New Zealand's best stone skimmers got the chance to show off their skills at Wānaka's Lake Hāwea this weekend.
The inaugural Aotearoa Stone Skimming Championship just wrapped up this weekend, with the money raised by the event going to Melanoma NZ.
Organiser Richie Laming says an event like this had been floated at Lake Hāwea in the past - and it's a prime location to skip stones.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Once just a casual KEEPI pastime, stone skimming in New
Zealand has now hit the big time. Yesterday the inaugural
alter Stone Skimming Championship was late held at the beautiful
Lake are were with two national champions crowned. The competition
has been organized to raise funds for Melanoma New Zealand.
As organizer of the event, Richie Lamming Lambing joins me. Now,
(00:34):
good morning, Richie.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Good morning, and how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm very good. Tell me how did the idea for
a national skimming championship come about?
Speaker 4 (00:43):
It had already been always been floated down here at
Lake Hawia with our beautiful lake, beautiful surrounds in Central
Otago prime schist stones, which as per Earth Sciences New
Zealand were voted the best skimming stones in New Zealand
to skim. But it was a serendipitous event at the
World Stone Skimming Championship, a cheating scandal that basically gave
us some leverage and in a realization that stone skimming
(01:05):
in New Zealand is more than just a pastime.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Okay, So how do you select the stones? Because of
course stone selection is key to a good.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Skim right, that's where it all starts. And we have
a device that we've called the schimometer.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
It's basically a ring of truth and the stones for
the alted our stones coming championship had to be within
three inches in diameter, so they had to fall within
that ring of truth. But when it comes to selecting
a good stone, think about surfing, or think about water skiing.
They use rails to turn. You do really want rails
in your stone. You want rounded edges and ideally a
(01:39):
convex surface so there's going to be less friction.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
On the water.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
But as per the National Champion open male category yesterday,
he had a stone which he thought was a dud
and it went the furthest in the open male category.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
So it just goes to show sometimes.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
The winning throw for the open male category yesterday was
fifty two meters, But an even better story blew everyone
out of the water. Abe McDonald aka skimmed Old Millionaire.
She threw seventy two meters. She threw the furthest of
the day by I think it was about year by
a good twenty meters so and.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Abbey's an incredible athlete.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
She'll be off to Scotland to compete in the World
Stones Coming Championship in September.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
That is incredible. Just could just go back to the
skimming competition overseas where there was the cheating scandal. How
do you cheat you?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
So, yeah, so if you tamper with your stones. So
as part of the regulatory framework on stone selection at
the World's they actually some people brought sandpaper and so
nefarious activity. They sanded down their stones the idea that
they were going to skim further. So what we introduced
this year, which the athletes didn't know about, was this
anti cheating framework where once they actually registered their stones,
(02:55):
we took them away from them so they couldn't tamper
with them until they actually threw.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
So it just put everyone on an even keel there.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's so funny. I was going to say to you,
was it is as simple as a bit of sandpaper
and the po but use it is. What's the difference
between skimming and skipping? They are different, aren't they They are?
Speaker 4 (03:12):
They both have their place when it comes to a
stone skimming competition. So skimming is verified on the distance.
But skipping is how many times it actually touches the water.
But so force skipping and a stone skimming competition, the
stone has to skip at least twice to actually be
called a valid skim. But Kurt Steiner holds the current
world record for stone skipping, which is eighty eight bounces
(03:35):
on the water.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
But then we have Dougie Isaac's the.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Current world record holder for stone skimming at one hundred
and twenty one meters, So they both had their place,
but they're just natural variance on stone.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I'm not as good at skimming or skipping as I
thought it was. Apparently, how do you measure these throws?
All eighty eight skipping hops?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
We had an intense training camp with where a group
of stone skimming delegates and the experts called Task Force Skim,
And basically we had a lane system set up by
the wonderful Marine Sports and Monika was that lane had
ten meter increments and then in between those ten meter
boys there were too many two meter boys as well.
So our task for skim are land marshals. They would
(04:18):
line up along that laying system and they would just
operate within a ten meter bandwidth. So where that stone landed.
They would actually be able to verify whether it was
a twenty seven or twenty eight meter throw. However, once
we got to the finals, we used far more expertise.
We had sudden land development consultants and the BEDS videographers
and they were able to use both triangulation with surveying
(04:40):
technology and then drones as well would actually verify within
centimeters how far the furtherest throws actually skimmed.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Oh looks such fun, richie, But also you've raised money
for a really good cause, Melanoma New Zealand. How much
did you manage to raise?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
We raised over thirty thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
We're going to do the count today, but going into
yesterday we had already raised thirty thousand dollars. But the
wonderful thing I guess about the event yesterday, as we
had small and more entertaining events, the auction especially brought
out the competitive streak, as did stone scamming, so the
auction actually really went gangbusters. We're expecting once we do
the final tally, I expect we could be over forty
(05:19):
thousand dollars for Melanoma New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Oh fantastic, and thank you so much for joining me
this morning, Richie, really appreciate appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it' B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Once just a casual KEEPI pastime, stone skimming in New
Zealand has now hit the big time. Yesterday the inaugural
alter Stone Skimming Championship was late held at the beautiful
Lake are were with two national champions crowned. The competition
has been organized to raise funds for Melanoma New Zealand.
