Professional skimboarder Austin Keen has become a bit of a wunderkind when it comes to taking the fundamental element of his sport – skimming out to a wave, and riding it – and taking it to new heights.
From skimming from the shorelines of lakes out to boat wakes to attaching giant bungee cords to the back of boats, Austin’s antics are highly watchable.
Recently, Keen got the nod to spend a day at the Surf Ranch in Lemoore, and may have pulled the first skim-in entry to barrel ever achieved at the pool.
“Here it is,” wrote Austin on Instagram, “my first ever attempt at skimming out to the Kelly Slater Wave at the WSL Surf Ranch! Everyone was frothing over the slide out to the wave, and if you look closely you can see me shaking like a leaf, hoping I time it right, slide out far enough, and [thinking] don’t blow it!
“There’s still a lot of work to be done to have skimboarding as an accepted form of surfing at the pool, however I am extremely grateful to all the friendly and accommodating lifeguards and staff that gave me a crack at skimming out to the wave! Upper management had some safety concerns that I was respectful of so I only had a couple attempts at skimming into it. Another obstacle and concern was not having a leash attached to the board, So I asked the maintenance guy to drill a half inch hole into my board so I could attach a surf leash and continue to skim the pool starting from the jet ski. This obviously took shuvits out of the equation, which really wasn’t going through my mind while slotted into a perfect barrel.”