Watching world-champ skimboarder Blair Conklin bust out his patented “Blairiel” off the lip of a shorebreak wave is a mesmerizing experience. The launch, lift, and rotation happen so smoothly and naturally that it’s easy to understand why he’s the champ of the sport.
Skimboarding looks like a lot of fun, right? If you’re interested in skimboarding, you probably have previous Boardriding experience, and that’s going to make the transition to learning how to skimboard relatively easy.
Even if you have no previous history with snowboarding, skating, surfing, or wakeboarding, it’s not that challenging to pick up skimboarding; all you need is the time to practice. With enough practice, you’ll be smashing the lip and slotting into those shorebreak barrels.
This guide unpacks everything you need to know about how to Skimboard.
Contents
Choosing the Right Skimboard
To start your skimboarding adventure, you’re going to need aboard. Fortunately, the gear requirements for skimboarding are minimal; beyond the board and a bar of wax, there’s not much more you need to enjoy the sport.
There are different models of skimboards – From thin, circular plywood discs to professional models with a surfboard-style design. Each board will perform differently, with the pro models being the best option for learning tricks and riding shorebreak waves.
These boards have low volume, foam construction without the wooden stringer found in surfboards, and a fiberglass finish. Skimboards are relatively affordable, and even the pro models sell for just a few hundred dollars.
How Do I Size My Skimboard?
Skimboards come in short lengths, with varying sizes, widths, and shapes. However, you’ll use the length to determine the board size you need. Here are the dimensions to suit your weight.
- Under 70lbs : 35″
- 60-100lbs: 40″
- 75-145lbs: 45″
- 135-180lbs: 45″ to 54″
World champ Blair Conklin rides a 45″ model, so choose the board that suits your weight.
- AFFORDABLE START: If you're looking to get into skimboarding, the Traction Cruiser is our most affordable performance skimboard. Great for beginners & anyone still learning. The Traction Cruisers are all hand crafted in Washington State.
- DURABLE FLEX: A lightweight poplar and laminate construction make it a super manueverable and durable board that will keep you skimming all summer.
- NO WAX NEEDED: The soft and grippy foam top is much more comfortable and cleaner than surf wax.
- PERFORMANCE BASED: It is great for all beginner tricks - from your first slide to your first shuv-it.
- SIZING: This board is 40 inches long and 18.75 inches wide, making it best for riders in between 125 and 175lbs.
- HIGH QUALITY WOOD: Seething skimboard is made of high quality wood, sturdy highly resilient and lightweight type of wood. Immediate possession and enjoy your holiday.
- HIGH GLOSS COAT: With high gloss coating on the surface. The skim board can prevent water from entering, no need to worry about being submerged.
- CONTOURED DESIGN: High quality skimboard is engineered perfectly to achieve the best glide on the beach. Our skateboard has professional structure design and can glide further.
- GIFT FOR BEGINNERS ＆ ADULTS: Whether you are a beginner or a professional player, you can use it to learn and master skills. It’s ideal choice for every skill level.
- COMPLIMENTARY SKIMBOARD BAG: No need to go hunting for a skimboard bag, we've got it ready for you. And it also has enough space to fit your towel. You can throw it over your shoulder.
- Pro Traction Pad Preinstalled - Custom sized to the board with full coverage on the rear. Pad is Diamond pattern EVA Foam for maximum grip in all conditions. Rear pad has Raised Center arch and tail kick. Center arch bar that runs down the center of the board. High grade marine spec adhesive.
- Lightweight and Durable - Super rigid PVC foam core, layered fiberglass and Carbon Fiber reinforced nose and tail. The light weight of this skimboard makes it extremely maneuverable. The boards reinforced construction makes it extremely crack and fracture resistant. The PVC foam core is safe for all thermal conditions and will not delaminate.
- Performance Design - Hybrid Shape, Smooth Polished Bottom, Rounded Pin Tail, Hard Rail, and 2.25 inch nose rocker. Great for sand sliding or riding waves. Great for riders of all skill levels and wave conditions.
- One Year Warranty - Buy with confidence, our one year no-questions-asked warranty has you covered.
What Are the Design Elements of Skimboards?
Skimboards come in different shapes. The primary Skimboard design features include the outline, the nose, the tail, the rails, and the bottom of the board. Shapers construct boards in various materials, from wood to PU foam and carbon fiber. Let’s break down what you need to know about Skimboard design.
Shape and Length
The shape of the board defines how it performs in the water. The best Skimboards have thin rials that bite into the wave, providing grip on turns. There should be some nose rocker o allow you to shape the turn into the lip of the wave.
