About Sandskater
 Sandskater was
born out of a passion for the sport of skimboarding. Growing up on the English Rivera in Devon, we started
by making woody skimboards from our parents garage in whilst still at school in
1989.
With the worldwide increase in the popularity of
skimboarding, and the advent of the internet, we soon found we were disappointed with
the inability to get hold of high quality foam core skimboards in the United
Kingdom.
So in the summer of 2000 we officially founded
Sandskater to help promote and support the growing sport and lifestyle that is skimboarding.
Promotion
Since 2000, Sandskater has grown to be at the forefront of skimboarding
promotion in the UK.
Our continued commitment to offering free advice, coupled with
first class customer service and support, we have established our position at
the pinnacle of the sport. Our close ties with all the major players in the United
States allows us to stay in touch with all the latest developments,
and bring them to you first.
 Sandskater
Shop
5 years down the road, in November 2005, Sandskater took the leap from
internet retailer, to high street retailer by opening the first ever UK
skimboard shop, in Paignton Devon. Situated less than 5 minutes walk from the
main beach in Paignton, the shop is now the hub of both retail and internet
operations for the Sandskater team. Take a look at the Sandskater
shop photos.
Back at ya...
Sandskater doesn't just stop at supplying the latest skimboarding equipment. We recognise the
importance of supporting the growing skimboarding community. Sandskater run a regular
skim jam series across the country. These skim
jams are totally free events for all levels of skimboarder,
where riders of all abilities can come along to ride amongst other skimboarders
and pick up new tricks and techniques in a relaxed atmosphere.
 UK Skim Fest
Back in 2001, Sandskater organised the first ever skimboarding festival in the
United Kingdom. Based at Challaborough Bay in south Devon, the UK Skim Fest has
quickly become the highlight of the year for the UK skimboarding community. US
professional skimboarders make the trip over to the UK each year to demonstrate
exactly what can be done in UK conditions. This means the Skim Fest draws
skimboarders from all over the UK keen to get tips from some of the best
skimboarders in the world.
Our goal is the same as it has always been. To raise the profile of
skimboarding in the UK, and support the growing number of UK skimboarders with
quality skimboards, advice and events
With your support, you can help us grow skimboarding in the UK to a new level.
To date, Sandskater has been featured in:
Sandskater History - An insight into the roots of Sandskater
Sandskater
came about in 1989, when two school friends, Matt Martin and Paul Lakeman, were tasked with a
CDT (Craft Design & Technology) project whilst at school. As we were into bodyboarding and surfing,
we thought that it
would be a cool idea to try and build a skimboard for the school project, that could be used when the surf was flat. The very first board was not just a round piece of wood, it was shaped like a surfboard and had rocker
( or curvature) at the
front to allow it skim across the water. Through our knowledge of surfing, it was clear this would make a much more effective
skimboard than a round piece of wood. What we were unaware of at that time was that, in America they had
been doing this for years! Its just skimboarding had never taken off in the United Kingdom, and still hasn't to the degree it has in America.
After we left school we thought it would be a good idea to try and make some more boards, just for fun more than anything
else really. This is about the time that we came up with the name of Sandskater
Skimboards. Now we had an identity.
The boards were made in Matt's parents garage, both dealt with the shaping of the boards, but Paul also
dealt with the different
designs being added to the boards. Paul had come up with some artwork for a Sandskater logo, and these were added to the
boards as well. So in the following years we made several boards, trying out various designs and shapes and playing
around with different materials. Each board was tested at the local beach, by
ourselves.
 Living in a very tourist driven area, we were inundated with requests from tourists as to where they got the boards and
how much did they cost. We had to explain that the boards were home-made, and weren't available in the shops. But seeing a way to earn some money, we sold a few to the tourists. This is when it dawned on us that there could be money to be made out of
this!
Up until now the boards were only being used in flat water, no more than an half an inch thick. The tricks were being made up
as we went along, as there was no one doing skimboarding in the area, so there was no one to copy or get advice from.
Slowly we moved on to skimming out to small waves and carving off them and coming back in with the wave. This was
a lot more fun than just skimming on flat water.
 The next few years were spent learning different moves off of bigger waves, quite often
we hurt ourselves and sometimes other people in the process! In the pursuit of better waves,
we went around the Devon & Cornwall area of the UK looking for different wave set-ups and beaches. All the time, the boards that
we had been riding were being sold to people on the beach
who wanted to buy them.
Things went a bit dead around 1995-1999, as Paul went off to college and then
traveled around the world a bit, and Matt took a full time job. But still in the shed of Matt's parents house were around 15 unfinished boards!
We were still skimming regularly, but just not as much as we used to.
So, in 1999 or 2000, I can't remember which
year, whilst watching a satellite TV channel, I saw Bill Bryan for the
first time flow riding on the Wave Loch tour in Munich, Germany. When he
did his interview and said he was a professional skimboarder, I nearly
choked on my beer! I wondered how the hell a skimboarder could beat some
of the best surfers and snowboarders in the world. That moment ignited a
new found passion for skimboarding.
 I
scoured the internet for skimboarding sites, and came across Aaron Peluso's
Skimonline.com - Well that was it, I was hooked again, but my wood boards in
the garage would not cut it anymore. In April 2000 I ordered a Victoria
Ultra Vac from Greg at Skimcity in the USA - got it shipped over to the UK
and proceeded to learn a new way of skimming on a foam core board. Now I was
hooked again, and wanted more skim gear, but there was nowhere to get it in
the UK and buying from Greg in the USA proved expensive with shipping and
import charges.
In the autumn of 2000, the old Sandskater name was revived and the business started to promote
skimboarding and supply American made skimboards in the UK. Until that
time, it had been very difficult to get hold of American made skimboards in the
UK.
So that is a brief history of how we got started in
skimboarding. If you want further info on anything related to skimming,
then give us a call, but we warn you now, once we start talking about
skimming, you can't shut us up!!!
Related Info:
Sandskater Team
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