The 411 on Cape Cod (Plus Paulo Prietto in Cape Photoset)

VIEW PAULO PRIETTO IN CAPE COD PHOTO SET

While most people are aware that there is relatively fun shorebreak in New England, I’d say it still largely flies under the radar. Just about everything south of New England has been sought out by UST and skim media in general including New Jersey, Delaware, the Outer Banks, and Florida. I’m certainly not saying it is worthy of big time attention, but like anywhere else, spots up here have there days, even if it is January and sub-freezing temperatures are the norm. Although New England holds a reputation of being “colder”, there is plenty of fun skim in the spring, summer, and fall. After all, skimming in winter suits is a drag.

Although I’m aware that the guys down in South County, RI (East Beach) have been at it much longer than the group that came to use the moniker “Reckless Skim”, I don’t think it was until 2004 or 2005 that skimboarders started traveling from long distances to meet up with each other at the beach up here. I’ll give credit to the Skim Online message boards because I know that’s how many of us originally got in contact with each other. I remember there only being a handful of guys on there that were from either RI or MA and it was kind of like “Hey, other people skim up here too?”. Sean Stevens, Ryan McLane, and Tom Wrinn were the guys that did most of the organizing and work for the website. I remember going down to the Cape with my friend to meet up with Sean for the first time and being pretty surprised at how good the shorebreak was. I remember Sean telling me how stoked he was just to be skimming with other people.

Anyways, back to the subject of skimming in the colder months up here. It is feasible, but I’d say it takes a very motivated person to suit up in a 5/4 with boots and gloves with the intentions of skimming. In a sport that relies on dialed in coordination and speed, thick wetsuits are not particularly forgiving. But, it is certainly not impossible, and can be quite rewarding, seeing as the best waves do often come in the winter with Noreasters and frequent coastal storms. The water stays pretty chilly from November to around May so the majority of our skimming comes in the summer.

During the summer of 2005 Reckless Skim had it’s first official gathering and to this day it was still one of the most enjoyable weekends I have had. A bunch of us met at the beach and walked the beach in search of good spots all day. We had our own small contest amongst ourselves (around 15-20 people), had judges, food, and a sweet boombox (thanks Sharpie). At night we would watch skim movies and get amped up for the next days events. That weekend I made a bunch of great friends that I still know and skim with today. Further down the line, in the summer of 2007 is when we actually started making progress with the competition. I’ve heard of competitions happening at Blue Shutters before 2005 but to my knowledge I believe they had been banned for whatever reason. Tom Wrinn and Sean Stevens worked together to put on the first White Crest Wash Out. Our friends at Sick Day Surf Shop in Wellfleet got us a bunch of great sponsors and prizes and Sean pulled a few strings with other companies as well. We didn’t really know what to expect in terms of turnout that year, but we ended up with around 45-50 competitors through all divisions and had a great crowd looking on. Although the waves did not deliver, we were thrilled with the turnout and glad to see that the original group of friends had been doing big things for skimboarding in New England. Following that, another small contest was ran at Rexhame Beach in late August of 2007 with a smaller turnout but plenty of fun waves. By this time, many of us had began college and skimming with each other as a result, happened less. The 2008 White Crest Wash Out had similar conditions to the previous years, but still had a solid turnout.

Not until this year did we get more recognition from the skim world. This came in the form of support of the annual Cape contest by Skim Invasion and a gracious visit by Paulo Prietto. I think this year made for a big swing in a great direction for New England. Part of Paulo’s visit included a skim camp in the days before the Cape Cod Noreaster competition. I skimmed alongside some of the campers during a couple of the days and they seemed very stoked, with some very thankful parents also in attendance. I think it says a lot about Paulo’s dedication to the progression of the sport to see him venturing up here. I understand travel fees can hinder pros ability to freely travel, but I fully encourage anyone who wants to genuinenly help the sport to follow in Paulo’s footsteps to help different scenes develop. On the day of the competition Paulo went off on a liner search with Daniel Roberts of Systematic Media to find some real gems. Looking down the beach from the contest site, I remember seeing right handed liners reeling for yards upon yards. The waist high swell that filled in overnight really proved to show the Cape’s ability to produce quality skim.

After the contest and skim camp by Paulo this year I think the future only holds great things for the New England skim scene. I think that now that we have proven ourselves somewhat, more shops will support our efforts next year and that even more people will attend. Hopefully skimboarding continues to branch out and allow other areas to prosper just as we did. In time I think that the big companies, professionals, and contest organizers will find that unique areas have different things to offer.

VIEW PAULO PRIETTO IN CAPE COD PHOTOSET