The tail comes in pin, squash, or swallowtail designs, depending on your preference. You’ll only really notice the difference in the tail designs when you start to complete advanced tricks with the board. To suit your weight, you need to focus on the right size board with the right volume.
The bigger the board, the more volume it has, and the more float it provides. If you ride an undersized board with no volume, you’ll sink into the wave instead of riding on it.
Construction Materials
Shapers design and build Skimboards in various materials. The cheap round discs you buy on the boardwalk for a few bucks are pretty much the hardest board to learn to skim on. Pro model boards are the best choice, even if you’re not a pro yet.
These boards usually feature a PU foam construction for the core. The foam allows the shaper to sand and trims the foam into a specific shape before finishing with a light fiberglass layer to provide strength. Unlike surfboards, skimboards don’t have a “Stringer” strengthening the board.
The recent trend with shapers is moving to “epoxy” EPS foam lighter, similar to Styrofoam. EPS provides more float than PU foam, but if you’re a surfer, you might not enjoy the additional float provided by EPS.
Traction Pads
The traction pad is a long, straight piece of neoprene foam that sticks to the length of the bard from the rear foot placement area to the front. The trackpad gives you a grip on the board, allowing you to spin it with your feet.
Some skimmers will avoid using trackpads and choose to use surf wax instead. However, we recommend using the trackpad in combination with wax.
Volume
Skimboards don’t have a lot of volume. They rely on the inertia created by running to the wave and the wave’s energy to help you carve and launch airs.
Some of the pros like Conklin and Brad Donke can ride skimboards in 30-foot surf at Peahi in Hawaii, but these are special athletes, and if you took on those conditions, you wouldn’t be coming back to the beach.
How to Skimboard – A Step-by-Step Guide
Skimboarding isn’t as challenging as you think. However, before yuh t the shorebreak for your first session, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with your equipment and your technique. Here is a brief guide to the phases involved with learning to skimboard.
Phase 1 – Start on the Grass
Before you hit the beach, practice on the grass. You can find a sandy, grassy area close to the beach and practice running, landing, and riding techniques. The goal is to get comfortable dropping the board while running and timing it just right, so you step onto the board without pushing it away from you.
To start, drop your skimboard on the grass and take a 10-foot runup to it. Practice landing on the board with both of your feet simultaneously. Run at the board from directly behind it, not from the side. Landing on the board with a sideways trajectory will cause it to slip out to the side instead of moving forward.
Learning to Run with the Board
To practice running with the board, hold it with both hands to the side of your back foot when you land on the board. So if you’re a goofy foot, you’ll be running with the board slightly to your left-hand side, and vice versa for naturals.
Practice running and dropping the bord in front of you, not off to the side. Don’t jump onto it at first; just get comfortable running with the board and the drop.
Finding Your Feet
Once you’re comfortable running and dropping the board, you can start practicing the jump and landing onto the board. When you make the jump, the key is to land in the surf stance with your knees bent. Both feet must land on the board at the same time. You might find it acceptable for your back foot to get onto the board first when you get better at the launch.
When landing on the board, you’ll need to ensure you get your back foot as far back as possible. The more weight you have over the tail, the better the board’s control in turns. Most trackpads come with a tail pad for your foot and a foot block to wedge your foot against in the optimal position for power turns.
Balancing on the Board
When landing on the board, keep your weight distribution in a low center of gravity. Remember to bend your knees. Landing on the board with straight legs is a common beginner mistake, and it leads to the board slipping out from under you and you landing on your butt, with everyone on the beach laughing at you.
When you’re on the board and riding, 55% to 60% of your weight should be on your back foot. Leaning too far back causes the board to slip out from under you and shoot forward while you fall backward. Leaning too far forward causes the nose to dig into the sand or water, pitching you in front of the board.
The chances are you’re not going to get it right on the first few attempts. However, finding your feet and balance on the board isn’t that hard. You should start landing more than 90% of your attempts with two or three practice sessions.
The more you practice, the better you’ll get, so take the time to get down to the beach for a session as often as you can.
Phase 2 – Start Skimming
When you’re confident in your skills, it’s time to hit the beach and put your knowledge to the test. The beach is a very different experience from skimming on the grass. When the waters are involved, it changes the entire dynamic.
Take it slow when starting. We recommend skimming in calm waters, like a lagoon or a tidal pool, before you hit the waves. Ideally, you’re looking for launching waters that are between two and three inches deep and deeper, and you’ll sink when you land on the board.
