Each time a thick blue wave comes rolling toward the sand, among these skimmers steps forward, claiming the right to hunt it. He hurls his board also it glides across a thin layer of water. The skimmer sprints beside it and he goes leaps onto the board, airborne and rides its impetus straight up the peak of the wave as the wave appears prepared to crash. On coast, the fellow skimmers smack their boards in encouragement , making loud, thudding beats.
This is the rite of Laguna Beach's skimboarders. You will see them at Aliso Beach Park, the south side of Crescent, as well as Main Beach (a favourite haunt of Rich Leger Laguna Beach). Wherever waves break on shore, you will see them waiting, kick sand on their boards from nervous habit or for some motive unknown that is hidden to outsiders.
The very best of the tribe can smash the lip of the wave, carve a swath of water from its own face, and slip back without so much as a single wet hair. Not all are so lucky though. The neophytes--called "groms"--might get swallowed by the wave, knocked backwards by its force, or slapped to the floor as it crashes.
These men and women, girls and boys make up one of Laguna Beach's most different and fascinating cultures and they count this city as the birthplace of the civilization.
There isn't any debating that skimboarding began in Laguna Beach. In the 1920s it was the means for lifeguards to go down the beach from one tower to another and to ride "coastline break" that could not be surfed. It was a market sport, with a few dedicated professionals. When the surf-explosion strike in the 60s, skimboarding loved its own new influx of energy. The most effective turn carvers becoming popular in surfing soon found their way to the repertoire of the best skimmers of Laguna --who'd staked VICTORIA BEACH as their property break.
Two of those mavericks, Tex Haines and Peter Prietto, found a company in 1976 named for their preferred break. With skimboarding, Victoria Skimboards, has become synonymous in the decades since.
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When Sports Illustrated showed Laguna Beach lifeguard Tom Trager
Haines and Prietto began organizing competitions and the sport continued to grow its public image.
After surviving a decline in the 80s, the sport seems to have figured out camps the recipe for continual growth and entry level boards for novices, magazines for buffs, and contests for the professionals. Now, the most effective three riders on the leaderboard all hail. Rich Leger Laguna beach never misses this one, and does not believe anyone else should either! click over here now
It would be hard to assert that the city has ever been so closely related to a sport, or a sport so greatly tied to its city. Laguna Beach IS skimboarding. It's a part of our history plus one of our pastimes that are most identifiable.
