World champion surfer Andy Irons passes away

rip-andy-600

Our cousins over in surfing have taken a hard loss by the unexpected loss of three time world champ Andy Irons. Irons (32), died of complications from dengue fever in Dallas, TX on Monday.

Links

Transworld Surf Article

Paulo Prietto’s Sessions is on PRE ORDER

paulo-sessions-dvd

A really unique concept, which was announced about a year ago is hitting the pre-order stage. Paulo Prietto’s Sessions started pre-ordering last week and the expected release is this Saturday October 9th. The DVD is not the normal skimboarding DVD but it contains a lot of action and primarily instructional information every skimboarder should know. And it’s not just wave riding it contains flatland skimboarding instruction also by a lot of the Dashboard guys. The instruction is headed by Paulo Prietto and others working with Solag Skim School. Filmed in 5 different locations with tons of footage of the best skimboarders including: Paulo Prietto, Brad Domke, Jake Stinnett, Hunter Poller, Steve Taylor, Woody Harris, Morgan Just, Brendan Stevens, Harley Nelson, Matthieu Thibaud, Jason Wilson, Corey Hanks, Keith Fowler, Lexi Hutchings, Isaac Thomas, Logan Davidson, Richard Docter, Blake Zimmerman and much moreThe film has been worked on by media guros such as Derek Makekau and Matt Adams. The film is being produced/co-directed  by Paul Barker/Extreme Outdoor Supply. Sponsors include EOS, Exile Skimboards, Freak, and many more. An

Subtitled Languages Include:

  1. Japanese
  2. Chinese
  3. Spanish
  4. Portuguese
  5. French

Skim Invasion will be reviewing and selling the DVD. So stay tuned!

Links

Order Paulo Prietto’s Sessions TODAY!

United Skim Tour and Exile Skimboards both pass 1 Million Views on You Tube

numbers

As we reported a few weeks ago that United Skim Tour You Tube channel was about to pass 1 million views. And we thought that was huge but Exile actually did it awhile ago. These are milestones are pretty huge for the sport when looking at the viewership under the two top media houses on You Tube. Exile Skimboards is always leading media to new levels in skimboarding and here’s another thing to add to that list of milestones.

Top 5 Most Watched Channels on You Tube

  1. Exile Skimboards – 1,058,264
  2. United Skim Tour – 1,010,311
  3. Corey Ryan’s Kori Bryant Channel: 349,962
  4. Foreverskim - 134,641
  5. Zap Skimboards – 16,890 – Just started in June 2010

Top 3 Most Watched Videos on You Tube

1.) 2008 Cabo Clasico – United Skim Tour directed by Derek Makekau – 381,480

2.) Grady Archbold Pro Skimboarding Movie – Exile Skimboards – 297,797

3.) Brendan Stevens Mini Skimboarding Movie – Exile Skimboards – 231,126

Links

Watch more videos on SkimVids

FSM Issue 41 drops.

cover

Foreverskim has dropped their issue 41 late last night. And it’s sick as always and includes an upgrade in design from what we can tell. However be a little patient there are a few technical issues.

Highlights:

Road to Zion – Page 61

A Skimboarding Documentary – Page 52

Q&A from Exile’s Steve Taylor – Page 20

Interview with theBox Director Adam Hayward – Page 26

Interview with Tim Fulton – Page 40

And well alot more!

Links

Foreverskim Issue 41

Meet Your Shaper – Victoria Skimboards

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Ever wonder who actually shapes your boards? We’ll Victoria Skimboards has a cool feature on their blog that answers that question with a little bit on Antonio Martin and Rodolfo Lagunas. We all know the front men of the companies from Tex Hanies and Trigg Gardner at Victoria, Steve Taylor and Hank Snapp at Exile Skimboards, Arne Lash at Apex Skimboards and the Smetts family at Zap Skimboards. These guys are sort of the face of their companies but again most of them don’t actually do the manufacturing of their boards every day. Click the link below and read about Victoria’s head guy in the shop Antonio and Victoria’s head glasser Lagunas.

Links

Victoria Skimboards Blog

2010 Coastal Clean up & Sea Witch Skim Fest

skim fest 2009 poster

Hello Everyone,

We hope you had a great summer and are transitioning nicely into the fall! Here at Alley-Oop we have a couple events planned that we would love for you to be a part of:

First up we have the 2010 Coastal Cleanup:

Join PiLE Magazine, Harvest Skimboards and Alley Oop on Saturday, September 25 from 9-noon to clean the beaches in Dewey. It’s time to give back and clean the beaches we skim everyday. All supplies and Coastal Cleanup t-shirts will be provided. Students can receive community service hours for helping out. Donuts and snacks will be provided. Prizes will be given for most trash collected and strangest piece of trash found.
Register by sending an email to info@pilemag.com with your name, number of people you are registering and shirt sizes for all (S, M, L or XL).

