30. Mariana Nogueira
Power.
That’s the only word you need to describe Mariana Nogueira. A dominant women’s
champion in her own right, Mariana was one of the first female bodyboarders to
charge on a worldwide scale.
29. Pierre Louis Costes
Known
as the 2011 champion that can land a backflip in any size wave at any given
moment. That the guy is a distant descendant of Adonis and from France just
makes riders want to beat him even more. You can’t be that good and that
handsome and get away with it. That he’s a fantastic rider makes him even more
admirable. You see, when people need to pull a safety move, they go for a roll.
What’s PLC’s safety move? A friggin backflip.
28. Nathan “Nugget” Purcell
Though
sometimes his style looked a little all over the place, you just had to see him
at Shark Island or Blackrock to understand how good the guy is. He invented the
Gorf (an inverted air forward move), he charged, he had skills and if that weren’t enough, he actually saved
the life of fellow sponger Lanson Ronquilio at Pipeline.
27. Danny Kim
The
original standup bodyboarder, Danny Kim did floaters and snaps at Sandy Beach that
left people scratching their heads as to how he landed them. As a grom, I stood
up on my bodyboard on more than one occasion and it had all to do with Danny
and something tells me that I’m not the only one.
26. Chris Taloa
Although
Danny Kim pioneered standup bodyboarding, Chris Won Taloa was the guy who
entered a surf contest, demolished his first heat and showed standup surfers
that we can more than compete on their level. The next heat, he was
deliberately underscored, but who cares, the damage had already been done with
his smartass smile rubbing salt into the wound. Add to that epic exploits on
DK, including one of the biggest backside dropknee tubes in the history of
Pipeline, and you can’t help but think of Chris every time you order wonton
soup.
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