Besides having a good time, bodyboarding is a tremendous complete body aerobic workout. Bodyboarders use every muscle in the body during a decent surf session. With the advent of professional bodyboarding contests, bodyboarding's popularity soared. Now there are about the same number of bodyboarders as there are surfers. To describe what the act of bodyboarding is, let me contrast it with standup surfing that is familiar to most.
Surfers stand on the board and ride the wave.
At last count there were only a handful of professional bodyboarders surfing this way and all were from Hawaii. The act of bodyboarding is very similar to regular surfing but the board and style is much different. Not unlike sport parachuting and rock climbing, surfing is an exhilarating experience. You have to have heart to face it. At the same time, you've got to be respectful in the face of a 10 to 20 foot wave.