EVENT | 2025 Spring Fling Recap & Results

May 19, 2025

Photos: @devindmedia // Words: Sydney Pizza

We’re closing the books on another great weekend for team Zap! The team came together from near and far to meet up in none other than the Zap Skimboards capital, beautiful Nokomis Beach Florida. With over 140 competitors, the 5th annual Spring Fling Skim Jam presented by Zap Skimboards, was one to remember!

Per usual, team Zap had an epic weekend, cleaning house on the local break. It was not an easy weekend of conditions to get through as for most of both days, we saw glassy gulf coast conditions, that would turn into a wind chop bump by midafternoon, leaving nothing to the eye but so much to the imagination.

Starting both days off with the amateurs, we had action packed, non-stop mornings that would lead us into a grand finale with the professional men and women at the end of both days. Every year this contest holds a special place in Zap’s heart not just because it is a local contest, but because of the upcoming generation of skimmers that are on their way up, including the youngest Smetts and Boomhowers.

The amateurs were out in full force as we kicked off with the Mini Girls and Mini Boys divisions, moving our way into the Menehunes, to watch our “Menehune Monsters” Gio Tomasi, and Brody Chandler-Thompson, do some of their best work to make their way to the final, securing 1st and 3rd place respectively. Great job boys!

Next up were the Jr. Men, which was the most competitive division of the weekend with 27 competitors, where new team rider Yuan Bonhayag came out swinging with combos that he seemed he could do in his sleep! Yuan met up with team veteran Trent Moranda and weekend stand-out in the final to let the lightning shine through at the end, securing a 3rd place finish. Big shout out to Trent who had a fantastic weekend and skimmed near perfect heats with combos that were untouched by his competition. Combining aerial maneuvers and very steezy combos to finish his wave rides helped him secure a very well-deserved 1st place!

Moving up into the Women’s division and not slowing down by a hair, it was a sight to see with Kate Warrington dominating, showing off her style and effortless turns helping her secure the 1st place finish! A highlight ride was a wrap to no-comply to end her heat in style.

As if that was not enough excitement, we still had the Men’s division and Semi-Pro featuring top team riders and crowd favorites, Graham Shelton, Zach Rubin and Evan Rubin to show everyone what’s up. The guys skimmed through over 10 heats to get to the finals in both divisions, showing prowess and a great future for the upcoming professionals in our sport. Finding the far and few between faces of waves that opened up to demonstrate their style and speed as they completed very technical combinations non-stop! From air re-entries to shuv-its off the lip onto the flats, they guys did it all! Fantastic job guys!

We had a very special treat this weekend as Zap LEGEND Emanuel “Mega” Embaixador joined us for a week of fun leading up to the contest and of course the contest itself, and it was such a treat to watch him compete! Mega had a stand-out heat in the Senior Grandmasters division, showing everyone that age means nothing, skimming much like the Men’s division, securing the 1 st place finish with ease and style like his highest scoring waves.

As if all of that was not exciting enough, we still had the Professional Men and Women to get through! On Saturday we saw the first few rounds of both the Men and Women to set us up for some exciting quarter, semi and finals on Sunday. Opening the action was the Pro Women, with our new blood young gun, Nicole Phillips skimming her way with ease to the semi-finals after winning her first-round heat. Nicole was now matched up with Sydney Pizza in heat one and in heat two veteran ripper Casey McCullough matched up against Rylea Sinex. After some intense heats Casey and Syd were lined up to meet on Sunday in the final to skim for 1 st and 2 nd , with Nicole set to skim for 3rd and 4th place. Come Sunday and wow! The Professional Women are pushing limits and boundaries like never before, the final between Casey and Syd was wild, flopping back and forth between the two the entire time, both ladies throwing 3 shuvs, airs, and combos with plenty of style to go around, it was a sight to see! All in all Casey secured the win over Syd by 0.85, and Nicole did not let up the gas to make sure she got the 3rd place finish, very nicely done ladies!

For the Pro Men the action was non-stop! Top team riders Gerardo Valencia, Mason Broussard, Dylan Duncan, Dave “Monster” Armstrong, and Zeke Williams, all came out and gave it their all with nothing to work with. Another weekend stand-out Mason Broussard battled his way from round one all the way to the final skimming some of his best, and showing finesse like he does at the skate park. Full rotation frontside and backside 360 airs, 540shuv-its, bigger spins, late shuv-its and later big spins, Mason was the skimboarder to watch this weekend as he pulled out all the stops to skim his way to the top with a 1 st place finish racking up a heat total of 23.67 points. After a huge 2nd place finish in Cabo San Lucas, Gerardo came out and absolutely dominated winning every heat with style, finesse and raptor pilot magic making his way to the final to showdown against Mason. Dylan, Monster, and Zeke did not let them have it easy as the went back to back, round after round showing every kid on the beach what is possible! An unforgettable weekend for the crew, for full results, click here: https://liveheats.com/events/340508

Thanks again to all of our sponsors who made it an event to remember!