Our History

Formed in Dewey Beach Delaware over 30 years ago, SkimUSA is a youth-focused organization dedicated to promoting the sport of skimboarding.

What started as a casual summer beach activity – where kids would drop a highly shellacked plywood disk into the shallow water and slide as far as possible – has grown into a competitive sport attracting athletes from around the world.

Current day skimboarders now use fiberglass or carbon fiber boards shaped much like a small surfboard. They no longer try to slide long distances parallel to the shoreline but launch from the shore in a flat out sprint, drop and mount the board in a split second and ride the skim out to incoming waves. Once they reach the wave, they turn the board and perform a variety of skateboard like tricks as they ride the wave back to shore.

Competition

For a skimboarding competition the entrants are divided into predefined age groups and compete in eight minute heats with four competitors per heat. During the heat, a panel of five judges score each ride on a 1 – 10 scale based on completion of the ride and difficulty of the trick. The competitor’s best five rides are tallied and the top two finishers advance to the next round. The heats continue until each age group is narrowed to four competitors where a final 10 minute heat determines the winner.

Skim USA works closely with local surf/skim shops and a core of dedicated volunteers to run competitions in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey. Collectively the competition series is known as the East Coast Skim Tour and culminates with the World Amateur skimboarding Championships in Dewey Beach Delaware.

For each competition, Skim USA collects entry forms, sets up heats, arranges judging schedules, sets up the contest area by providing boundary flags, tents and sound equipment, and runs the two days of competition to make sure everything runs smoothly. While a large part of our mission is to offer skim competitions, we also fund a scholarship program where each summer we award $1000 scholarships to two college bound SkimUSA members. The winners are determined by our scholarship committee based on academic performance and a short essay.

Our Mission

Skim USA Association is a non-profit, youth focused, skimboarding competition organization.

Our mission is operating a program of skimboarding competitions to create exposure to the sport and to recognize the athletic prowess of talented and dedicated youth athletes.

The Skim USA Competition program simply provides a way for young people to participate in a sport where they can develop skills they can enjoy for a lifetime.