Following on from the Stoke - what is it? article, a few weeks ago where i discussed what stoke is, it is now time to turn our attention to “getting stoked”.

Over the winter one of our team guys, Adam Wootton, was going through a bad patch and questioning his own commitment to skimboarding. He managed to turn things around, and “get stoked”, and this his story of how that happened.

So, i am going to hand over to Adam, and let him describe in his own words, what changed his whole perspective.

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“To catch a wave was (and is) to stoke the fires of the heart and soul. Hence the terms: to be stoked, a stoked life, degrees of stoke and pure stoke.” - John Grissam, Pure Stoke (1982)

Every true surfer/skimboarder has had the feeling of stoke at some point in their lives.

That feeling you get from nailing your first wrap or barrel, or sticking that bigspin you have been working on for months. The feeling you get whilst gliding effortlessly down the wave, when your mind forgets all your everyday worries, and its just you and the wave, and you are living just for that moment.

For me, I can think of one person who demonstrates “stoke” more than anybody else i know: Chris Danby.

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Skimboards aren’t indestructible, if they were, they would be too heavy to ride!

Your board can last anything from 6 months to 3 years depending how you ride it.

It is common for riders who are just starting out to be quite hard on boards while they are learning. As you get better, and perfect your technique and wave/water judgment, you will find you won’t get so many dings.

So to help you get the best out of your board we have compiled some tips that we use all the time to make sure the boards we use last a long time.

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We have just finished putting the 2008 Sandskater Oleron road trip photos online.

As you may be aware, Île d’Oléron is a small island off the west coast of France, and is home to some awesome skimboarding and surfing beaches with every conceivable wave set up available on the island.

With Spring in the air, the sea being it its coldest, and winter making one last stand, here’s what you could have been doing over the winter period: Snow Skimming!

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The 3rd round of the Skim UK/Sandskater UK Skim Tour went off without a hitch last weekend at Mother Iveys Bay near Padstow in Cornwall.

Competitors made the trip to Cornwall from as far afield as Swansea, Portsmouth and Bournemouth, and the youngest entrant to face the Iveys shorebreak was Nathaniel James at just 11 years old!

The conditions were nearly perfect, but the strong breeze made dropping the board a challenge. However the wind didn’t take long to drop and the semi’s and finals were held in some awesome skim waves.

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We have just published the gallery from the recent Boscombe Skim Jam:

Here is the full Boscombe Skim Jam Gallery

Although the UK Skim Fest is on for just two days a year, the organisation takes a lot of time and effort, and the planning starts early on in the year. The Skim Fest is really a team effort, including family, friends and skimmers that all pitch in to lend a hand.

Zap Professional rider, Austin Bleiweiss at the UK Skim Fest

So let’s start in February, when the planning and organisation starts to take shape:

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The latest issue of the online Skimboarder Magazine is out now which includes a great artical with Exile Skimboards rider Grady Archbold.

Enjoy!

Sandskater team rider, Adam Wootton, alerted me to this video, it’s from the 2008 Boardwalk Blowout held in Florida, USA.

The reason i have chosen to post it here is that the conditions for the Boardwalk contest are very similar to the conditions we regulary get in the UK.

But it’s the level of riding which is the standout. It highlights what can be done in conditions very similar to ours here in the UK.

So get inspired - watch the video, then go skim…

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