Injured? Ride A Bodyboard! (Just ask Jack Freestone and Creed McTaggart)

What do you do when you’re injured and can’t surf but you want to, have to, get wet and ride a wave? If you’re smart, or if you’re Creed McTaggart or Jack Freestone, you acquire a bodyboard. Coincidentally, Jack and Creed suffered the exact same injury (MCL tears), on the exact same day. And to stay wet/sane, they’ve become the two best surfers in the world currently riding bodyboards. Good pal John Respondek captured some of Creed and Jack’s most graceful drag moments, and naturally, Stab thought it important to learn more.

Stab: Tell me about bodyboarding while you’ve been injured!
Jack: Every time I bodyboard I feel like I’m 10 years old again. I went and shot with Spon (John Respondek) this weekend, and I was supposed to be doing a Welcome To The Team thing with Epokhe, but I couldn’t surf, so I just bodyboarded. Creed was down there too, also riding his bodyboard.

Creed: The waves have been fun at home. I haven’t been able to surf so I’ve just been bodyboarding. It’s heaps of fun, I’ve been getting pretty serious, watching bodyboarding movies like all the old Tensions and and stuff. I’m so bad, I just like getting tubed.

“I’ve been getting pretty serious, watching bodyboarding movies and stuff,” says Creed. This bottom turn has been perfected by osmosis.

What kind of boog are you riding?
Jack: I think it’s called a Manta… fuck, I don’t really know, it’s 42 inches though. It was so funny, when the dude was selling me the bodyboard, he was trying to teach me how to do it. I was like, it’s pretty simple, you just lie down on the wave?

Creed: I swapped Dave Winchester a HaydenShapes for a VS Winny Pro Model!

Fins or no fins?
Jack: You have to have fins, it changes your whole world. I tried it without fins the first few days and you can’t kick.

Creed: I can’t wear two fins because of my knee. I wish I could. It’s too sketchy when I wear two.

Say what you will, but one constant motif through these action shots is a mouth gaping in pure excitement. Jack, maximum speeds.

Are you treated differently in the lineup?
Jack: Yeah, 100 percent! I’ve had a lot of people second glance me, it’s been really funny. Especially at home at D’Bah, they’re like, that looks like Jack, but he’s on a bodyboard, that can’t be Jack. I’ve been getting faded like no tomorrow, too. I don’t even care though, I’d probably fade me too.

Creed: People look at me so weird in the lineup, surfers paddle over you and fuck with you, it’s pretty funny. People normally do that anyways though…

Who’s your favourite bodyboarder?
Jack: I don’t really have too many, Matt Lackey from the Goldy is sick. He started to surf lately and he’s pretty good. I wanted to try and get a Matt Lackey model but there was nothing in 42 inches, I just wanted to rep the local guys. And Mitch Rawlings!

Creed: David Winchester, he’s a sick bodyboarder.

According to WikiHow, to do the “El Rollo,” you have to travel down the wave and do a full flip with your board, using the strength of the wave to carry you in an arc. Creed, deep in training mode.

Have you found a new appreciation for bodyboarding?
Jack: Yeah for sure, it’s so much harder than I thought it was. It was easy when I was 10, but I don’t know if I was doing it right. It’s fun, I feel so young again.

Creed: Yeah, I’ve always appreciated them. I grew up in WA, and spots like The Box and Northies and all the wedges are so good for bodyboarding. What they do is pretty fucking crazy. I saw film of me the other day and I looked SO retarded. I fully don’t know what I’m doing. Definitely mad respect for them.

“Every time I bodyboard I feel like I’m 10 years old again,” says Jack. Bodyboarding might be the world’s best drug!