Date: Saturday, September 25
Time: 9am to noon
Location: Meet at Alley Oop for donuts, drinks and snacks at 8:45am. Clean up site is where Dickinson Street runs into the beach in Dewey Beach. For an easy frame of reference: the Rusty Rudder is located on Dickinson Street on the bay side of Route 1.

Then in October we have the 2010 Sea Witch Skim Fest:

Come join Alley Oop for some Halloween skim fun with this amateur skim festival. All ages and skill levels are invited to participate.

Date: Saturday October 23rd, 2010. (Rain Date Sunday October 24th)
Time: Riders Meeting: 8:30am
Costume Show Off: 8:45am
Competition begins: 9:00am
Location: New Orleans St. beach in Dewey.

Arrive in your costumes. Skimming in costumes is encouraged! Check the video from last years event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUB_7asnwF4

For more info on either event feel free to contact us at 302-227-7087 or simply by replying to this email.

We look forward to seeing you!

Best Regards,

Jason & Corey

Brad Domke takes 2010 Skim USA Tour – Final Standings

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Brad Domke can notch another achievement under his belt and it’s the 2010 Skim USA Tour champion. Morgan Just finished second following with Alex Hood to round out the top three. Zap Skimboards team took the tour with 15,003 points beating Exile with 3,774 points. Skim USA season is over but there’s still three big professional events left with O’Neill Surf Shop Skimbash (Sep 18/19), Oktoberfest (October 2/3), and Navarre Skim Invasion (October 9/10). ( See the further break down below for the standings).

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Professional Standings

  1. Brad Domke – Exile – 5249
  2. Morgan Just – Victoria – 4402
  3. Alex Hood – Zap – 3393
  4. Sam Stinnett – Exile – 2593
  5. Bill Bryan – Victoria – 2478
  6. Stephen Bradford – Zap – 2476
  7. Dave Scott – Zap – 2268
  8. Dave Armstrong- Zap – 2148
  9. Michel Brickle – Victoria – 1777
  10. Austin Keen – Exile – 1742
  11. Woody Harris – Exile – 1729
  12. Corbin Dull – Zap – 1710
  13. John Akerman – Zap – 1573
  14. Lance Richardson – Apex – 1473
  15. Ben Lucas – Zap – 1435

Manufacture Standings

  1. Zap – 15,003
  2. Exile – 11,259
  3. Victoria – 8,657
  4. Apex – 1,473

Semi-Pro Standings

  1. Daniel Mcdonald
  2. Max Smetts
  3. Troy Rhoten

Sr. Grand Masters

  1. Brian Erman
  2. Brian Edmondson
  3. Jeff Pruitt

Grand Masters

  1. Janssen Garaffa
  2. James  Crawford
  3. Drew Bruno

Masters

  1. Todd Rhoten
  2. Clayton Scarborough
  3. Ben Bosket

Sr. Men

  1. Matt Adams
  2. Julian Maynard
  3. Dave Bracht

Men

  1. Daniel Mcdonald
  2. Joey Antonelli
  3. Rob Morris

Jr. Men

  1. Derick Shenton
  2. Perry Pruitt
  3. Jacob Chapps

Women

  1. Skylar Wilson
  2. Helen Holt
  3. Brittney Osburn

Girls

  1. Kayleigh Murphy
  2. Alex Yokley
  3. Sara Ashmore

Boys

  1. Matt Buchanan
  2. Sam McCoy
  3. Sam Wheeler

Menehune

  1. Patrick Monigle
  2. Reece Fowler
  3. Carter Hill

Minis

  1. John Gray
  2. Blake Gipco
  3. Sean Wick

Links

Full Standings from Skim USA

Watch Brad Domke on SkimVids

Current UST Standings

Paddy Mack joins Apex Skimboards

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Paddy Mack is the latest professional skimboarder to join the semi-new Apex Skimboards. Paddy Mack will join a cast of Tim Fulton, Erick Rossenberry, Blake Tyre, and Pete Anderson at Apex Skimboards. The thought process took about 4 months for Paddy and according to Paddy “it came down to Apex was more stoked on me then Victoria was. Switching to Apex is going to allow me to compete in more contests with me coming out of pocket a lot less.”I left Victoria on a good note, the move was strictly a “business” decision.”. Arne Lash co-owner of Apex Skimboarders has big plans for Paddy Mack. “. We plan on signing him to a one year contract, making a few mini movies to showcase his talent on bigger waves, and get him a magazine ad as soon as possible. He plans on trying to compete in every UST event in 2011 and we hope to help him get there. We expect to see great things from Paddy on tour and free skimming in 2011.”