Take the skills you practiced on the sand, and transfer them to the beach. It provides much more drive to the board when the sand is wet. You’ll notice the difference immediately and the additional speed you get when you start hydroplaning on the water.
When you’re running and dropping, make sure you drop the board in front of you and don’t let it get away from you. Throwing it too far in front means that the board starts losing energy by the time you step on it, and you’ll pitch forward into the water.
Typically, you only need a six to ten-foot runup to launch the board successfully. The faster your run, the more speed you have on the board, and the more power you have when you hit the lip of a wave. However, just practice dropping the board and finding your feet for now. When you feel you have that waxed, you can take your skimming to the next level in the shorebreak.
When you finally get hold of the drop and landing, it’s time to learn how to turn and control the board. You get the primary turning drive from your hips and your back foot on the board. Your arms and shoulders are like the rudder of the board, and where you look is where you’ll go. So, it’s important to bring your view up to the oncoming wave as soon as you feel your feet land on the board.
Timing is everything in skimboarding. Those fractions of a second in getting your feet to the board make a huge difference in the outcome. With enough practice, the run and drop will become second nature.
Phase 3 – Reading Water Conditions
Being a great skim border means that you need to understand ocean and weather conditions. The reality is that you can’t skimboard every day. Sometimes, the weather and ocean just don’t want you going near it.
Learn to read charts and understand the wind and the swell and how they affect conditions. The biggest issue is the wind. High wind speeds onshore, or cross-shore make the surf washed out and terrible. Offshore winds make the surf barrel.
When the winds are high and the sea is stormy, it’s a better idea to just stay home and take a day off. However, when those good days arrive, you need to be ready to take advantage of the favorable conditions.
When you get to the beach, you need to understand how the waves work. Wave height is not as important as wave period. The period is the gap in seconds between the wave rests or throughs. For instance, a 3-foot swell at 7-seconds will produce washed-out mush. A three-foot swell at 19-seconds will make a 4 to six-foot shorebreak wave with plenty of power for turns and tricks.
Phase 4 – Hitting the Surf
By now, you have all the skills you need to take your skimboarding experience to the next level. So, it’s time to hit the beach and get into the waves. Chose a day when the shorebreak is not too violent. A two to three-foot day working on a 12 to 16-second period will give the shorebreak plenty of juice to get you barreled or launch you into the air.
When you arrive at the beach, you should know what to expect from reading the charts. When you’re in your wetsuit and board in hand looking for your first attempt of the day, pay attention to the water. You’ll need to spot the wave and time your run and landing with it breaking.
As mentioned, timing is everything. It might take you a few tries to get it right, but the good news is that you probably won’t get hurt if you get it wrong a few times. The more you practice, the more you improve. Eventually, you’ll reach a place where you have the timing of the run, drop, and ride perfect, and you find yourself heading directly at the lip of the wave in the ideal spot to pull off a trick.
When you drop the board on the water, you might find you have to place a little more weight on your back foot to lift the nose so you can ramp over the previous wave that’s fizzling out on the sand. If you find you don’t have enough speed to get to the wave, you can try “pumping” the board by lifting and dropping the nose.
Learn Beginner Skimboard Tricks
So, you’ve mastered the drop and landing, and now you’re heading to the lip – what now? Here is a list of basic beginner tricks you need to master. These tricks for the foundation of many other tricks, so make sure you have them down before moving on to others.
Ollie
The ollie is the first place to start with your trick repertoire. It might seem like a simple maneuver, but it takes time and skill to pull it off right. The ollie is the foundational move leading into many tricks, and it’s critical that you get it down before moving on to the others.
The skimboarding ollie is similar to its skateboarding counterpart. Crouch low, bend your knees, and jump slightly, placing pressure on the back foot while drawing your front foot up the face of the deck to control the board and straighten it out at the top of the ollie.
This move involves taking your back foot off the board and flicking it in front of the front foot before returning it to the backfoot position.
Flat spins
When traveling at speed, place your rear hand in the water, and you’ll feel the board start to turn. Keep doing it, and the board will start to spin. Practice 180s and 360s.
Shuvit
Push the back foot down while riding and use your toes to grip the trackpad and spin the board clockwise (if you’re natural, and the opposite for goofy). The board will rotate 360-degrees under your feet, and you’ll land on it, riding away. Practice 180s, 360s, and 540s.
Hippy jump
Push the board under an object, jump over it and land back on the board to ride away.
Wrap
Ride to the lip and match its curve in a wrapping movement. When you land, you have the option of slotting into the barrel if the wave is hollow.
