Editing Bodyboarding (section)

== Origin ==
Bodyboarding originates from an ancient form of riding waves (surfing) on one's belly. Indigenous Polynesians rode "''[[alaia]]''" (pronounced ah-lie-ah) boards either on their belly, knees, or feet (in rare instances). ''[[Alaia]]'' boards were generally made from the wood of ''[[Acacia koa]]'' and varied in length and shape.<ref>{{Hawaiian Dictionaries |Alaia |access-date= 17 November 2010 }}</ref> They are distinct from the modern stand-up surfboards in that they had no ventral [[fin]]s.<ref name="NYT">{{Cite news | last = Brisick | first = Jamie | title = Ancient Surfboard Style Is Finding New Devotees  | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | location = New York City | date = 4 December 2009 | url = http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/travel/escapes/04alaia.html| access-date = 4 December 2009}}</ref> [[James Cook|Captain Cook]] recorded seeing [[Hawaii]]an villagers riding such boards when he came to Hawaii in 1778.

The boards he witnessed were about {{convert|3|to|6|ft|cm|order=flip|abbr=on|round=10}} and were ridden prone (on the belly) or on the knees. ''[[Alaia]]'' boards then evolved into the more modern "''[[paipo]]''" (pronounced pipe-oh) board. ''[[Paipo]]'' boards were either made of wood or fiberglass. Fiberglass boards usually had fins on the bottom.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://mypaipoboards.org/|title=My Paipo Boards and... More (for those of us who are prone to ride) |access-date=11 July 2009 |publisher=mypaipoboards.org, sourced }}</ref> [[Tom Morey]] hybridized this form of riding waves on one's belly on a [[paipo]] to his craft of shaping stand-up surfboards.