I have had a bit of time to digest the weekend that was the 42nd annual Vic world championships of skimboarding at Aliso. It was yet another let down year where the waves seemed to show up before and after the event but definitely not during. The sand had been ripped apart and a horribly rocky trough exposed itself from the restaurant to the creek. Some years we have gotten a rough trench but still maintained decent shorebreak especially with a bigger swell. Unfortunately, that was not the case this year. As the swell had already left and only a pathetic bump remained in the water with the occasional shoulder high set that only a body boarder could ride if he wanted to speed straight into a shoreline full of boulders.

But it wasn’t just the unfortunate conditions that vexed me at this year’s biggest summer contest. For what feels like an infinite number of times I find myself complaining about various aspects of the competitive skimboarding world. As I am not actually part of this process, some of it is very speculative and some is pretty direct regardless. But the truth is we know who runs the show and we know human beings aren’t typically fond of change. If what they have SEEMS to be working that’s more than good enough for them. I always have some gripe about competition because we are not trying to get various balls into various goals here. We are taking on the grand task of scoring a surfed wave from 1-10 and comparing it to other wave surfers with completely different styles and skillsets within the same discipline.

So here are a bunch of gripes for you to chew on for the time being. Some of my points are very clear with a good background knowledge of how it works and other things I can’t be 100% aware of because I don’t run the events so they are more like ideas I’m floating out there in case it is a problem that exists within running an event:

Left/Right Rule

This is the first one that stood out to me this past weekend. I was kind of thinking this rule is so dumb that it would eventually get taken out but it seems people are really fond of it. Don’t get me wrong, it has very good intentions. Force skimboarders to round out their game to go both directions all while opening up wave selection for every rider in the heat so if it happens to be all regular footers you won’t have a 4 man race every time a tasty right comes through. But… The actual outcome is horrible. And it was made all the more apparent in the horrible conditions this year. Watching ‘professional skimboarders’ do a frontside bigspin on what I will honestly call a RIPPLE in order to fill up the TWO frontside wave slots that they WILL be scored on and therefore have to do if they want to hit the minimum. It’s embarrassing. And definitely not needed. Let the boys work it out. Let priority reign supreme. And most importantly let the riders focus on the best possible ride and not be worried about hitting some kind of wave quota… Which brings me to my next point…

Top 2 Waves

I forget if they said they scored top 3 waves or top 5 waves or whatever, but regardless it is clearly too much. I don’t like to borrow from the world of surfing because skimboarding can be very different from surfing but this clearly needs to be changed. Again, especially in subpar conditions. I do not want riders going for anything other than ideal waves because they realize they might be one short of the quota to make sure they reach full scoring potential. I don’t want them focused on scoring potential; I want them focused on skimboarding potential. Riders shouldn’t be trying to do math in their heads and figuring they could beat the guy who had 2 great backside waves because he has no frontside and if I can get one good frontside and reach the limit he hasn’t reached I will beat him. I want the better rider to win, not the ‘better competitor’.

Flatland Skimboarding

This is a real simple one, real quick. And you see this shit in contests especially when they have left right rules and a top 3 or top 5 scoring potential. If I ran an event, tricks not done on a wave will not be scored. At all. Zero. Waste of your energy and my time. Ride a wave. This is an ocean event. This past week’s event is actually a good time to have that bust a scoreable flatland trick move so you can hit that scoring quota and complete all your “rides”. But no, I’m not into that. No left right rule, top 2 waves, and flatland tricks are not scored at all. Go find a wave and ride it. I don’t want to see how good you are at competing I want to see how good you are at skimboarding waves.

Judges

I can imagine the 3 things mentioned above actually being considered… But here is where we get fun and controversial. A lot like surfing, skimboarding can run into judging issues that some may chalk up to being a matter of relevancy. I know that at The Vic you are essentially scored on wave selection and your first turn being critical. This has always been the case. I’ll admit it is kind of what Aliso is about and these guys have been thinking this way for a while. But as you can expect it becomes an issue when you throw in technical tricks and you have to make a decision of one big turn vs smaller wave with one big trick. At The Vic, you can definitely expect the big turn to be scored higher most of the time. But it shouldn’t always be the case. It’s obviously a wave by wave basis and if the judges are older riders who have never done that trick and haven’t made a turn on a wave like that in 10 years… Exactly how are they deciding? I can only assume it’s the ‘wow factor’ and how it looks and that also means to some extent how the crowd and announcers react. This can also be a problem. The popular guy getting plenty of hoots and hollers even for a mid range wave. That can legitimately add a little to your score and if the judge has no idea what landing the trick you did is like… Well it adds even more because he’s not in a position to make that call and lets the reaction that rings out determine it. Somebody lands a nice 3 shuv and gets some crowd reaction that might get overscored even though a 3 shuv is honestly a required move for any rider competing in pro division. There’s also the unavoidable issue of bias with judges which I won’t get into. I think the best solution here is for me to judge an actual event one day since everybody dislikes me pretty equally and I’m not affiliated with any brand/group/location/etc.

