Navy's Wave Ryder: great name, good game KRAFT FIGHT HUNGER BOWL

United States Navy Academy's free safety, Wave Ryder, age 21, after a practice at Laney College on December 27, 2012 in Oakland, Calif. Navy plays Arizona State University on December 29 during the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T Park. less United States Navy Academy's free safety, Wave Ryder, age 21, after a practice at Laney College on December 27, 2012 in Oakland, Calif. Navy plays Arizona State University on December 29 during the Kraft Fight ... more Photo: Sean Havey, The Chronicle Photo: Sean Havey, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Navy's Wave Ryder: great name, good game 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Thanks to the prescience and playfulness of his mother, Navy free safety Wave Ryder has the greatest honest-to-God name in all of sports, because Wave Ryder is indeed a wave rider in his native Hawaii.

When Ryder was born 21 years ago to surfing parents in Kaneohe, his mother, Wendy, figured her little boy would take to the ocean as well, so with the surname already in place, he was christened Wave.

The fact that he grew up to become a young man attending the U.S. Naval Academy makes his name all the more meaningful. Ryder will be in the defensive backfield for the Midshipmen when they play Arizona State in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl on Saturday at AT&T Park.

"My mom is the one who gave me the name," Ryder said Thursday after Navy's practice at Laney College in Oakland. "She just thought it was cool."

Well played, Mom.

True to his name, Wave Ryder enjoys all manner of propelling himself through the water, be it on a surfboard, body board, stand-up paddle board or his own 6-foot-2, 215-pound body.

"We surf back home," he said. "Every time I go home I'm always at the beach as much as we can."

On the football field, Ryder is riding the crest of an 8-4 year in which he moved into the starting lineup at free safety when Chris Ferguson was injured in midseason. Ryder finished the regular season with 51 total tackles and an interception.

"Since the Air Force game we feel he's played very well for us," Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. "He's been solid. He replaced one of our best players who was injured. He played so well it was hard to go back to Chris."

Niumatalolo, a native Hawaiian himself, has tapped his connections in the 50th state and has a nice little pipeline going from Honolulu to Annapolis, Md. Ryder is one of three Hawaiians on the Navy roster.

But for a Caucasian great-grandfather, Ryder would not have such a riveting name, since his ancestry is otherwise native Hawaiian.

"My great-grandma married a white man who was named Ryder," he said.

And because she did, her great-grandson grew up to become Wave Ryder, wave rider.