Skimboards

The earliest known record of skimboarding goes back to 1920 in Laguna Beach, CA.There are photographs from that time period of Laguna Beach lifeguards skimming along the sand on large plywood boards. Skimboarding continued to grow in Laguna over the first half of the century, as well as worldwide, as people everywhere fashioned home-made wood boards out of plywood and used them at their local beaches.The skimboard is a craft of varying size, usually of some oval or tear-drop shape. The tail of the board is most commonly pintail though custom shaped boards are occasionally squash-tail or fishtail. The front of the board usually comes to a point with some exceptions where the nose of the board has a more rounded shape. The best size board, in most cases is about your mid-chest height. Modern skimboards are made out of fiberglass or carbon fiber and take advantage of a high density foam to serve as a core. The fiberglass/carbon fiber is a fabric which becomes stiff when saturated with resin and left to cure. When this fiberglass skimboards or carbon fiber is laid over a shaped piece of foam, saturated with resin and left to cure, a skimboard is made. Compared to a surfboard or bodyboard of similar areas, skimboards are not very buoyant. Most skimboards are between 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch thick. Most Fiberglass skimboards will have some nose lift, or rocker, in addition most advanced models will also have a slight rocker in the tail. Often an Arch Bar and/or foot traction pad made of soft foam rubber will be added on the deck of the board after purchase to improve traction. If the board does not have a stomp pad, surf wax can be used.