By G. PATRICK PAWLING
Surfing may be one of the Big Kahunas of watersports around here, but something cool has got it by the ankle and is biting hard. Its called skimboarding, and its probably not what youre thinking.
Youre thinking of those little wood boards that kids fling into the beach-wash. Well, yeah. Skimming is that and has been for a long time. But the Culture of Risk the same revenue machine/adrenalin factory that created and celebrates the X Games, which are in Philadelphia now has likewise grabbed skimboarding and is transforming it. The good boards are foam-filled now, and covered with carbon cloth for strength, and theyre light more like surfboards without skegs and are being used in some intense ways.
In their quest to push skimming, people are riding head-high beachbreak; jumping high; doing one-hand board grabs; spinning the board and coming hard off the top of waves, turning and then riding the wave in, sometimes getting tubed if conditions are right.
It aint your fathers sport any more. Theyre riding hard and falling the same way. Its skateboard rats and surfers and mini-groms (as young surfers are semi-affectionately called) and snowboarders and anybody who doesnt mind getting thrown hard onto inch-deep water, which is basically the same as getting massaged with big-grit sandpaper.
I have a surfboard and it sits in my room now, said Angelo Sica of Ocean City. Its basically for show at this point. Skimboarding its incredible. Its just nuts. I ate it bigtime yesterday... Im really sore.
Sica, who recently graduated from Ocean City High School, remembers going through a bad period in his life. He broke a skimboard and was without one for about a month.
Horrible, he recalled. Like an alcoholic without alcohol.
Skimboarding is definitely my sport, Sica said. You have to know how to surf a little, and its a little like skateboarding. So its a like a mix of everything, and you dont have the surfer complex going on, either. You go to a new beach to go surfing and the locals, they treat you like trash. I went to Dewey Beach, Del., yesterday (a skim hotspot because of the way it breaks), and I met like eight guys who were so cool. They were showing us where to go, and they were just really cool. If I went down there to go surfing it would have been completely different.
One guy recently walked into a surf shop, saw a good foam board, told the guy on the spot that he wanted to buy it and was told it was reserved and so were the next six coming in.
They buy em up like candy, said Paul Wallash, assistant manager at Pete Smiths Surf Shop in Stone Harbor. And they learn quick.
Unlike surfing you can pretty much do it anywhere on the beach, even during the meat of the summer. But watch the tourists and the curious and the young. They arent thinking about what could happen to them, nor should they have to. Safety is the riders responsibility, and if somebody gets seriously hurt you know The Ban wouldnt be far behind. But thats negativity. Whats positive is how well some of these people are riding first the sprint toward the water, then the board hits the water and suddenly the riders on, actually surfing the beachbreak until the Big Bail.
Its a lot more aggressive (than surfing), said Bill Wright of Long Beach Twp. When you wipe out you get really killed. And you get a lot more energy. Every wave is a complete sprint and you dont have to paddle out. The skate culture, its the same kind of thing punk rock, that kind of stuff.
Wright is one of several members of skimboarding team sponsored by the Surf Shack of Ship Bottom. Since they were on their way to a contest in Dewey Beach, Del., this weekend, they stopped in Ocean City to show what they can do. They can do a lot, even in knee-high junk. Now theres some evidence of popularity: Sponsored riders, even if its a few dollars here and there.
When there are big waves its a totally different activity, said another member of the team, Bob Shomo, 20, of Medford. This he points to the tiny shorebreak is the equivalent of surfing on one-foot slop. Translation: Its not very good.
Some boards are coming with Velcro tops and booties that stick to them. The prices range from say $65 to about $400. And wherever aggressive riders hit the beach, people notice and start asking questions.
People are always coming up and asking about it, said Mike Boyle of Holmdel, 17, another Surf Shack team member. It think its great. Its because they havent seen anybody riding like this. They dont know what you can do.
I have people come up to me all the time, said Sica. They say, Is it a surfboard? They really dont know. And when I tell people Im going to be skimboarding they think Im going to get one of those wood things and throw it on the mud. Thats the general consensus of what it is.
The only problem is, what it is isnt what it was.
(On the Water, written by Pawling and photographed by Chris Polk, will be closing down soon because it only comes out in the summer, so get your comments and suggestions in now. Contact Pawling at pat@pawling.net and see archived copies of On The Water at www.pawling.net. Polks Web site is www.polkimaging.com and he can be contacted at chris@polkimaging.com).
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