Links

Watch Paddy Mack on SkimVids

Apex Skimboards Home Page

Skim USA in Portugal

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As coach of the Skim USA team I recently had the opportunity to travel to Portugal with some of Americas top amateur skimboarders. Our crew consisted of Libby Rendall, Perry Pruitt, Max Smetts, and Dan McDonald. Also along for the ride was Skim USA director Harry Wilson who was the main force behind making this Skim USA trip happen. Him and many other volunteers worked very hard to raise the funds to cover most of the travel expenses of the team. The goal of our trip was to give the young amateur riders a chance to test their skills in international competition, experience another culture, and to ride some new waves.

We set out on our journey the first week of August to hit the 2010 Ocean Spirit Skim Contest in Santa Cruz, Portugal. When we arrived at the airport in Lisbon, Portugal Skim ambassador Emanuel Embaixador (akaMega) greeted us with fellow American skimmer Brad Domkey. After saying some quick hellos and grabbing our 9-passenger rental van we all set off for the coast where we would spend the next few days skimming and competing in the Portuguese shore break.

When we first arrived in Santa Cruz Mega showed us a few beaches and the contest area. We warmed up, met a bunch of the skimmers that were in town for the event, and linked up with another American rider, Miles Grobman who would join our crew for the contest weekend. With a couple sessions under our belt and a little time to settle in it was time to compete. The Ocean Spirit Skim Contest is an amazing event, which draws skimmers from many different countries to compete in the challenging Santa Cruz shore break. This year there were riders from the UK, Holland, France, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and of course our crew from America.

The weekend brought sizable reform shore break and relatively light winds, as well as some of the fiercest competitors I have seen in a long time. The tough troughy reform waves leveled the playing field making the rider who could snag the best waves of the heat most likely to win.

The American riders stood out the most advancing through all their heats on day one of the event. In the open (pro) division Brad Domkey, Hugo Santos, and Rafa from Spain stood out with some of the best riding of the day. I also took first place in both of Saturday’s heats advancing to the quarterfinals on Sunday.

On day two of the competition the waves got bigger and more challenging to ride. Waves were difficult to pick off in Sundays early rounds and got better as the day ended and the final pro rounds were run. From Skim USA, Libby Rendall took first place with some of the only waves ridden in the difficult conditions of the women’s final. Max Smetts took first in the juniors division with some big airdrops and powerful wave riding. Perry Pruitt and Dan McDonald also took first place making for a full American sweep of the Amateur divisions. Perry actually received some of the loudest cheers from the crowd with a giant man-sized air-drop in the finals that sent the crowd into a frenzy! In the open pro division I was able to snag 9th place getting eliminated in the in quarters to Hugo Santos and Andre Abrantes who both snagged some great wraps during the heat. The semi finals were very exciting to watch as the waves became more reachable and the level of riding increased. After the semis the top four riders were left for a showdown in the finals. American Brad Domkey along side of Portugal’s finest Hugo Santos, Mega, and Andre Abrantes. Both Mega and Hugo skimmed with poise and knowledge of the break, while Andre never seemed to catch his rhythm. Hugo somehow always finds the biggest and best waves of any session or heat while Mega brings a fresh new style to Portuguese skimming. Brad Domkey threw down some of the most spectacular and technical riding ever displayed in competition during the final. It was truly a great show! In the end though, it was the bigger and better waves that seemed to impress the Portuguese judges the most landing Hugo in first, Domkey in second, Mega in third, and Andre in fourth.

Big thanks to Jose Costa who organized the event and was recognized at the awards ceremony with a plaque presented by Skim USA’s Harry Wilson for his dedication to the alliance of skimboarders world wide!

After the contest weekend we had two days to skim and relax. Mega showed us to some fun wedging waves and liners that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. We skimmed and got the most out of every moment of the trip. Our American Amateur skimboarders carried themselves like true champions and represented well. A successful trip all around! It was a great opportunity to be a part of this memorable journey. I hope this will be the first of many Skim USA trips.

-Jason Wilson

Links

Americans Take Santa Cruz by Storm

Pictures

Facebook 411

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Here’s a neat list of some of the top Facebook Pages for skimboarding.

Victoria Skimboards

Skim Brasil

Slotstik Skimboards

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