Riding the Wave, Not Picking the Wave

One last thing on scoring rides. I’m not saying wave selection shouldn’t be a part of scoring… But I will say that if you get lucky enough to be in the right spot and have priority for the best wave of the heat. And if you just do a predictable turn and run through the barrel on a nice looking wave, that shouldn’t be an automatic 10 or anything. I am more interested in either taking advantage of a wave’s full potential or getting into a critical situation one way or another. Another way of explaining this is that I want to see you do something that the other riders cannot do. So, either something difficult for everybody or something you know how to do that is very difficult for everybody else. I like when Tim Fulton is just going for a one hitter and sends a completely tweaked backside turn and throws double the spray that anybody else would on the same wave. I like when Sammy throws a 5 shove on the way back in instead of a 3 shove. I am aware of what everybody (professionals) are capable of. I want to see people stretch their capability. Reach for something greater. And with 2 wave totals I want to see fearless progression after you get 2 decent scores in.

Heat Seeding

This is one I don’t want to talk about much because A) I am unaware of how they do it and B) there are different trains of logic of how to do it and I’m not 100% sure yet which way seems to be the right way. There are certain elements in skimboarding contests that make it so we can’t just copy and paste the surfing world’s heat organization into our world. 3 man heats rub me the wrong way for some reason. Especially when you are not even doing round skipping that the WSL uses 3 man heats for. Skimboarding does the basic 4 man heat 2 men advance set up. But half the heats are 4 and half are 3. Presumably because of odd numbers and people dropping out. Also, I can’t tell if there is actual seeding used or if they have a pull from a hat random approach to this. Heats should be seeded. I’m not sure if they have measures in place to make sure heats aren’t crazy stacked or super lightweight but sometimes it doesn’t seem that way. Maybe that is with the seeding. Depends on what you are seeding from. UST rankings? Your personal opinions? I would like them to use either UST rankings or the previous Vic’s results to seed competitors correctly so the top guys aren’t taking each other out in round 1 or 2. And so lesser riders aren’t eking by because they didn’t have a top 10 guy in their heat, etc. In an ideal world I would like 4 man heats properly seeded with 2 man heats starting wherever they do now I guess quarter finals? Also 2 wave total would make heat times less intense and you could actually shorten them if need be. If you get a crappy wave with 2 wave total, that’s fine just try to get 2 good ones. But if you get a crappy wave with 3 wave total or 5 wave total… Wow you are so far behind already. You have to at the very least make 3-5 waves and you will still want to replace that crappy one. Exhausting!

Sponsors

This one is not that important. But it interests me. I’m not sure how The Vic ran this year if it was smooth sailing or if it took a big chunk out of Tex’s pocket and was a bitch to run to make sure everybody showed up and did their job and was compensated, etc. I love that skimboarding is more grassroots and we tend to have grassroots sponsors and it has a better feeling when you have local brands as sponsors. But, tell that to the competitors fighting over a paycheck, the event staff looking to be compensated, and to Tex trying to budget all that as well as purchase the permits from the city to have the event. It’s always nice to be able to pay your staff a little more or pay your pros a little more. I’m waiting for the day a large sponsor will touch our events. Hurley, Red Bull, Vans, Jack’s, etc. It seems we are slipping further and further away from that happening as many have tried to get larger sponsors in the past and it’s notoriously been an issue getting them on board and in a position to be okay with forking over cash/product for a lesser known sport. I still want to see it. If there is anything I can do, let me know. I want to see a properly supported and promoted skimboarding event.

Your thoughts?

There is always more to mention but I don’t want to get too nitpicky after having literally just complained for what feels like an hour. I love these events and I do so for the same reason most people do… The community. Skimboarders show up from different areas and we can reconnect with those we haven’t seen since the last event and it’s very unique. It’s not like going to a professional surf event and it’s not like going to an amateur surf event. It’s a totally different experience where if you are willing you can walk away with a dozen new friends from a single event and half of them are world class professionals in their discipline. It’s always fun and I look forward to some of the fall events and of course next year’s Vic.

But if you have a response. A comment. A suggestion. A complaint. Please go to reddit or instagram and voice your concerns. Be heard. Be a part of the solution. Carry the conversation. I am fully aware I am talking out of my ass on half this stuff and that’s precisely why I want to talk about this and get it out there so I can understand it better and actually have a solid argument to make if I do ever bring this up to event organizers in our community. Thanks!

Teddy