While growing up as a teen in inland Florida, Amber Torrealba would toss a bodyboard across shallow puddles of water and jump on, gliding across the water’s surface.
The avid skateboarder didn’t know it at the time two decades ago, but those early thrills would be the foundation for a lifelong love of skimboarding, a sport few females were doing at the time.
“Action sports was my freedom, passion and independence,” said Torrealba, who moved to Laguna Niguel eight years ago to be closer to Orange County’s thriving skim scene. “Skimboarding was like skateboarding on water.”
Skimboarders will overtake Aliso Beach this weekend for the Vic, as it’s dubbed, a pro and amateur contest created 46 years ago by Laguna Beach-based Victoria Skimboards. It’s considered the most prestigious of the skimboarding contests held around the world.
The two-day event, kicking off Aug. 26, brings an international field of competitors from as far away as Japan and Brazil, athletes pushing limits on sand and in the surf.
“We’ve got a lot of history at this contest as we go into our 46th year,” said Tex Haines, owner of Victoria Skimboards who created the brand in 1976 along with Peter Prietto.
Laguna Beach is the birthplace of skimboarding, dating back to the 1920s when Laguna lifeguards threw down planks of wood to glide across shallow water during their downtime.
Much has changed since those early days as riders push limits in big shorebreak waves that crash on shallow sand, doing big turns and aerials above the top of the waves, tucking into barrels or spinning their thin, small boards under their feet.
Laguna Beach native Johnny Salta started competing in the event when he was about 10 years old. It’s his favorite stop on the United Skim Tour.
“It’s one of my biggest motivations in life, growing up,” said Salta, now 32. “I was inspired by the guys who were older than me and still doing really well in the sport, and it’s in the area where…
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