2023 Vic Recap

📷 Nick Souza Photography

What an amazing weekend at the 46th Annual Vic World Championships of Skimboarding at Aliso Beach in Laguna Beach California!

First of all, hats off to Tex Haines and the Victoria crew for a smoothly-run event; getting the first heat in the water on Saturday right at 8am as scheduled. Huge thanks also go out to the judges for their tireless dedication to making sure that not only was the judging consistent, but also for keeping everyone safe. David Haefele specifically should definitely be given some sort of award for the workout he got, lifting and changing priority paddles for two days straight!

Thursday night, the team met up for a taco dinner, organized by Aaron, hosted at Colton’s house. Much miniramp skating, ping-pong, basketball, and laughing ensued. It’s always great to have the whole team (or as many as can make it) in one place.

Saturday morning saw foggy conditions for day one, making spotting incoming waves difficult, but as is often the case in Laguna, this burned off by lunchtime, and made for a beautiful afternoon of skimming. The combination of swell and wind direction was setting up some really long, fun liners all day.

By Sunday, the wave heights had dropped significantly, making for some challenging, but fun conditions. In the amateur divisions, scoring well required keeping a close eye on any options that arose to get a decent wave going to the right, as it was both upwind and against the swell direction.

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📷 @victoriaskimboards

When all was said and done, the Exile team proved to be a dominant force once again, holding down 4 of the top five spots on the Pro men’s podium. Blair Conklin added another Vic win to his long contest resume, with Lucas Fink coming in second in a very tight final. Timmy Gamboa and Dane Cameron battled it out in the later stages of the contest as well, taking 4th and 5th respectively.

In the women’s professional division, Jordan Sitea took 5th place in a very tough field of competitors.

With his second place finish, Lucas Fink locked up the UST championship for his third time. Parabens, Lucas!

In the amateur divisions, George Bryan took the W in 40-49, Steve Taylor came in 2nd place in 30-39, and in the highly competitive 12-14 division, Colton Ettwein and Dia Prietto took home 1st and 2nd respectively, in a barn-burner of a final that had the crowd on their feet for every minute of the ten minute heat. Newly-minted Exile team member Kaleo Prietto showed some of that Prietto style as he cruised to victory in the 9-11 division. Up and coming team rider Miles Prietto got an early birthday present by taking home the gold in 8 and under.

All in all, it was a great weekend, getting to see the skim family from both US coasts and beyond, and some great competition. Onward to Oktoberfest!

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📷 @victoriaskimboards