…And we’re off, the 2025 skim season has officially started! The team traveled down to the infamous break of Melaque, Mexico with SkimUSA to link up with our Mexican crew for some good waves, tacos and an even better time for the 3rd annual Melaque Magia Skim Contest hosted by our very own Gerardo Valencia! Conditions were not Melaque’s best, but were fun and entertaining the whole weekend, especially with some of the sport’s best charging all day!
Saturday morning was glassy and clean, with a solid 2ft bump in the water, but as it rolled on shore the trough had the final say and catching a breaking wave was tricky. However, nothing is too tough for the professionals of our sport, as they kicked off the contest with the opening rounds. We saw “El Jefe” (Max Smetts) himself compete with local talent, as well as new team rider Emilio Zepol in the first round, working to meet and beat pre-seeded team riders, Gerardo & Yahir Valencia, Elian Juarez, and Pablo “Machete” Real. Working through tough heats, and changing conditions, the pros weren’t given a break til later in the day. Awaiting their next opportunities in round three we had some heavy matchups coming our way!
Moving right into the amateurs, we saw very promising things for the future of skimboarding. One of the newest additions to the Zap team, Oliver Brambila, is only 14 years old but skimming a level way beyond his years! Throwing 5-shuvs on the way out, backside 180’s off the lip and 3-shuv re-entries, Oliver advanced to the final in both his age division and the semi-pro division to take home first and second place respectively. Way to go, Oliver!
The professional quarter, semi and finals held off till the end of the day on Saturday as the forecast looked to be subpar on Sunday morning. Changing conditions added a slight breeze coming out of the south and the bump in the water had disappeared except for a set that would come through every 20ish minutes. Picking up where they left off, we had Elian and Machete in heat one and Yahir and Gerardo in heat two. Walking out of round three and into the “mano y mano” round four heats, were Yahir and Elian seeded against each other. After a very tough heat, moving on to the final to skim for first and second place was Elian, and Yahir to skim for third and fourth place. Both set to skim against very tough local talent. With a sprained ankle Elian finished in a very respectable second place, and Yahir let nothing stop him to claim a well-earned third place finish! Go ZAP!
Moving into the women’s side of things, our girl Sydney Pizza has spent pretty much the whole off season down in Melaque training and boy has it paid off! Syd skimmed a heat against local Irais Ibarra and moved onto the final to re-do last year’s match up against now two-time world champion, Chabe White. This is now Syd’s third time meeting Chabe in a final, and this was no less exciting than any other match between the two! Showing a wide variety of ability and strong technical combinations, while managing to find a barrel or two, Syd came out victorious, beating Chabe by 0.1! Way to go Syd, we cannot wait to see how she does the rest of the season!
Ending the day with the professionals, all that was left for Sunday was amateurs, with very exciting and stacked heats! To wrap up the contest we saw girls of all ages from as young as five years old compete and rip to 20+ years old charging and wrapping waves back to shore. There is great promise in the skim community down in Melaque, and we cannot wait to come back next year!