As organizer of the event, Richie Lamming Lambing joins me. Now,
(00:34):
good morning, Richie.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Good morning, and how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm very good. Tell me how did the idea for
a national skimming championship come about?
Speaker 4 (00:43):
It had already been always been floated down here at
Lake Hawia with our beautiful lake, beautiful surrounds in Central
Otago prime schist stones, which as per Earth Sciences New
Zealand were voted the best skimming stones in New Zealand
to skim. But it was a serendipitous event at the
World Stone Skimming Championship, a cheating scandal that basically gave
us some leverage and in a realization that stone skimming
(01:05):
in New Zealand is more than just a pastime.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Okay, So how do you select the stones? Because of
course stone selection is key to a good.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Skim right, that's where it all starts. And we have
a device that we've called the schimometer.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
It's basically a ring of truth and the stones for
the alted our stones coming championship had to be within
three inches in diameter, so they had to fall within
that ring of truth. But when it comes to selecting
a good stone, think about surfing, or think about water skiing.
They use rails to turn. You do really want rails
in your stone. You want rounded edges and ideally a
(01:39):
convex surface so there's going to be less friction.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
On the water.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
But as per the National Champion open male category yesterday,
he had a stone which he thought was a dud
and it went the furthest in the open male category.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
So it just goes to show sometimes.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
The winning throw for the open male category yesterday was
fifty two meters, But an even better story blew everyone
out of the water. Abe McDonald aka skimmed Old Millionaire.
She threw seventy two meters. She threw the furthest of
the day by I think it was about year by
a good twenty meters so and.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Abbey's an incredible athlete.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
She'll be off to Scotland to compete in the World
Stones Coming Championship in September.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
That is incredible. Just could just go back to the
skimming competition overseas where there was the cheating scandal. How
do you cheat you?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
So, yeah, so if you tamper with your stones. So
as part of the regulatory framework on stone selection at
the World's they actually some people brought sandpaper and so
nefarious activity. They sanded down their stones the idea that
they were going to skim further. So what we introduced
this year, which the athletes didn't know about, was this
anti cheating framework where once they actually registered their stones,
(02:55):
we took them away from them so they couldn't tamper
with them until they actually threw.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
So it just put everyone on an even keel there.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's so funny. I was going to say to you,
was it is as simple as a bit of sandpaper
and the po but use it is. What's the difference
between skimming and skipping? They are different, aren't they They are?
Speaker 4 (03:12):
They both have their place when it comes to a
stone skimming competition. So skimming is verified on the distance.
But skipping is how many times it actually touches the water.
But so force skipping and a stone skimming competition, the
stone has to skip at least twice to actually be
called a valid skim. But Kurt Steiner holds the current
world record for stone skipping, which is eighty eight bounces
(03:35):
on the water.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
But then we have Dougie Isaac's the.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Current world record holder for stone skimming at one hundred
and twenty one meters, So they both had their place,
but they're just natural variance on stone.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I'm not as good at skimming or skipping as I
thought it was. Apparently, how do you measure these throws?
All eighty eight skipping hops?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
We had an intense training camp with where a group
of stone skimming delegates and the experts called Task Force Skim,
And basically we had a lane system set up by
the wonderful Marine Sports and Monika was that lane had
ten meter increments and then in between those ten meter
boys there were too many two meter boys as well.
So our task for skim are land marshals. They would
(04:18):
line up along that laying system and they would just
operate within a ten meter bandwidth. So where that stone landed.
They would actually be able to verify whether it was
a twenty seven or twenty eight meter throw. However, once
we got to the finals, we used far more expertise.
We had sudden land development consultants and the BEDS videographers
and they were able to use both triangulation with surveying
(04:40):
technology and then drones as well would actually verify within
centimeters how far the furtherest throws actually skimmed.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Oh looks such fun, richie, But also you've raised money
for a really good cause, Melanoma New Zealand. How much
did you manage to raise?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
We raised over thirty thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
We're going to do the count today, but going into
yesterday we had already raised thirty thousand dollars. But the
wonderful thing I guess about the event yesterday, as we
had small and more entertaining events, the auction especially brought
out the competitive streak, as did stone scamming, so the
auction actually really went gangbusters. We're expecting once we do
the final tally, I expect we could be over forty
(05:19):
thousand dollars for Melanoma New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Oh fantastic, and thank you so much for joining me
this morning, Richie, really appreciate appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it' B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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