The Beginning of my Skimboarding Journey

As the Stephens were kind of watching out for me they would sometimes take me places. The ship had been given a speedboat and every now and then they would take me out water skiing. It was a little difficult for me to accept their generosity without any way of paying them back. As I thought I might become a successful filmmaker, I used to tell them that one day I would pay them back. But after one particular incident, they may have had second thoughts about taking me anywhere. 

They had taken me out to eat which was a treat for me, even to McDonalds where we went that day. As we were finishing up, I was playing with one of the packets of ketchup. For some reason, I was squeezing one end of it. Don’s wife, Deyon was sitting across from me. All of a sudden a small hole opened on the other end of the pack and ketchup squirted across the table and splattered all over Deyon’s new dress. 

I was mortified. Their kids were no help. They thought it was hilarious and were laughing their heads off. I was apologizing profusely and trying to get the kids to stop laughing. Deyon was not smiling. She was just trying to quickly wipe the ketchup off before it stained.

There was a pretty good beach in Waianai where some of us boys would sometimes go down to hang out. There usually weren’t many people where we went but locals would come there to skimboard. 

With skimboarding, you wait for a wave’s water to thin out to the right amount on the sand as it runs back to the ocean. You throw the board, skimming it on the thin layer of water. Then you run and jump on the board, riding it and doing whatever tricks you may have the skill for.

The beach at Waianai was a good place to skimboard because the waves were big shore breaks. A shore break is when the waves actually break right onto the sand and when they do, the beach is usually steep. When the waves go far up a steep beach, you can get a long, very fast ride down to the water. If you’re good enough, with a good board (like the skimboarders at Waianai), you can ride down the sand, up the next wave, turn, ride back down the wave as it breaks and ride it back up the sand.

We didn’t have a skimboard but one day we found one on the beach. A good board is made of fiberglass and shaped. This one was just a small, thick, heavy wooden board. But that didn’t stop us from having fun. You could still get fast rides, you just couldn’t ride up the waves. We would accelerate down the beach and just before hitting the wave, leap over it or right into it. At the speeds we got up to, we could catch 30-40 feet of air. 

Skimboarding, however, is not all bliss. Sometimes you run out of enough water and the board stops as you keep going or you just slip off. When you’re moving at speed and land on the sand, it’s not the most pleasant experience. At best, you get a raspberry, at worst, you get a big, bloody sore. And then there’s the danger of the board running into your foot or leg. That hurts with the lightest board but our board was not light. It’s amazing we didn’t break anything.