How to Bodysurf with a POD Handboard

Place your hand on the handboard in the natural swimming position and strap it on firmly. As shown below, point your fingers towards the POD logo while keeping your thumb on the outside.

POD highly recommends adjusting your hand strap once over your hand. For further use, slide your hand between the handboard strap and the neoprene deck grip palm pad; this will ensure the Velcro remains attached and lasts for many years, providing a secure and comfortable fit for your handboard.

Left Handed Body Surfers

If you are left-handed, change the wrist cord to the left side of the hand surfer strapping bridge allocated wrist cord hole.

The hand strap can be easily removed and reassembled oppositely for your convenience, making it best suited for left-handed bodysurfers.

Beneath the Wave

When duck diving under a wave, hold the POD handboard with both hands with the handboard in front or under you, as shown below.

The same principle applies to a surfer holding a surfboard or a bodyboarder holding a bodyboard.

Use the same principle when swimming out to the break with a surfboard or a bodyboard.

Swim with the top half of your body up out of the water, using the side of the POD handboard to cut the water's surface. Then stroke the handboard towards your chest first—not to the side of your body, as this will unbalance your swimming stroke. Before the handboard reaches your chest, complete your natural swimming stroke to the side.

When catching a wave, skim, glide or plane the handboard across the water and lift your body out of the water as fast as you can.

Bodysurfing Principles

Remember, the key principle is that Lift Equals Speed and Control! This principle empowers you to master bodysurfing with a POD handboard. The quicker you lift your body out of the water, the less drag you will feel from your body, and the faster you will bodysurf across the wave.

You can achieve this by pressing down on the handboard in a push-up action and then moving your other hand behind your back for balance.

Follow steps 1 to 3 from the three photos below:

Step 1. Lift:

1. Push-up with both hands onto the POD handboard. The faster you lift your body out of the water, the less drag.
2. The second method for fast lift is to swim backwards with the wave. Once you feel you're riding the wave, spin your body 180 degrees. This automatically raises your body to one side out of the water to your waist, and the extra downward pressure on the handboard will pull your body up further out of the wave, providing even more speed across the wave.
3. The third method for fast lift (not easy to master) is the dolphin-style takeoff. As the wave has almost rolled over, you submerge yourself to the ocean floor or reef, then push off the sandbank with your swim fins piercing your handboard and body through the wall of the wave.

Step 2. Speed:

• Turn your body sideways and move your other hand behind your back for balance.
• Applying downward pressure on the handboard will provide even more lift and speed across the wave.

Step 3. Control:

• Lifting your body out of the wave reduces body drag, resulting in better control and faster aquaplaning across the wave.
• Want to stall in the barrel? Apply downward forces on the board's tail or tilt the handboard backwards.
• Do you want even more speed? Then, tilt the POD handboard forward.
• Don't want to have your handboard sliding down a steep wave? Use your other hand by holding the side rail of the handboard. Lift the board up more to one side of the concave bottom (now you are only using half the body surfing handboard). This will provide even more wave-holding attributes.
• Want to exist the wave before the close-out? Simply direct the handboard into the wall of the wave and drive back into deep water.

The Art of Body Surfing with a POD Handboard involves these three steps: Lift, Speed, and Control. Master these steps, and you'll be ready for any wave.

Swimming back out to the breaking waves, always remember to hold the body surfing handboard with both hands in front or under you with downward pressure (as shown in the above photograph), the same principle as duck diving with a bodyboard or a surfboard.

The entire POD body surfing hand board range