Skimming stones under pressure

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, October 3rd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Finally this week: getting serious about skipping stones.

Turn off the screens, step outside, and rediscover a simple joy.

BROWN: That’s what’s happening in Western Pennsylvania, a childhood pastime has become a semi-serious competition, complete with trophies and world-record holders.

WORLD correspondent Amy Lewis paid a visit to the Rock in River Festival to meet some of the competitors.

SULLY: I would have got first if Ben wouldn't get 31.

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: Sullivan is seven years old.

SULLY: Most of my friends call me Sully. That's my nickname.

Sully recently won second place in the rock skipping competition for kids when his rock skipped 29 times on its way across the Alleghany River in Franklin, Pennsylvania. His 8-year-old friend Ben won with 31.

BEN: Yeah, he would have gotten first. He was still gonna share the fudge with me, though. (Yeah.)

These two friends take skipping rocks seriously…but not too seriously.

BEN: Oh yeah, yeah. It's something we do.

SULLY: It's just something we do for our life.

Rock skipping isn’t new…it’s been around for millenia…there’s just something about a smooth rock and a body of water that calls out for the challenge…But twenty years ago, enthusiasts took it up a notch or two.

STEINER: 2000, 2002, I would say, I kind of reinvented things a little…

That’s Kurt Steiner.

[cont.]...kind of, kind of brought a sports science, ergonomics, kind of approach to, and physics to, well, it's really just kind of a naive and natural reflex.

He’s throwing in Franklin’s professional category. That means he’s already achieved at least 30 skips. Steiner is the rock skipping world champion and world record holder.

STEINER: (LEWIS: What’s your record?) 88. Yeah. So 88 clear skips. I had three judges, all engineers of one kind or another from around the world, aeronautics and physics, and they gave an 88, an 89, and a 90. So I submitted the 88…For the record, my personal count was a 91 (laughs).

In the early years of this festival, he and another local, Russ Byars, swapped first places and world records. Steiner says the friendly competition motivated him to turn rock skipping into a science.

STEINER: The key difference is that I attack the water very close in…[10:37] landing within four or five feet of my body, and I also used a middle finger grip.

Steiner is in his 60s. Winning against the younger skippers is getting harder.

STEINER: I'll try to dig down a little bit for today. I would like to win this once more. But, boy. I could do it. Maybe, maybe I'll do it.

In the UK, throwing rocks across the water is called skimming and competitors go for distance. Japanese mizu kiri rock skipping competitions focus on aesthetics with two people competing simultaneously.

ANNOUNCER: Alright amateur competitors, I have a quick change to the rules today. Quick change…

Ben and Sully have their lemonade and fudge, and they gather at the Alleghany River shore to watch the amateur class.

ANNOUNCER: There's 55 of you, which is absolutely stellar. We're going to do sets of stones in three.

Competitors come from around Pennsylvania and other states and even other countries. Last year’s winner came from Japan.

The watching crowd means there’s pressure to perform. Young Ben felt it earlier.

BEN: I don’t, I don’t get it. I'm always throwing pretty good when I'm not in the competition, and then I get into the competition and I'm not throwing good.

A competitor’s stone might plonk—or sink. So each person gets several tries.

SOUND: ROCK PLUNKING

Amateur skipper Guy “No Kerplunkle” Dunkle tried a new method this year.

DUNKLE: Don't throw the rock. Spin the rock. You don't have to throw hard, you don't have to go for distance. You need to make the rock rotate.

Contestant Kachina Earhart often skips rocks of shale. But today she’s using rounder sandstone.

EARHART: My granddad taught me, and I teach kids…I'm a camp counselor, and I specifically do the outdoor program. So I teach them how to skip rocks.

Many people arrive at the festival with buckets of carefully selected rocks from secret locations. Earhart says practice rocks don’t have to be perfect.

EARHART: Find the biggest, bulkiest, weirdest shaped rock that you can and say, ‘I'm going to get two skips out of this.’ Start throwing things that shouldn't skip, and then you find a flat rock and like, ooh, that sails!

The ones that sail make counting difficult for the judges because of all the little skips at the end.

JUDGES: 19. I had 22. I had 19. 20? Okay, 13 , 7, and a 20 with a high score of 23 on the day.

JUDGE: So the High Commissioner has the final word. (Are you the High Commissioner?) I am indeed. Yes. We confer, and then it's up to him. Yeah, sometimes it's a judgment, but a lot of times it's all science.

ANNOUNCER: For those enterprising amateurs out there, like this young man next to me, if you throw 30 or more skips you will be eligible to enter the professional ranks…

The 27 professional skippers are the big draw of the day. Amateurs gather around and take note of their form and style to emulate in their own practice over the next year. Others just sit and marvel at the pure beauty of rocks skimming across the river and sending up tiny sprays of water on each skip.

In the end, Steiner got 41 skips and walked away with a large trophy. Amateur Guy “No Kerplunkle” Dunkle missed joining the pros by one skip.

ANNOUNCER: But he did stay true to that name and no “kerplunkle.” High score of 29 today. Great job, man. Great job.

Professional rock skipper Collin “Noodles” Hales says afterwards the tradition is to wade into the river to recover the skipped rocks. Especially the winning ones.

COLLIN: So ya bring some swim trunks and water shoes and your bucket out there and, like, so, yeah, so the further you go, the further the rock got. So people try to get the winning rock.

It’s the part Ben likes best.

BEN: It’s my favorite part, it's my favorite. I could find my 30 one. My 30 one like, went straight. So I’ll try to find it.

He’s got a pretty good idea of where to look.

BEN: If you can see the middle of that guy's stream, that was probably where it was. (Announcer: Oil City, Pennsylvania) It wasn't very far, but it was a lot of skips.

Alternate ending:

Next time you find yourself next to a lake or river, Ben has a few tips.

BEN: Plant your feet and throw the rock at an angle like, like this, kinda…not flat to the water, like angled up a little bit, and also flat rocks, obviously.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Franklin, Pennsylvania.

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