If you like extreme action sports, then the Jackalope Festival is for you. It started in Canada as a skateboarding platform and has grown into an event comparable to the X-Games. Last year was the first time the festival came to the USA and the first time it was located at the beach. With great success from last year, they decided to come back for 2024. This year, they had bouldering, base jumping, skateboarding, street and vert, motocross, skimboarding, and live music. There were 47,016 attendees from Friday through Sunday. Their mission has always been the same: “To promote action sports by giving communities from all over the world opportunities to come together, celebrate their passion, and reach new heights.”
Participating in JACKALOPE is a unique opportunity to compete with some of the best athletes from around the globe, share memories of being on the world stage, and show the rest of the earth what we are capable of. “Everyone has a chance, and anything is possible. This is THE Festival where legends are born.”
Last year was epic and had many firsts. It was the first time Jackalope came to the USA, the first time they had a festival at the beach, and the first time skimboarding was incorporated into a world stage event. We had so much fun last year that Tiffany and I decided we could not miss this year. We packed our bags and headed to Orlando on Friday morning to catch a jet to Norfolk, Virginia. The flight was smooth, and with excitement running through our veins as we landed, we snagged an Uber and headed to Virginia Beach. I instantly texted our good friend and contest host Victor Enriques from Skimmunity House to let him know we were in town and see if he needed help setting up. When we pulled into our hotel parking lot, the Zap Skimboard van was parked there, along with a truck with Virginia plates and a huge Shore lb. sticker on the back. We instantly felt at home and knew we had picked the right hotel to stay in. We threw our bags in the room and headed to the beach as soon as we could; we could not contain our excitement! When we got to the corner of Beach Front Avenue and Neptune Park, we ran into Toby, the head of Skim USA, and it all began!
As we crossed the street, you could instantly feel an adrenaline rush. It was still early, and the competition did not start until the afternoon. Workers were putting the final touches on the signage and getting everything ready to rock. As we got to the boardwalk, the excitement increased, and you could see the street skate park built on the beach as well as the 14-foot vert ramp that looked like 30 feet on the other side of the skim contest area. Not sure if it’s an issue of mine or just something that clears my head, but I have to walk down to the water and check the waves before I do anything when we are on a surf or skim trip. It calms my mind, and I can’t think until I do it. As I ran into numerous friends and instantly felt like a rockstar, I checked the waves and then went to check in as an athlete for the Jackalope Fest. The second they put the athlete bracelet on my wrist, I felt like an absolute VIP, and Virginia Beach continued to treat us like that from the second we landed until we flew out.
This year, the skimboard portion of the contest was hosted by the Skimmunity House and sanctioned by Skim USA. There were 85 contestants from both coasts and Mexico, with a pro purse of $7,500. With a head-to-head pro final between Mason Broussard (@atv_mason) and Dylan Duncan (@skimdylan), it was intense. This was Dylan’s first final since he turned professional last year at the Shore Lb. Mulligans Skim Jam, and Mason was coming off of a win in Nokomis. The final scores were separated by 1.4, and Mason took the win this year. Dylan was still stoked to make it to the finals and was thankful for the Shore Lb. team for all their support. Sydney Pizza (@skimsyd) took 1st in women’s pro, and Cooper Forcucci (@cooperforcucci), Shore Lb. team rider, took 1st in semipro and chose to stay amateur.
This year, the contest leveled up even more by bringing Jake McKnight (@skimmilkforlife) and his whole flatland skim crew to the scene. They brought their flatland inflatable skim pool out onto the beach and allowed any competitor from any sport to try their hand at flatland skimboarding. They even got some of the professional skateboarders to come down and play a game of skim against some of the groms.
The conditions were way better than last year for the contest. There was a small ground swell with offshore winds that made for small but fun skim. Last year, we had a cold north wind blowing to the point that I brought my full suit this year and never even put on my topper because it was so warm and nice. During the contest, the base jumpers were doing their contest and landing right behind us. We got to meet up with Virginia Beach local Pinecone after he landed one of the closest people to the bull’s-eye. His stoke was high, and he came to watch the skim contest with his crew after their contest.
Personally, I would like to thank Victor for advocating for the sport of skimboarding and allowing us to become a part of the Jackalope Fest on a platform where the world can see our sport. I was able to catch up with him a week after the contest when the stoke was still high to get his opinion on how the festival went. He felt the same way and said, “Adding the Jackalope Festival was a huge leap for the sport of skimboarding.” Then by “bringing the flatland pool and skim milk on board, it was able to involve more kids in the sport and help grow the younger generation of skimmers and show them that you don’t necessarily need a beach or an ocean to participate in our sport.”
I would personally like to thank Victor, the Skimmunity House, Skim USA Virginia Beach, and the Jackalope Fest for treating us like absolute rockstars and VIPs all weekend long. I promise you I will not miss a Jackalope Fest in Virginia Beach as long as I live!
As we packed up and got on our plane we met two 10 year old twins and their family from Huston, Jayden and Jaxon (a.twins_sb). They competed in the vertical skate and took 2nd and 5th in their age bracket. They also came over to the flatland pool and skimmed after their heat this weekend. They had so much fun that they took their prize money and bought Skimboards from Atlantic Surf Shop and ship them home. This was the icing on the cake for me to realize this weekend that the sport of Skimboarding had truly taken one huge leap in the world of extreme sports. We will be looking forward to Jackalope Fest 2025 for a full year and hope to see you there.
Maximum Respect
Chris