The vid from Inka’s final day is well worth celebrating. In fact, the riders loved it so much they each perform their own celebration after every wave (are claims scored higher than rolls nowadays?). As usual, the highlights: Jake’s double roll (“I’ll take yours and raise it one”); Pierre’s moooonster floating backflip; and, last but never least, the Peruvian organisers for hiring a bunch of promo girls to fill valuable screen time. Amen:

IBA Peruvian Inka Challenge 2010 - Final Day from Paipo Bodyboarding on Vimeo.

And just like that it’s day three at the Inka Challenge. Conditions have been photocopied from a Mexican handbook, right down to the bog coloured water. Highlights from the trenches are Hardy’s enthusiasm for the knee, Pierre’s slow rota flips and Novy’s twitch.

God bless (South) America…

IBA Peruvian Inka Challenge 2010 Day 1 Drop Knee from Paipo Bodyboarding on Vimeo.

IBA Peruvian Inka Challenge 2010 - Day 2 Competition from Paipo Bodyboarding on Vimeo.

IBA Peruvian Inka Challenge 2010 - Day 3 Competition from Paipo Bodyboarding on Vimeo.

So it seems Australians are the least productive, most easily distracted country in the world. YouRiding reports that 35 percent of their global audience are Aussies and, frankly, it’s concerning. It seems study, work and online activism is being pushed aside and with an Australian series profiling our best eight waves in the works it will only get worse....

Movement: What's been the reception to the new developments in YouRiding?
Thomas Casamayou: Globally, the addition of the snowboarding and free skiing sports on www.youriding.com have been a success. Players have praised the realism and fun of the game even if, like for the surfing and bodyboarding before, the level of difficulty of our games is still high. More precisely on bodyboarding, players have enjoyed the release of a new Freeride game mode. The fact that this Freeride was focused only on the best 20 French waves has been difficult to handle at first for some players outside of France. But I think now they more clearly understand that this initiative is the first of a series of future Freeride updates that will focus on the main bodyboarding countries. Australia, Indonesia, USA, Brazil, Chile, Portugal, will come soon. To prove that, bodyboarding is still our number one game with more than 35% of our global audience. It's about 65 000 riders per month playing the game, 9 000 visits per day. Of course Australia represents the main part of it with over 20% of our players coming from Oz.

MM: What is the next progression you would like to make?
TC: We have a lot of new stuff planned for 2010 and 2011 in our four sports. But as I explained above concerning the importance of bodyboarding for us, as well as the fact we are bodyboarders ourselves, we have decided that in the future all the new stuff we create will always be released first for bodyboarders. For example, we plan to release only in bodyboarding for the beginning of June a special game mode on Facebook. This game mode will be complementary to the Freeride or Contest game modes that can be played on www.youriding.com. The Facebook game mode will allow users to play eight of the best waves in the world against their friends directly on the social network website. On each wave, users will use a different pro rider from among Ben Player, Ryan Hardy, Pierre-Louis Costes, Dave Winchester, Michael Novy, Sam Bennett, Cade Sharp and Mitch Woodland.

We will also release next winter ’10/’11 (Australian summer) a bodyboarding game on iPhone as well as a real career game mode on www.youriding.com. The career game mode will be a real game as you can find on video console. You will start your journey as a 13 year old kid dreaming to become the best bodyboarder ever and you will have to win challenges and contests, to get sponsors, to handle the media coverage, the parties, the girls. We are really going to try to create a GTA-like game in bodyboarding!

MM: And, finally, do you get to travel the world sampling these waves to make sure they're perfectly replicated in the game?
TC: We have travelled a bit to France, Spain, Portugal, Canary Islands, Bali, California and Brazil. Each time we try to shoot as many photos of the waves as possible to re-create them realistically. But most of the time, we use the video footage and photos we find on the internet to create the wave. We also often contact players who live near the wave to have insight on it. Of course, the fact to be bodyboarders and live near the ocean for 20 years help us a lot to create realistic waves, even ones we’ve never been to.

