Bodysurfing is the art and sport of riding a wave without the assistance of any buoyant device such as a surfboard or bodyboard. Bodysurfers typically equip themselves only with a pair of swimfins for optimized propulsion.

Some practitioners carry or wear a small planing surface on the hand to aid with positioning on the wave face: This helps to support a recommended safety practice that anyone engaging in bodysurfing should be careful to hold a hand out in front of where their head is whenever they are on a wave in case they wipe out. It also helps you know that you have caught the full force of the wave.

Very few books have been written about the subject...

The Art of Bodysurfing by Robert Gardner (1972)

Bodysurf by Hugo Verlomme and Laurent Masurel (2002)

The Art of Wave Riding by Ron Drummond (1931)