Handplaning what's all the fuss about?

"There is no future in bodysurfing as a career" , doesn't mean you shouldn't get out there in the water and take what you can screaming and kicking though does it!

Handplaning or handboarding or any other term you may wish to use is a means of improving your bodysurfing experience by means of a small hand held board. These handboards create a larger planing surface for you to use and push up off, lifting your body and so creating less drag and improving your surfing experience. The easiest way to see what it is all about is to go to our video page and see some handplane action.

Using a hand plane takes your bodysurfing experience to another level, this isn't surfing this isn't bodyboarding. You are still using your body to surf the wave, the handboard is just there to facilitate the process. Often thought of as a second class ride to surfing and even bodyboarding, bodysurfing and handplaning is starter to gain the respect it deserves. This is an activity that is easy to start but hard to master, making it a true artistic discipline. The discipline is currently gaining main stream media attention thanks to Keith Malloy's debut film Come Hell or High Water which shows the history and progression of bodysurfing and the pureness of riding a wave with as little equipment as possible.

Handplaning isn't about competition, big brand sponsors, radical air moves and pro surf stars. It goes back to the core of why you get in the water in the first place, that connection with the wave, the respect of its' power and working with it to achieve something beautiful.

As Mark Cunningham summed up in A Brokedown Melody; "it is just body surfing. It is just swimming. It is not rocket science.....It is a beautiful diversion."

#fins&plane&neoprene