Jase Finlay’s first signature model will be released at the end of next month, courtesy of Morey. In conjunction we’re going to run an online competition celebrating his aerial prowess, which will go live next week. We interviewed him yesterday, that time as a member of an emerging collective of riders who consistently enjoy the biggest waves in Australia. It’s all due recognition for the Woolongong 23-year-old, officially announced below:

JASE FINLAY PRO MODEL from FLAMES YATES on Vimeo.

Firstly, apologies to Chad Jackson. What was intended as an honest question (you'll know it) ended up being a totally deflating one. His achievement was worthy only of praise. However, we stand by the sentiment. We think bodyboarding should be reported in mainstream papers and on television, the feats of Chad and co. are incredible and the way Winchester won in Chile without a single news source in Australia except the Manly Daily offering a word in the way of coverage reflects terribly on certain organisations. Yet the way some people hyperventilate over a news-clipping is nauseating. In the future, for the feats of these guys, this should be commonplace. But for the moment, Chad, we're sorry for making you the play in our own agenda.

Movement: Just following up on this article we were sent, what was the basis of the write up? (We were sent a scan and only the headline was legible)
Chad Jackson: Basically they just look to reward people from our state who are doing extraordinary things and let the public see the lengths we go to to document these waves of consequence.

MM: Noticed it was on page five and not the sport section, what was the angle?
CJ: They saw the image as worthy of being up the front of the paper and I guess their angle is to excite people about reading what’s actually going on in their own state right, in their backyard.

MM: A lot is often made of mainstream coverage when it happens in bodyboarding, do you ever think coverage like this is overblown within the industry or is the type of media exposure we need?
CJ: Haha, what do you think?????

Brad Hughes’ new clip, presented by his sponsor Rip Curl and viewable on there site, features a gratifying array of camera angles. Board cam, leg cam, handheld. There's even a few from the humble old cameraman. But make no mistake, we have officially entered the age of Go Pro, which appears to have taken hold a little earlier for the collective from the west:







http://www.ripcurl.com.au/?bradhughes

Winchester’s first win on the IBA World Tour couldn’t have come in more legitimate conditions. As we’ve been reporting for the last few days, El Gringo’s been six-to-eight, even bigger at times, and the riding – especially by the last 16 – has been world class by the standards of any freesurfing session. Still waiting on the final day's video, will be posted as soon as we've got it. In the meantime you can read the full report here. So congrats to Winny and beaten finalist Amaury Lavernhe, who retains the overall number one ranking.

Personal highlight reel: Hubb jacked two fearless boosts, and by fearless we mean he doesn’t possess fear and should really see a doctor about the condition; Dave Winchester’s right hand barrel, while travelling away from camera, looks an example of El Gringo perfection in a day of rock slingers; Pierre’s backflip and Jake Stone’s reverse on a day that bore witness to more rolls than a weightloss centre; and Stewart’s love affair with the foam ball. Oh hell, it’s all good:

IBA Arica Chilean Challenge 2010 - Day 5 Competition from Paipo Bodyboarding on Vimeo.

The ABC reports that the Federal Government has approved a new offshore drilling lease off Margaret River. Environmental groups are rightly outraged and so too should surfers. The site was previously earmarked as a marine sanctuary before this about face. I’m currently deleting Midnight Oil off my pod, if anyone can recommend any stronger modes of protest we’d like to hear them

Entries are now open for the Fluidzone Brett Young Shark Island Trials 2010. The competition will run on the best day for conditions from June 11 to June 13 at Cronulla Point, NSW. There are only 48 positions on offer for this gateway competition to the biggest Australian bodyboarding event of the year. The top two from the Trials will be placed in the Fluidzone Shark Island Challenge 2010. This prize is valued at $2000 for each rider. There is also a mini trade show planned to run alongside the Trials’ event, with all of the presenting sponsors of the main event showcasing their products on Cronulla Point. There'll also be free giveaways and prizes for all.

For your chance to enter the event download the entry form from here. For any further information you can contact contest director Alex Leon on:
e: sharkislandchallenge@gmail.com
p: 0414 330 145