Dawn Patrol:

This week I was coming back from a south county run and it was so nice out I decided to take a beach walk.

A random impulse led me to one of the few stretches of Orange County shoreline I hadn’t walked before. It was a beautiful beach but the surf was all shore break. I was thinking about turning around when I saw a figure vaulting off the top of a wave about 300 yards in the distance.

Wow, someone was surfing down there — I had to check that out.

As I approached closer I realized I’d seen a skimboarder. Skimboarding is something I don’t know much about other than it looks very difficult. My memories are of those round plywood things people would try to glide on at low tide on a flat beach. Riding a wave with one wasn’t even a concept and I’d never been interested, but what I was about to see would be a revelation.

There were four or five young guys, I’m guessing around 20. Their lineup was on the sand, about 10 yards from the water, along the rock wall of the headland that ended the beach. Their boards were flat and rocket-shaped, about four feet long and maybe half an inch thick with no fins.

The swell would break into the rocky point and sometimes a refraction wave would be spawned that ran in the opposite direction, parallel to the shore. After 15-20 yards it would meet energy coming the other way, peak up and tube over, crashing on the sand.

When one of the riders saw the right conditions he’d sprint toward the water, throw the board out ahead of him, jump on it and start skimming toward the incoming wave face. Then he’d pump the board a few times which made it rapidly accelerate, and turn parallel, riding the wave just like a surfboard — except it was so much quicker.

After carving the wave for a while they’d sometimes go aerial, and other times crank a huge 180 degree turn into a wedging tube and disappear into a foam chamber. One wave two guys went together. They were screaming along and both went vertical. One spun 180 and it looked like they would collide. Just then they disappeared into a 10-foot plume of exploding white water.

It was the most astounding and skillful exhibition of wave riding I’ve witnessed. Imagine the wave knowledge required for surfing, the edge control of snowboarding, the vertical mindset of an extreme BMX rider and the athleticism of a gymnast — put them together and you get an idea of what these guys were doing.

They were a nice enough crew. I didn’t want to be too obtrusive in trying to chat them up because their attention was focused on the surf — waiting for just the right setup, but three identified themselves as “Stinnett”, “Sterman” (just in from Oahu) and “Julian.” I later learned I had stumbled upon some of the best skimmers in the world.

It was a session I’ll never forget and I’m skimboarding’s newest fan — I hope I know better than to try it, though.

JOHN BURTON’S surf column appears Fridays. He may be reached by e-mail at hot_dogger@mac.com.