Skimboarding

Skimboarding, also called skimming, is a boardsport in which a rider uses a small finless board, a skimboard, to glide across wet sand and the thin wash of a spent wave and meet an incoming breaking wave. Unlike surfing, a skimboarding run starts on the beach: the rider drops the board onto the wash, runs and steps on, and uses that momentum to skim out to the shorebreak, catch the wave and ride it back to shore. A second branch, flatland skimboarding, borrows skateboard tricks such as ollies and shove-its and does them on the wash without chasing waves, and a newer urban style uses fountains, canals and shallow water in cities. The sport is usually traced to the Polynesian pioneers who also developed surfing. It grew up around Laguna Beach in California, where Victoria Skimboards helped found a large community and the annual Vic World Championship began in 1976, and later spread to Florida, Mexico, Brazil and Europe, with the United Skim Tour organising international events.