Empathizing with "spongers" & the best training for riverboarding

So I went bodyboarding today in Dominical, Costa Rica. It's a well-known surf town in Costa, as you can surf pretty much every day, year round. It's not always big, but there's always waves, somewhere in the area. And when it does go off, it's huge.

I like to surf. The stand-up kind. I kinda learned how during my time living in San Diego, and have gotten better down here.

I like to swim, too, and go out and attempt to bodysurf. Dom isn't really a good place for that, as there are epic rip-tides and the lifeguards get pissed (understandably) at anybody swimming outside the flags. But swimming in the ocean is one of the most amazingly freeing experiences...I could philosophize about that for a while, as I'm sure many of you could.

Occasionally though, especially when if I haven't been on a river for a while or just want to get a good workout, I'll grab a bodyboard and my fins and go bodyboarding. (I don't claim to be a pro by any means, but I am going to get that flip off the lip going soon!)

Today was a day for bodyboarding. The rains have just finally started in these parts, and although I've been doing plenty of pool workouts, there's nothing like dealing with nature - and the rivers are only now beginning to rise, just in time for another 2 week expedition starting on Sunday (oh yes, you know it counts for Eddy Flower haha!). So I decided to put in a good week attacking the waves.

I really think bodyboarding is the best practice for riverboarding, short of actually riverboarding. Not surfing the waves - paddling out! The bigger and nastier the surf, the better.

Mark Rightmire/Orange County Register/Corbis

Why? Because it forces you to take them head-on, and kick through a current that wants to drive you backwards, to topple you and roll you and slam you to the bottom of the sea. If you can paddle out through big, pounding surf over and over and over again, you'll have a huge head start on kicking your way through a hydraulic in the river (especially if you are adept at reading whitewater).

It's different on a surfboard, especially depending on the size of the board. Shortboards you can duck dive, but you're not wearing fins, so it's not quite the same. Beyond that and all the way up to longboards, you're using other tricks to get through or around the wave, so it'd definitely not the same.

But on a bodyboard, with fins? Same basic motion. Driving toward the wave (simulating a hole, or a breaking wave with a bit of a keeper effect), and taking it head-on, full-force. It's best when you're caught inside, and it breaks just a split second before you hit it, because you're most likely to get pounded and rolled. No, I'm not sadistic, it's good practice!

You're not likely to see many 10' waves like that on a river not called the Nile or Zambezi, but if you can keep control of which way is up in that situation, and maintain control of your board (without handles) and keep kicking the right direction, kudos to you. Do it fifty times a day and you'll be much better prepared for the river.

Obviously, river currents are very different than the ocean. Yes, there are many more hazards in a river than in a deep-water, sandy-bottom ocean break. And yes, it's probably a more important skill to be able to read whitewater on a river, than to be able to fight through holes and hydraulics (if you can read water, you can avoid them to start with!).

BUT, I think for intermediate and advanced riverboarders, the ocean offers a strange but powerful workout and I think it's a great supplement. As are whitewater parks, with their totally unrealistic fast eddies and currents. Anything that'll make me better, right?

On the empathy point though - man, being the only bodyboarder out there can sometimes get annoying. I've gotten comments now and then, been dropped in on or almost taken out before, but for some reason today was just a bad day for face level / stand-up interaction.

I mostly ignored it, since it was tourists being annoying, but seriously. Just because someone is on a bodyboard:
A) Doesn't mean they are unskilled and / or don't know how to "surf"
B) Doesn't mean they have less rights to the wave (am I wrong here? anybody?)
C) Doesn't mean they should go play in the fluffy kiddie stuff near shore

At least that's my take on it. I can't imagine what it's like for bodyboarders in places like Hawai'i. But I know it'd be a great workout for the river! ;)

Mark Rightmire/Orange County Register/Corbis