Skimboarding

How it works

Stand at the water's edge and wait for a thin wash of water, just 2 to 5cm deep, to run up the beach as a wave retreats, because that shallow film is the surface you ride. Hold the board flat in both hands, low to the side, and run parallel to the shore to build speed before you ever step on. The drop-and-run is the hardest part of the whole thing, and it takes real practice and a lot of landing on wet sand.

As you drop the board, lay it down flat in front of your running feet, not at an angle, and step on with your front foot first, then your back foot, in one continuous motion. Throw the board too steeply and it knifes into the sand and stops dead, sending you over the front. Lay it flat and your momentum carries you gliding out across the thin water. A flat, finless board planes on water barely a centimetre deep, which is the whole trick.

When you can ride flat and turn, start chasing the shore break. Skim out toward a small breaking wave, meet it, and let it carry you back to the beach, which is where skimboarding becomes genuinely surf-like. Keep your knees bent, your weight slightly forward at first then centred, and your eyes up. Speed, balance, and timing in quick athletic bursts are what it demands.

The beach itself decides how well you progress. You want firm, smoothly sloping sand with a gentle gradient and some wave action, because steep or soft beaches make the wash too brief or too turbulent to ride. Expect bruises, since you will fall often onto sand and shallow water, and a forgiving beach is the kindest place to serve that apprenticeship.