This past weekend the Florida Pro/Am at Vilano Beach went down, and it was quite the event. This year had yet another great turnout — people from all around came to compete at one of the best skim breaks in Florida, and perhaps the whole East Coast.
The swell was pretty small and the conditions weren’t the best, but it did provide something for the competitors to show what they are made of. We were really impressed with the level of skimboarding coming from the younger divisions. The future of skimboarding is very bright in the hands of these up-and-coming groms.
In the Men’s Pro division, it was very competitive with the contest format boasting man on man heats starting in the quarterfinals. With man on man, the riders were able to relax and wait for the better waves — which made it more exciting for the spectators. The Women’s Pro riders were also exciting to watch as it is evident that they are pushing the sport for women with more and more progressive riding every contest.
Every year Steve puts on a crossover tour that features skateboarding, surfing, and skimboarding. Unfortunately, this year the tour only consisted of the skateboarding and skimboarding as the surfing part was cancelled due to weather at Typhoon Lagoon. The winner of the tour this year was our very own rider Stephen Bradford and we couldn’t be more stoked!
We would like to issue a special thanks to Steve Pullara at RDS for putting on such a great event and we are appreciative for all the effort he puts in to this event every year.
