Trish and I decided to give skimboarding a shot at ocean shores this weekend. I'd never so much looked at a skimboard, let alone tried it, but I can snowboard, and I used to skate when I was a teenager, so how hard could this be?
Well, hard enough to land on both my ass and face a few times. I jammed my left elbow a good one when I accidentally stiff-armed trying to break my fall. It's still pretty sore, along with a zillion other bumps and owies. Eventually got the hang of it, at least enough to get some good distance and stay on my feet. Trish didn't have as much luck. Her fear of wiping out was a bit of a factor. She wouldn't run up on it. Instead, she would throw it down slowly, run up TO it, and wind up just planting it in the sand. It's kind of the inevitable rule of all water/snow sports or anything else that requires balance: everybody falls starting out.
The water was surprisingly warm. The Washington Coast is generally not warm, or even "comfortable", but it was that day.
I found out that there are two different types of boards: flatland and waveboards. I'd really like to get a waveboard, but we don't really have the kind of waves that you need for it here. I don't know if it's worth a $300 investment for something I might take out once a year.
