BELMAR — Competitive skim boarders will ride the wave of the sport’s increasing popularity to Belmar, as the annual Skim Bash competition is expanding to a second location.
Skim USA Regional Director Felecia Stratton, contest director of Skim Bash, said in an interview last week that growth of the sport has increased exponentially in recent years, leading to the venue change.
“Skim boarding has grown tremendously; this is a sport that has exploded,” Stratton said. “This will be our 10th annual [Skim Bash], and I’ve been doing camps for six years.”
“The number of participants, the number of spectators, the number of kids who want to come to camp has just grown year after year,” she added. “You can walk down any beach and see kids throw down a skim board, and maybe five years ago you wouldn’t see that much.”
The Skim Bash will be held June 22 and 23 at the 18th Avenue Beach in Belmar, and will return to Sea Bright for the second competition in September.
In the past, both contests have been held in Sea Bright. But Stratton said that due to the popularity of the sport, the decision was made to add Belmar as a location.
“It’s been two events for a couple of years now, but it is our first time expanding it to Belmar,” she said.
She said there is a strong skim boarding presence already in Belmar.
“Belmar is a very strong skim boarding destination town. They already have a strong surfing component,” Stratton said. “They felt skim boarding was just a nice adjunct.”
“Because Belmar is so much bigger than Sea Bright, just logistically there is more to offer,” she added. “The contest has grown so much [that] we’ve almost outgrown Sea Bright.”
According to Stratton, each bash averages about 125 participants. Depending on the weather, there may be 1,000 spectators watching.
“We just need a little bit of a bigger venue,” she said. “We love Sea Bright, but we are happy to be in Belmar now.”
The tournament begins Saturday morning with an explanation of the rules and safety procedures, and contestants are divided into “heats” or divisions.
Each heat competes, and the top two skim boarders advance to the next round. Competitors then go through quarterfinal and semifinal contests, and the finals are held the following day.
According to Stratton, the camps will continue in Sea
Bright this summer.
“If you try to get on a skim board and you don’t really know what you’re doing, you can get hurt,” she said. “We have decided to teach kids at a young age how to do it right so they don’t get hurt.”
Stratton said the move to Belmar is also an effort to grow the sport and give it more visibility.
“Belmar has that boardwalk; in Sea Bright, you don’t really see the beach from the road,” she said.
“People may be driving by and see the excitement, and they might pull over,” she added. “In Sea Bright, you are never going to have that.”
However, skim boarding will still have a presence in
Sea Bright.
“Sea Bright is definitely not phased out; the camp will be held every single day there all summer and our September contest will still be held in Sea Bright,” Stratton said. “Sea Bright is a huge skim boarding spot, and people come from all over. There is definitely room for more than one town to hold skim boarding events.”
This year’s camp will begin June 24 and run each week from Monday to Thursday for 10 weeks.
While the Skim Bash has become a rite of passage for the summer, there was some concern this year in dealing with the impact of superstorm Sandy.
“After the storm, I got so many phone calls from people worried about the Skim Bash not happening,” Stratton said.
“I basically made this decision: As long as the ocean is still there, the contest will still be there,” she added. “You really only need a strip of sand to skim board. And as long as we had that and it was safe, we would have a contest.”
To register for the Skim Bash or for more information, visit www.skimbash.com.