Can anyone give me instructions and tips on skimboarding?

Question

By the way, do many girls swimboard?

Answer 1

haha nice copy and paste ay the beach i got ive seen like 4 girl skimboarders this year if you dont have wax you need to get some more details about what type of board you have would help practice practice practice ask people for help and look at skimonline.com

Answer 2

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Steps

1Step OneChoose your skimboard. The most common ones are about 2 1/2 feet long, almost oval in shape, with one pointed end and a wide, square tail. The board is very thin and there is no fin.

2Step TwoChoose your beach. A flat beach will give you a longer, gentle ride, while a steep one will provide speed and brevity.

3Step Three Click to enlargeGrasp the board in both hands, one midway along each edge.

4Step FourHold the board to one side of your body.

5Step FiveStart near the water and learn the timing of the waves.

6Step Six Click to enlargeRun, approaching the waves at a 45-degree angle.

7Step Seven Click to enlargeThrow the board flat onto the shallow water as the wave recedes to a depth of 3 inches. Amazingly, it will skim.

8Step Eight Click to enlargeLeap onto the board such that your body faces sideways - one foot forward, one back ' toes pointed to the side (like on a skateboard, snowboard or surfboard).

9Step Nine Click to enlargeKeep your feet underneath you by shifting your weight forward.

10Step TenWhoop out a war cry as you skim across the shallow water like a Greek sea god at play.

Tips & Warnings

Some boards are made longer. With these (and a good deal of experience), riders can skim out to an approaching wave, catch it, then ride in.

Dress according to climate, and use a wetsuit as necessary.

Hang loose, dude.

Do not try to turn as in other board sports. The skimboard will catch an edge in the shallow water and spill you.

Be prepared to find yourself kicking the skimboard out and falling backward a lot.

Overall Tips & Warnings

If you have any condition that would impair or limit your ability to engage in physical activity, please consult a physician before attempting this activity. This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment.

Overall Things You'll Need

Wet Suits

Skimboards

These are simple instructions about how to ride Skimboards.

Steps   [edit]Go to your local outdoor store and ask the workers all you can about skimboards. That's what the workers are there for.

Pick out a board that you feel comfortable with using.

Purchase all needed materials like the wetsuit, skimboard, surfboard wax, etc.

To ride your skimboard you must grip it with your right hand on the rear of the board and your left hand on the upper-left edge of the board (unless you are "goofy" footed because then it is the exact opposite).

Wait until the water is about 1 1/2 inches deep or shallower and then slide your board onto the surf.

Catch up to the board and quickly place your left foot on first if you have a "goofy" stance, and right foot on first if you have a "regular" stance.

Find your balance and glide across the water.

Tips   [edit]When you slide your board you should throw it pretty fast so that you have momentum.

A "goofy" stance is when your left foot is closest to the rear of the board. A "regular" stance is just the opposite.

Warnings   [edit]Sneakershoe waves are a dangerous threat when at the beach so always watch the ocean.

Be prepared to fall out of your shoes. This happens often as you begin to learn

Skimboarding hints and tips

Here's some tricks of the trade to help you keep you skimboarding!

These tips and tricks are meant as a general guide, not step by step instructions on how to do things. We take no responsibility for you messing up your board while following any of these tips!

Some of the resins and hardeners can be dangerous, so follow any instructions on the tin carefully. Just use your common sense, and if you feel you are not up to the job of repairing your own board, for a small fee, you can usually get your local surfboard shaper to repair the board for you. If all else fails, give us a call, speak to us nicely and offer to buy us loads of beer, and we may just repair your board for you. (When we have sobered up enough!)

As with surfboards, keep you board out of direct sunlight. (Not much problem in the UK!) It warms it up and breaks down the resin, and weakens your board. Darker colour boards are more prone to this.

Repair your dings early! Get into the habit of checking the board for dings after every skimming session. The last thing you want is the water to penetrate into the foam, which will seriously weaken the board. Ding repairs on the bottom of your board are easy when using a Quick Fix ding repair kit.

