On Saturday September 9th, RBBU hosted the 7th Annual Rockaway Beach Body SurfContest at beach 84th Street’s east jetty. Conditions this year were lackluster with only waist-high surf on hand, but as they say, it’s always overhead if you’re bodysurfing. Uneventful swell only turned up the technicality of rides going down in the water and enthusiasm on the beach.

In years past with pumping surf on tap, the type of scoring rides would vary between heroic Hail Mary over the ledge drops to technical maneuvers on the open face. This year saw contestants advancing through rounds with highly skilled maneuver based rides making the most of what the ocean served up. This sort of technical prowess on display made it crystal clear who was in tip top shape to make it all the way through to the finals. Underwater takeoffs, spins, and distance rides to the beach were the key to high scores. Year in, year out this event proves to be a highlight for the Rockaway community and attracts participants and spectators from around the world to come and join in for a wildly good time and womp in the surf.

To commemorate this year’s contest we published a book with Driveway Press which is available in the Mulberry Flagship and Noah Hideout.