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Flatland skimboarding


Flatland skimboarding (also known as inland skimboarding) is a form of skimboarding practiced on non-coastal waters, such as a river, lake, stream or puddle. It uses a wooden board about three times as wide as a skateboard and one and a half times as long. The board is thrown across a thin film of water. While the board is still moving the rider jumps on and skims across the water to do what ever tricks he or she can imagine.

Inland skimboarding emerged in the mid 1970s and has its roots in Sacramento, California. With homemade skimboards made of plywood, fiberglass and resin, skimmers were sliding on sandbars along the American and Sacramento rivers. Most skimmers back then were just doing headstands, multi-360 spins and 180 shuvits for tricks.

The aspects of inland skimboarding were pioneered in the early 1980s by two Sacramento locals: Launie Porteous and Mark Robinson. Influenced by the emerging skateboard scene, Launie and Mark started adapting their newfound skateboarding skills to skimboarding and the concept of freestyle skimboarding was born. This freestyle adaptation has led to what is now considered the true definition of this sport.

With the evolution of the Ollie on a skimboard, it allowed skimmers to transcend into olling over obstacles and opened up the doors for more technical tricks. Riding up the side of a wet river bank and coming back down to simulate a 1/4 pipe was also a new trick. Skimmers also propped up skimboards or wood planks on logs creating a ramp to jump off and do more tricks.

In the late 80's, skimmers advanced to building better rails and jumps and adapting more technical skateboard tricks, but they still used stuff found around their environment like shopping carts, road cones, trash cans, etc. to use for obstacles.

The 90's is where inland skimboarding started to really take hold as a cult sport. Utah was next to have an inland skimboard scene that was actually influenced by Sacramento skimmers that transplanted there. Come the late 90's, inland skimboarding had steadily grown and had emerged in other US cities and in Canada and Australia.


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