Sat here in French Eric’s house on the island of Oleron, I can confirm that skim is already going off on day 1 of the Oleron Skim Fest.

An uneventful ferry crossing and drive through France, followed by 12 hours sleep, meant we were ready to hit up the liners that Oleron is renown for.

Swell is forecast for the entire weekend, so here’s some pic’s of today to get you in the mood!

It’s now less than a month until we pack up and ship out to the Île d’Oléron in France for our annual trip to see our French cousins!

We have 4 people confirmed for the trip this year; Matt, Mark, Adam & Dan, who are all hoping for some fun on the legendary liners. That’s not to mention the superb French beer/wine, baguettes, croissants and happy times with our host Eric, and the rest of the French skim crew.

This year’s dates are the Tuesday 7th April to Tuesday 14th April. If you want to join us at this late stage, there is still time, so call the shop on 08452 037546 and will be happy to give you the ferry times and details you will need.

If you want to see what happened in previous years, then you need look no further than some of the Oleron photo galleries:

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Sandskater team rider Mark “Moose” Mason is organising a Skim Jam at Preston Beach in Paignton on Sunday 1st February.

It’s going to be the first one of 2009, so why not come along and skim with some buddies and learn from Moose and the rest of the Sandskater team.

We are hoping to get the grinch out to play, and we will also have the Banshee Bungee to play around on too.

Right after the jam, we’ll head to the Boathouse for some lunch & drinks.
(non alcoholic for you guys who are under 18 - yes, that means you Woody!)

So here’s the details you need:

Where: Preston Beach, Paignton, Devon
When: 1st February. Meet at 11am
Who: Everyone! your mum, dog chicken, bring them all

Message Board Thread: Preston Beach Skim Jam
Facebook Event: Preston Beach Skim Jam

Yup, the photos are online now for your perusal:

The full gallery is available here: 2008 Sandskater/Zap UK Skim Fest Photos

The UK Skim Fest is over for another year, and what a mix it was this year!

We had the warm sun, some good skimmers - but we lacked the waves this year.

Both days saw a good turnout, with the prize for the furthest travelled goes to the Patterson family who came all the way from Fife in Scotland for the event!

Skim Fest Photos
As ever, photos will be online shortly once we have collated them from the various people taking photos over the weekend. If you have any photos you want to submit for the gallery, then email them to info at sandskater.com.

Thanks again to everybody who came out to support the UK Skim Fest, and big up to the sponsors: Zap Skimboards and Circle One.

Yeah, it’s that time of year again, we are busy preparing for this years UK Skim Fest!

We are pleased to confirm that Zap Skimboards is sponsoring the event again, and we have already taken delivery of all the prizes which include 2 Zap Wedges skimboards, board bags, stickers, wax, hats and t-shirts.

Circle One are also on board as sponsor this year, and have given a load of goodies to win in the prize draw. They will also have a load of demo boards on hand for you to try out!

As in previous years, the prize draw will be raising money for the Devon Air Ambulance who do an outstanding job of supplying much need rapid medical assistance throughout the whole of Devon.

So lets run over the plans for this weekend…….

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We have sorted through the photos that we took while we was in France, and have arranged some of the best into a photo gallery for you!

So, here it is 2008 Skimboard International Photo Gallery

We just spotted this sick video on Youtube of the 2008 French Skimboard International contest that we attended a week ago.

I think you will agree this is one good video, which showcases some amazing European skimboarding.

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We have arrived back from the Skimboard International contest in Hossegor and normal service is now resumed!

It was an awesome trip for everybody involved and the standard of European skimboarding is going through the roof this year.

So, lets have the results:

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For the 2nd year running, the recently held Preston Skim Contest was a great success.

We had to cancel the contest on the Saturday due to wind and rain, so instead the older guys split the competitors into 3 groups and gave them a coaching session so the younger competitors could learn some new tricks.

Luckily Sunday was blessed with much better weather, and we managed to run the whole contest through in one day. We had about the same number of competitors as last year, with both familiar and new faces in the competitor line up.

Thanks to all the competitors who helped make this a fantastic event. Big thanks must go to the 3 judges (Rob, Chris and Graham) who did a great job!

Thanks must also go to the event organisers and sponsors: Sandskater, The Boathouse, Circle One and Perry Mason Solicitors. A special mention of thanks to Bob Brewis from the Community Partnership who liaised between the event organisers and Torbay Council.

So here are the final results of the 2008 Preston skimboard contest…

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