The sport of bodyboarding started in 1971 when Tom Morey designed the first board. Later that year he took the board back to California and he began to mass produce it. This was later known as the Morey Bodyboard. As the board began to sell, the sport took off in California and Hawaii, and eventually spread around the world. Today there are a number of different makes and models of bodyboards and the company that started it all Morey Bodyboards, are still going strong making boards. The boards were made out of a high density of polyethylene foam, they usually were 42" long, 22" wide, and 3" thick and included a slick vinyl bottom.

The first major professional contest was held in 1986 at the Banzai Pipeline (better known as Pipe) with a $5000.00 dollar prize purse. This contest was won by John Patterson who is now one of the top guys with Manta...