Mother Nature occasionally played havoc Saturday, at one point clearing the beach with bolts of lightning, but in the end the tenacity of the competitors and an army of volunteers prevailed at the 2018 Throwdown Skim Jam hosted by shore lb. and Mulligan’s Beach House.
Mulligan’s Skim Jam. Photos: Denise Ritchie
Later in the day, and long into the evening, Walking Tree Brewery hosted an after-party and awards presentation, where a mobile skate park was set up to promote the Vero Beach Skate Park Alliance.
Already billed as the world’s largest one-day skimboarding competition, organizer Chris Ellison, founder/CEO of shore lb., said the event continues to grow.
“This is one of our largest years ever, maybe the largest,” said Ellison. “We’ve got 110 competitors who have traveled from all over the United States, as far as California. We’ve got some of our buddies in from South Africa and our buddy Salty just got back in town from India. So the whole world has showed up for our contest.”
Contestants self-identify based on skill level into one of five divisions – I Suck (beginner), I’m Good (intermediate), I’m Better (advanced), I’m Going Pro Tomorrow (expert) and I’m a Professional; reclassified if judges feel they’re competing in the wrong division.
Noah Lavender
Competitors ride out, hit waves and execute various maneuvers – rife with a lingo all their own – and are judged on such criteria as how hard the ride was, how well and how many times they did the tricks. The skateboarders just showed off their skills; there was no competition.
“He’s a little daredevil; this is his second time on a skateboard,” said Lindsey Tkaczow, of 2-year-old son Coltten. “I’m super excited for him; he already has a couple of tricks. He’ll have a helmet next time for sure. We definitely support getting a skate park in the neighborhood. I think it’s good, positive thing.”
“We’re trying to raise awareness and inform the public about the need for alternative play spaces; it’s not just about skateboarding,” said Brooke Malone, a Skate Park Alliance board member. “Tokyo in 2020 is going to have street skate as an Olympic sport; it duplicates what it’s like to skateboard through an urban area, which our kids can’t do because it’s illegal in the city. It’s not illegal in the county but there’s nowhere to do it. We’re way behind what other cities are doing.”
Proceeds were to be split between the Vero Beach Lifeguard Association and Skate Park Alliance, but this year all agreed to donate funds to support Breton Fannin, 13, a Storm Grove Middle School student recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma in his left tibia, and his family.
Skim Jam After Party
“He’s got a long way to go with chemotherapy and surgeries, so we decided we wanted to help the family out,” said Ellison.
“I think it’s very, very nice of them; I’m very thankful they’re doing this,” said Fannin.
“He loves the ocean; he’s mainly a fisherman but we have lots of friends who have been into skim for a long time,” said his mother, Mandy Gaudreault. She said after 10 weeks of chemo he will have surgery to remove the tumor, followed by more chemo and likely additional surgery. “Chris and Tiffany (Ellison) are amazing. They’re making this happen for him.”
