Skimboarding
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Skimboarding (or skimming) is a sport which involves riding a board on wet sand or shallow water. It has been described in turns alternately as a miscellaneous beach recreation activity and as a discipline of surfing. A skimboard rider is often called a skimboarder or a skimmer.
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[edit] History
The first evidence of skimboarding dates back to the late 1920s in Laguna Beach, California.[1] There are photos from that time period of Laguna Beach lifeguards skimming along the sand on large plywood boards. Skimboarding continued to grow in Laguna over the first half of the century, as well as worldwide, as people everywhere fashioned home-made wood boards out of plywood and used them at their local beaches.
These boards were commonly circular in shape and not very well designed for controlled skimboarding. Early boards were often called "paipo boards" in Hawaii. In the early 1970s skimboards started to take on a shape more similar to surfboards. Tex Haines started the first skimboarding business which he named Victoria after his home beach in Laguna. With rising popularity, many others have sprung up and skimboards are now easy to come by.
Skimboarding was brought to Australia via the influences of 'Noxious' Nick Hade and 'Gallavanting" Gus Dawson. Perfecting their skills on the Ukrainian circuit, they soon had a massive impact on Australian popular culture with the introduction of a new pastime.
Like surfing, while skimboarding is predominantly a recreational activity, it has also evolved into a highly competitive water sport.
[edit] Technique
Unlike surfing, skimboarding starts on the beach. The skimboarder stands a short running distance from the point of entry into the water with the skimboard in hand and waits for a wave. As white wash from the previous wave recedes, and a wave suitable for skimming on approaches, the skimboarder runs towards the water. Upon reaching a sandy area with about a 1" or 2" film of water, he drops the board on the water and runs onto it. A common mistake is to throw the board ahead and run after it. However, to maintain and gain speed, stay in control, and be able to reach a wave in deep water, one must drop the board underneath them while simultaneously jumping onto it with two feet.
Once on the board, the skimmer faces the difficult task of remaining stable to avoid allowing the board to dig into the sand or simply sliding out from under the rider's feet, thus losing control. Ideally, the skimmer should put his back foot as far back as it can go on the traction pad, or far back on the waxed area. The front foot should be between the middle and nose of the board. When he reaches deeper water, the skimboarder can steer the board by shifting his weight around and using his/her back foot as their steering focal point. The skimmer then (hopefully) glides out into the ocean toward the oncoming wave, banks off of it, and rides it back into shore.
There are many possibilities for riding the waves and this is where skimboarders can really get creative.
If a skimboarder is not a "wave skimmer," then they can ride on a short film of water. If a wooden skimboard is used, the shortest film of water viable for skimmin is about an inch. If a fiberglass skimboard is used, which is usually for wave skimming, the water must be deeper to account for the thickness of the fiberglass board.
[edit] Skimboards
Skimboarding is based primarily on the principle of hydroplaning, hence skimboards are smaller and thinner than surfboards, since they do not require as much buoyancy.
The skimboard is a craft of varying size, usually of some oval or teardrop shape, though some people use circular boards. Modern skimboards are made out of fiberglass or carbon fiber and take advantage of a high density foam to serve as a core. The fiberglass/carbon fiber is a fabric which becomes stiff when saturated with resin and left to cure. When this fiberglass or carbon fiber is laid over a shaped piece of foam, saturated with resin and left to cure, a skimboard is made. Compared to a surfboard or bodyboard of similar areas, skimboards are not very buoyant. It is rare to see a skimboard thicker than 2.5 cm. A well-made skimboard will have some nose lift, or rocker, and may come with a rubberized traction surface also known as a stomp pad, but you see those more on surfboards. If the board doesn't come with a stomp pad, surf wax can be used. You can also buy a traction pad for around $30 at a local surf shop. Traction pads come in all shapes and sizes and are mainly only used to cover the back portion of the skimboard. Yet as experience grows, the skimmer often realizes that it is a greater investment in purchasing the rear and front traction pads due to over consumption of wax. (For best results with wax, try the hardest wax as a first layer then go up on softness till you reach about 4 layers of wax, the softest should be on top and remember to remove all the wax layers before applying a new traction pad.)
[edit] Styles
There are several primary ways in which a skimboard can be ridden: either gliding over the thin layer of water atop the wettest sand and at the very edge of the ocean as wave remnants wash up onto the beach (called sand skimming) or in shallow sandy rivers and other shallow watered down areas (somtimes called sand skimming, flatland skimming, sandsliding, and sand surfing); or skimming from the beach directly into an incoming wave to throw a "fan" of water off the advancing shorebreak, catching air, or even riding across the wave face (referred to as wave skimming/wave riding). The waves that skimboarders ride are the type that break close in to shore, which is why skimming during high tide is best.
The latter style is more advanced than sand skimboarding, though flatland skimboarding has become more and more popular and taxingly difficult over the years. All skimboarders start by learning how to throw the board and run onto it while it is gliding across a thin layer of water. Only after they have mastered the basic techniques properly will they be able to attempt more complicated tricks involving waves, grinding rails, or skateboarding maneuvers. Sand skimboarding is considered to be a beginner's sport due to the relative lack of difficulty when compared to skimming on waves in hotspots such as Laguna Beach, for example. Nevertheless, some flatland skimmers are able to perform tricks of great technical skill, many adapted from skateboarding, such as grinding rails.
Advanced skimboarders, since they have developed better skills, are able to do much more impressive tricks on their boards. The most common advanced move is called a Wrap. A skimmer can wrap the wave by throwing the board down toward the ocean, jumping onto it, and then hydroplaning out to the wave. When the skimmer reaches the wave, by shifting his/her weight they can wrap around it, which also propels them back to shore. To take it further, a very advanced move is called the Wrap Barrel. This is when you wrap the wave, but instead of coming back to shore, you turn farther and get into the barrel. This is a highly respectable trick and is very difficult to perform.
These two version of skimboarding are obviously beach activities. However, creative skimmers have also been known to get permission to go on golf courses after it rains. The short dense grass is evenly cut and retains the level of water similar to that of a receding wave. Other improvisations included flooded backyards, and shallow wide rivers, but these obviously have no access to waves. Also, a temporary tarp with sand and water on top can make for a good place to skim. PVC pipes added to a flatland skim course to make for some pretty interesting grind rails.
When it comes to skimboarding, there is no such thing as one perfect wave. This is because it all depends on the rider's preference and skill level. Everyone has their own version of "the perfect wave". In general, however, the closer the waves break to shore, the better, since the closer the waves are, the easier they are to get to. While an advanced skimboarder may be able to reach waves farther out and thereby get longer rides, closer waves are generally regarded as better. Skimboarders with the intention of riding waves tend to prefer a steeper bank, or slope, of the sand in order to gain further speed and thus use less effort to reach the waves.
[edit] External links
- Skimboarding articles - A collection of articles about skimboarding.
