The el rollo is a standard trick and one of the first you should practise. Its importance in bodyboarding lies in the fact that this move can be performed in any size waves. This sequence shows Brazilian born Marcello found the perfect section to blast a roll at Tamarama.

Driving off the bottom in Seq 1, he focuses on the breaking lip just ahead. As he projects a path up towards the lip he has what he is going to do set firmly in his mind. In Seq 2 and 3, Marcello uses the power of the wave to throw him out with the lip in a perfect arc. Throughout the roll, he lets the wave do all the hard work while he concentrates on steering the board and finding a spot to land it.

As Marcello begins to drop down, he must re-centre his weight above his board and brace his hands, arms and elbows to absorb his downward fall, which will assist in taking pressure off his back.

In this move, you try to land horizontally in the whitewater and not in the fiats. The more you look after your back when coming off the lip the longer you will be bodyboarding injury free.