Few living watermen match the pure harmony that Mike Stewart has with the ocean. On multiple types of wave-riding craft, Stewart is unparalleled. Whether he’s charging maxing out pipeline or messing around in small, less life-threatening conditions, he and his board become one with the ocean. And sometimes he doesn’t even use a board. Though he’s known as a legend of the bodyboard, Stewart is also a next-level bodysurfer. Just last year, he beat out a pioneer of the sport, Mark Cunningham, for his 14th bodysurfing title at Pipeline. And a new clip from TRVL surf takes us into the mind of Stewart and his passion for waveriding sans a board.
“A lot of times in life, things get so complicated,” Stewart says. “There’s so many aspects. There’s more and more things. It’s a constant information overload with everything. To me when you go bodysurfing, it’s a way of simplifying everything.”
Without a board, it’s just you and Mother Nature.
In addition to Stewart musing about the purity of bodysurfing – the original form of waveriding, oneness with nature, etc. – the clip shows off just how good he actually is at it. In some remote and exotic locale, Stewart flies through water like a bird gliding through the air. He perfectly slots himself in the barrel, milking it for all its worth before casually coasting out onto the face. And some underwater angles show his skin flapping and waving from his high speed gallivanting through the water. Basically, the clip is just another piece of evidence supporting the popular theory that Mike Stewart is part dolphin.
