Skim tourney benefits Waves of Impact

LAVALLETTE — Local teens, children and families came out to Brown Avenue beach on Friday, July 19 for Lavallette’s second annual skim competition, which benefited surfing education nonprofit Waves of Impact.

The entry fee was a pay-what-you-want donation of choice to Waves of Impact. Beginning at 8 a.m., older skimmers and groms (young surfers or skimmers) gathered on Brown Avenue’s beach to partake in the sport, which involves gliding atop waves on a skimboard. A skimboard resembles a smaller, finless surfboard; the skimmers run down the shore to ride across a wave as it breaks toward the shoreline.

Organizer John Fata, a skimboard enthusiast since he was 4 years old, explained that the idea of the competition came from wanting to share his love for skimboarding with the community.

“First, I love skimboarding,” Fata said. “Second of all, like the skim community down here in Lavallette, like this area, is not the strongest, so I wanted to bring everyone together.”

This year, the competition garnered 52 contestants, almost doubling the count from its debut last year. The divisions, or heats, as they’re referred to, are separated by age: groms, 10- to 12-year-olds, 13- to 15-year-olds, 16 and older and advanced. The contest uses a program called Liveheats to score contestants one through 10 on their wave.

In the advanced category, Josh Wright took first place, followed by Russ Sullivan in second, Dennis Hall in third and Jett Branagh in fourth.

Rachel Romeo received first place in the girls 16 and older division.

Chris Sennett took the prize for first place in the boys 13-15 category, with Anthony Caponegro taking second place.

For the girl groms, Molly Hall received first place.

Winners took home a variety of prizes including T-shirts, medals, posters, stickers, gift cards, a new skimboard and more.

Next year, Fata told The Ocean Star he plans to continue to grow and improve the event by “getting it out to everyone, getting better prizes and making sure everyone’s having a good time here — right here — today.”

This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Ocean Star —on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.

Check out our other Lavallette stories, updated daily. And remember to pick up a copy of The Ocean Star —on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition .

Subscribe today! If you're not already an annual subscriber to The Ocean Star , get your subscription today! For just $38 per year, you will receive local mail delivery weekly, with pages and pages of local news and online access to our e-edition on Starnewsgroup.com.