EVERETT — They slide across sand, spinning, flying off ramps and doing the occasional handstand.
That’s modern skimboarding, and this Saturday Jetty Island will host the second annual Puget Sound Throw Down. The open competition offers prizes in several categories for the flatland water sport, where riders skim across shallow water on a board.
The event is the brainchild of a group of young men who grew up in Lynnwood and were looking for a way to have fun.
“We are a crew of four guys who get together and ride,” said Marty Ferguson, 23, one of the organizers of this weekend’s contest. The group formed its own team, Lakeside Skimboarding, and try to be a local resource for the sport.
Soft sand with a couple inches of water is ideal for flatland skimboarding, said Ferguson, who lives in Seattle and studies political science at the University of Washington.
Ferguson got pulled into the sport by friends when he was growing up in Lynnwood. They made boards out of plywood and hit the beach at Martha Lake.
Last summer, the crew put on a skimboarding event at Howarth Park in Everett, one of the top spots in the area to go skimboarding, Ferguson said.
“We wanted to host an event that everyone in the community can enjoy,” he said. “It’s definitely picked up since last year’s event.”
Do people come up to Ferguson with questions when he is skimming on the beach? “Yeah, like all the time. Especially when you have ramps in the water. They want to see you do it in front of them,” he said.
On a sunny, low-tide day, some 30 skimboarders can be seen sliding across the wet sand at Howarth Park, Ferguson said.
For Ferguson, the sport is more fun than other board sports. “It’s not as mainstream,” he said. “You can be extremely creative.”
Once you pick it up, you can challenge yourself to learn extremely technical tricks that include jumping from ramps, doing 540-degree spins and sliding handstands, Ferguson said.
Skimboarding is a relatively new sport, so it’s evolving quickly, Ferguson said.
“I’d like to see skimboarding spread and be more well-known. It’s still so up and coming,” he said.
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
What is it? Find out Saturday
Show off your skills or watch others at the second annual Puget Sound Throw Down on Jetty Island this Saturday.
Registration begins at 10 a.m. Don’t forget your $10. Jam starts at 12:30 p.m. Raffle and awards are at 4 p.m.
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