David Camacho
As the Lockdown continues but makes an attempt of easing, when will international travel resume and how will it look....
Our next rider is from a country that can boast waves such as Mundaka and Meñakoz and one of the best bodyboard brands in the business, Thrash ❤️
All we can do is stay positive and trust that this will pass, I hope everyone is coping with any personal challenges they may be facing just know you are not alone.....
"My name is David but I´m known by my surname, Camacho.
I’m 43, but I feel younger, hehehe!
I´m from the south of Spain, Málaga, It is a beautiful place by the Mediterranean sea, currently I'm living in a village near Cádiz, Conil de la Frontera, the best surf spots are close to this village and that is why I´ve chosen to live here.
It was a long long ago when I first tried bodyboarding, the summer of 1989, the Beach was crowded by beach goers, my friend Sami and I were avoiding swimmers while bodyboarding.
I remember we did not use fins and most of the time we changed our faces to gain speed riding the waves.
I had some knee problems so I decided that bodyboarding was the perfect sport for me, there was an old sports shop in a famous shopping centre not far from where I lived, every week I looked in the shop window and I was falling in love with a bodyboard brand called Randy.
I still can smell the rubber of this bodyboard in some of the massive flip flop productions that are sold in big stores.
So, this little shop had some of the surfing videos like Big Wednesday and some of the first documentaries from surfing in USA, no doubt, they heavily influenced me.
Influences like the legend Mike Steward of course and some other outstanding riders such as Ben Player, Kainoa McGill, Guillerme Tamega, Pat Caldwell, Dani King, Lanson Ronquillo, Jay Reale, Paul Roach, Jack Lindholm, Eppo, Andre Botha and many many others.
My local break was located 500 metres from where I used to live, there was a sandy bank by a Pier, the beach is called Misericordia on the outskirts of Málaga.
It was a really dirty place as there was a sewage outlet placed there. The good point was that the local services were dragging sand from the deep sea into the shore break, filling the beach with sand to widen the beach for the summer season, that move was so cool as we had waves regularly with just a little swell in the sea.
My favourite local wave without a doubt is El Confital in Canary Islands. This wave is amazing since it lets you manoeuvre with enough time in advance, It has a great barrel with an easy way out and to come in and out of the water is not a big deal.
There are so many interesting places for bodyboarding, Shark Island is perfect for bodyboarding because of the big barrels, the speed of the wave and the thick lip to project you as high as you can.
My first board was a brand called Randy, a rubber bodyboard without a slick and a strong smell of rubber.
After that, I rode a Pat Caldwell Wave Revel with my first slick and started feeling the speed on the waves, then a Morey Boogie Mach 7-SS, the classic yellow deck and orange slick.
I improved my performance on prone and drop-knee thanks to this classic bodyboard, great job Tom Morey! Later, I was sponsored by BZ and I used many of them.
Nowadays, I ride a Thrash Bodyboard, which is a versatile and high performance Bodyboard.
Our crew was made of 15 fearless boys who gave it their best effort in each session. We were adventurous, we were always searching new spots and peaks to charge.
When there were not waves, we practised other extreme sports such as skimboarding, skateboarding, BMX or freestyle, we had time and no responsibilities.
Yes, I used to compete when I was not working, mainly, I competed locally. I qualified twice for the Spanish bodyboard championship, but unfortunately I could not attend because it clashed with my job, some of my best results in competition are as follows:
1st Place Málaga Tour in 1994
1ST Place Marbella 1994
1st Place Los Alamos Championship 2006
2ND Place in 2015 Cádiz dream tour
2ndPlace in VII Edition Costa de la Luz Winter in 2016.
I am working as a Primary teacher, I teach English as a Foreign Language, however, I bodyboard as much as I can as long as I do not have tests to mark or activities to plan for the school
I ride an incredible, high performance and versatile Thrash board from there Noah Series.
I usually wear Reeflex and Rip Curl wetsuits, Air Hubb fins or Rip fins, I always use Thrash leashes, they are extremely resilient and I love the logo.
I am not competing any more because of my work, however I am running two bright projects.
The first one is a Stick for recording and taking pics from the bodyboard since 2015 and I patented it.
The second one is the surfcalendar, that I am a co-owner, a journal to register your session, you can find more info on IG @SURFCALENDAR.
So, I post frequently pics in which wetsuits, bodyboards, leashes and fins are shown, please have a look at IG @davidcamachojimenez1075.
Therefore, If you have a new bodyboard product I can show others through my videos, pics and @surfcalendar account.
Furthermore, one of my best friend is a talented and skilful photographer, his name is @kikonill, please see his awesome work.
He is always coming with me to the beach to capture the best barrels and he posts pics daily so this is a great shout out to any sponsors interested.
I´m interested in wetsuits, fins, helmet and clothes sponsors, Zion and Reeflex are my favourite wetsuits.
I love supporting Bodyboard brands and in particular Thrash, Rupest and Meduxa.
Rock and metal give me the energy to rip the waves at my best.
I remember those days in which I listened to the Beach Boys songs and went to the beach to bodyboard.
When the waves were bigger we used the pier to jump into the water so we saved a tiring paddle out. On rainy days I wore my wetsuit and rode my scooter or my bicycle to the beach.
If the weather was chilly we used to light a big fire at the beach and after surfing we were getting warm and cosy.
One trip I will never forget was when I went to France (Hossegor) for the first time, after 12 hours on the train from the south of Spain to the North we drove 2 more hours to Hossegor, an incredible spot with perfect waves.
We decided to stay a week, but the sea conditions were amazing so we stayed another week, we spent all our money in the first week so we were eating spaghetti, tuna, bread and drinking water for a week, when I came back my family was concerned because I lost a lot of weight, on the top of that, I broke my middle finger when performing a roll.
France offers great peaks for bodyboarding, powerful enough to break your bones!
Photo credits include:
Isabelle Fischer aka @mint_blow
Kiko Brenes @kikonill
In these difficult times please remember to support those brands that support bodyboarding.
If you need a new wetty as the seasons change use discount code KRISTIANMARTIN for 10% off a SENNOSEN suit just click on the link below.
Please also don't forget once travel restrictions are fully lifted to get hold of The Puerto Experience to see when their Mexican adventures will be back up and operational.
If you need any kit don't forget The Bodyboard depot are still open for business, get hold of Guy Sowry for a first class service.
Just click on the link below......
Support as always to
