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[Urban Buy]

Board certified
Skimboards ain’t what they used to be

BY MIKE MILIARD

MY FATHER TOLD me about this thing he used to do as a teenager in the early ’60s. A cross between surfing and skateboarding, it involved riding the length of a beach on a circular piece of wood that skimmed on top of the inch or two of water left from a broken wave. It was called, well, skimboarding. “We’d use marine plywood,” said my dad. “Your grandfather helped me cut it into a circle, and we’d wax it. I had a friend who drew ‘Rat Fink’ on his. Mine was plain because I wasn’t that artistic. When we got good, we’d kick and run and kick and run.”

When I was about 12, with my father’s help, I made my own. I cut and sanded an inch-thick piece of marine plywood down to a circle, which I then festooned with marker drawings of trunk-bedecked and lobster-red beachgoers. But when I flung it down, ready to hop on and zoom down the sand, it hit the ground with a thud and burrowed deep. After a few more futile tries, the markered-on beachgoers had washed off. Thus ended my affair with skimboarding.

So I was surprised to learn that kids still skim. But things are different these days. In this superXtreme age, skimboarders are taking this once humble pursuit to new crests, with truncated-surfboard-style boards made of epoxy.

There’s even been a sea change in the sport’s fundamentals. Rather than “sand surf” down the beach parallel to the shore, most kids today head toward the waves, then bank off ’em, doing all sorts of gnarly maneuvers. “These kids are getting pretty tricky,” says Bret Clark at Ski Market in Brookline. “They do flips, then they bail. The whole ride’s only a matter of seconds.”

Which skimboard is right for you depends on the kind of riding you want to do and how big you are. But one brand seems to have it all over the competition: Zap boards, available at both Ski Market and Nauset Sports in Orleans. “It’s the hottest skimboard right now,” says Nauset’s Amy Handel. The Bat model ($69) supports users up to about 130 pounds and has “rounded design and upturned ‘rails’” (edges) that make it ideal for sand surfing. The Wedge ($99), sized more like a surfboard, is better for wave riding, and is good up to about 160 pounds.

Nauset Sports nods to the past by selling Meyer wooden boards that include the Slammer ($33), the Slyder ($40), the Small Woodie ($50), and the Large Woodie (heh heh!) ($60). Surprisingly, the wooden boards are only marginally heavier than their epoxy counterparts, and they’re a bit cheaper. Says Handel: “Most people don’t spend a super lot of money on these.” There’s no need. And there’s no need to get a splinter while trying to make your own. Just plop down a few twenties for one of these boards, then follow Clark’s Zen-like advice: “Skim it on the ground like a Frisbee, jump on it, and slide.”

• Ski Market, 860 Comm Ave, Brookline, (617) 731-6100

• Nauset Sports, Jeremiah Square, Route 6A, Orleans, (508) 255-4742

Issue Date: June 21-28, 2001






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