Ding repair instructions:

Just follow the easy instructions on Zap's website and you'll be back in the water in no time! (Ding repair instructions courtesy of the Zap Skimboards website)

Cracked rails on you skim? If you notice that there is a crack in your rail, firstly let it dry out completely. Use a needle file  to file open the crack slightly, and then rough up the surrounding area with some sandpaper.

Then get your ding repair kit and follow the instructions on the pack for mixing the resin and hardener then apply it to the crack. Put plenty on, you can always sand it back later. Use the tip of  a cocktail stick to work it into the crack and make sure penetrates it fully. Let it dry overnight. The following day you just have to carefully sand the rail back to its original profile. For smaller cracks, you can use superglue instead of the resin.

Note: If you have a top of the range carbon epoxy board, do not use the resin or superglue method. You will need to get it professionally repaired using a specialist epoxy resin.

Want your board to slide easier and gain some extra speed? Get some Slick Speed Wax!

Is your skim all scratched and worn from the shells, sand and stones? Well here's a tip from pro skimboarder Brad Evers, that he posted on Skim Online's Message board. "To smooth a rough tail that's been worn by sand: lay the board flat, bottom up. Drip superglue all over the area to be smoothed. Use the wide edge of a credit or calling card and smear the glue all around. Squeegee the glue away from the center, towards the rail. Wipe up any spillage. Let the glue dry all the way and in a few hours you will have a new smooth tail on your skimboard."

If you want to get some deck grip off your board, then use a razor-blade to slice the glue between the grip and the board. Work from one edge and be VERY careful with the razor blade. Gently peel the grip off as you slice away the glue.

Ok, so you removed the deck grip, how do you get it back on again? Well use some 3M spray adhesive, that you can get from DIY stores. Spray it on and place the grip!

This tip has been suggested by Alun Evans. If you have got a large rock or two in your skimming area, where the board might get washed against them, take a plastic carrier bag and fill it full of sand and place it on the edge of the rock. If your board gets washed against the rock, the sand bag will cushion it and stop the rails getting chipped/cracked. It only works if you have a couple of rocks in your skim area, unless you want to line the entire cliff edge of your local skim spot with sand bags!

If you want to add stickers to your board, and you don't want them to come off in the water, this is what you want to do.Lightly rough up the area where you want to place the sticker with some sandpaper. Then clean the entire area using a paper towel dipped in some some acetone or your mum's nail varnish remover. Then wipe the area dry with a clean paper towel. Then you can carefully place the sticker over the prepared area. press down firmly, ensuring there are no air bubbles. Leave overnight and then apply some wax around the edges of the sticker. This has worked for us on a number of different boards, but don't forget it only works on the deck side - stickers DO NOT last when applied to the bottom of a skimboard for obvious reasons!!

This is a well known trick of the trade in the USA. If you are skimboarding in windy conditions and you are having problems dropping the board because the wind keeps catching it, the trick is to kick sand onto the bottom of the board near the nose. This adds weight to the board so when you drop it, the nose comes down quicker and it is not affected by the wind so much. As soon as the board touches the water the sand gets washed off. The downside is that people will stop you and ask why you are kicking sand on the board!! Believe me, the amount of people that stop and ask what you are doing is amazing!!

Technique

Unlike surfing, skimboarding starts on the beach. The skimboarder stands a short running distance from the point of entry into the water with the skimboard in hand and waits for a wave. As white wash from the previous wave recedes, and a wave suitable for skimming on approaches, the skimboarder runs towards the water. Upon reaching a sandy area with about a 1" or 2" film of water, he drops the board on the water and runs onto it. A common mistake is to throw the board ahead and run after it. However, to maintain and gain speed, stay in control, and be able to reach a wave in deep water, one must drop the board then almost immediately run onto the board placing your back foot first then your front foot.



