sustaining compression fractures in three vertebrae and “scaring the dickens out of me.”

Beach will be able to bodysurf again, but to remind him of the injury, his comrades gave him a football helmet on which a two-foot steel spring had been attached and the words “Boom Boom the Body Basher” written. It was presented to Boom Boom, er, Beach at the contest with the suggestion that he wear it when he finally gets back in the water.

Bodysurfing engenders camaraderie along with the sense of belonging to an exclusive club. “In the world of bodysurfing, there are probably only 300 or 400 of us,” said Dean Hazard, organizer of the contest, “and everybody knows each other.”

Bodysurfing is different from simple wave riding, which can be mastered by any kid at the beach. Bodysurfers tackle the same giant swells as surfers and can do almost as many maneuvers as bodyboarders. The sport also has advantages over other surfing sports: Competition for waves isn’t as cutthroat and expensive equipment isn’t necessary.

“It’s just the wave and your chest,” Isaac said. “Maybe you can’t go as fast as you would on a board, but you can still turn on the wave.”

Isaac, 42, a supervisor for Santa Barbara’s Department of Parks and Recreation, started board surfing in Hawaii 25 years ago and gave it up for bodysurfing in the mid-’80s. “Learning the basics of bodysurfing is pretty simple,” he said, “but to be skillful takes a while.”

Bodysurfing can be done at any break, but “the best bodysurfing anywhere on any coast” can be found at the South Jetty, said Bill Lucking, a 75-year-old retired Ojai attorney. The rock breakwater extends about 100 yards into the ocean, forming the southern border of Ventura Harbor. On the harbor side of the jetty, the water is flat; on the ocean side, the water is especially turbulent.

“The surf there is consistent year-round,” Hazard said. In the winter, swells as big as 20 feet come out of the north, “awe-inspiring waves that tend to be roller-coaster rides. You go screaming down the vertical face and it can crash down on you.”

To reach the wave line, bodysurfers swim along the jetty for 50 or 100 yards. How do they avoid being tossed up against the rocks? A riptide runs along the edge of the jetty, negating the waves and propelling swimmers toward open sea.

The riptide is named the “Lucking Rip” after Lucking, the man who discovered it. In 1953, Lucking and a couple of friends took up “the forgotten sport” during their lunch hour as “a way to take the pressure off instead of having a martini,” Lucking said.

“In the beginning we didn’t know anybody who knew anything about bodysurfing,” he said. “So we just did it.”

Lucking, the self-styled grandfather of bodysurfing in Ventura, and his cohorts formed an unofficial club, the South Jetty Swells, which “has no officers, no dues, no meetings, no bylaws, no organization, no lists, no nothing. Just (30 to 50 bodysurfers) who come down almost religiously every day,” he said.

Lucking remains an active bodysurfer despite two hip replacements. “I love it,” he said. “I’m afraid to stop. I’m afraid I’ll get sloppy.”

A former world champion, Lucking won an age-group title a few years ago at the World Body Surfing Championships in Oceanside. He would have been competing in the Ventura contest but he was asked to be the official timer, announcing the start of each heat by sounding an air horn.

Despite the wind that flattened the waves and air temperature that was colder than the water, about 100 bodysurfers checked in at 6 a.m. “Any time you’re on the ocean is good,” said Isaac, whose wife made him breakfast at 5 and “sent me on my way.”

Isaac, who acknowledged that he wouldn’t have surfed that day if the contest hadn’t been held, survived the qualifying heat and made it to the semifinals, but he had trouble finding a decent wave and finished third in his four-man heat; only the top two advanced to the finals.

“I’m happy with my (finish) because the other three guys are hotshots,” he said after shedding his wet suit in his truck and putting on three layers of clothes.

The Ventura contest, now in its 13th year, offers no prize money in keeping with a sport that has no pros. But that’s fine with bodysurfers.

“We’re not worried about making money,” said Watson, who drove from Santa Cruz to compete. “We just do it for the fun.”