Novice demonstrating the Fistral TurnOnce on the board, the skimmer faces the difficult task of remaining stable to avoid allowing the board to dig into the sand or simply sliding out from under the rider's feet, thus losing control. Ideally, the skimmer should put his or her back foot as far back as it can go on the traction pad, or far back on the waxed area. The front foot should be between the middle and nose of the board. When the skimboarder reaches deeper water, he or she can steer the board by shifting weight around and using the back foot as the steering focal point. The skimmer then (hopefully) glides out into the ocean toward the oncoming wave, banks off of it, and rides it back into shore.

There are many possibilities for riding the waves and this is where skimboarders can really get creative.

If a skimboarder is not a "wave skimmer," then he or she can ride on a short film of water. If a wooden skimboard is used, the shortest film of water viable for skimming is about an inch. If a fiberglass skimboard is used, which is usually for wave skimming, the water must be deeper to account for the thickness of the fiberglass board. All skimboards will slide on very thin layers of water, to the point of being wet sand. Planing behavior is determined by the outline and rail, not the materials.

Styles



Catching air.There are several primary ways in whichs of wax. (For best results with wax, try the hardest wax as a first layer then go up on softness till four layers of wax are applied. Remove all the wax layers before applying a new traction pad.) I would like edit to this info, I am a skimmer and a fiber glass board is best in water about a centimeter thick, wood boards work better in a little deeper water 2-3 inches. a skimboard can be ridden: either gliding over the thin layer of water atop the wettest sand and at the very edge of the ocean as wave remnants wash up onto the beach (called sand skimming) or in shallow sandy rivers and other shallow watered down areas (sometimes called sand skimming, flatland skimming, sandsliding, and sand surfing); or skimming from the beach directly into an incoming wave to throw a "fan" of water off the advancing shore break, catching air, or even riding across the wave face (referred to as wave skimming/wave riding). The waves that skimboarders ride are the type that break close in to shore, which is why skimming during high tide is best for wave skimming.

The latter style is more advanced than sand skimboarding, though flatland skimboarding has become more and more popular and taxingly difficult over the years. All skimboarders start by learning how to throw the board and run onto it while it is gliding across a thin layer of water. Wave skimming may offer a bigger variety of tricks, that are very hard, if you take skimming to the extreme. Only after they have mastered the basic techniques properly will they be able to attempt more complicated tricks, such as a pop shuv it, that involves waves, grinding rails, or skateboarding maneuvers. Sand skimboarding is considered to be a beginner's sport due to the relative lack of difficulty when compared to skimming on waves in hotspots such as Laguna Beach. Nevertheless, some flatland skimmers are able to perform tricks of great technical skill, many adapted from skateboarding, such as grinding rails.



Wrap.Advanced skimboarders such as professional skimboarder Bill Bryan are able to do much more impressive tricks on their boards. The most common advanced move is called a Wrap. A skimmer can wrap the wave by throwing the board down toward the ocean, jumping onto it, and then hydroplaning out to the wave. When the skimmer reaches the wave, by shifting his or her weight the skimmer can wrap around it, which also propels him or her back to shore. To take it further, a very advanced move is called the Wrap Barrel. This is when you wrap the wave, but instead of coming back to shore, you turn farther and get into the barrel. This is a highly respectable trick and is very difficult to perform.

These two version of skimboarding are beach activities. However, creative skimmers have also been known to get permission to go on golf courses after it rains. The short dense grass is evenly cut and retains the level of water similar to that of a receding wave. Other improvisations included flooded backyards, and shallow wide rivers, but these obviously have no access to waves. Also, a temporary tarp with sand and water on top can make for a good place to skim. PVC pipes added to a flatland skim course to make for some pretty interesting grind rails.

When it comes to skimboarding, there is no such thing as one perfect wave. This is because it all depends on the rider's preference and skill level. Everyone has his or her own version of "the perfect wave". In general, however, the closer the waves break to shore the better, because the closer the waves are, the easier they are to get to. Although an advanced skimboarder may be able to reach waves farther out and thereby get longer rides, closer waves are generally regarded as better. Skimboarders with the intention of riding waves tend to prefer a steeper bank, or slope, of the sand in order to gain further speed