Photos: @garetiscreative
Recently, team riders Nico Traykovski, Evan Rubin, and Zach Rubin, along with photographer Garet Pearson, packed their bags to head out for a skim strike mission to sunny California. The waves were pumping and the vibes were high. We caught up with them after the trip to see what each one had to say about the trip. Check it out below and enjoy the awesome pics from the trip!
"Going to California was honestly one of the best experiences I've had in a long time. After a long travel day, we got to In-N-Out burger around 4 pm, and from there, we went straight to the house where we were staying. My friend Matt met us at the house around 6 pm, and then drove to 1000 Steps Beach for our first sesh. Being able to run half my normal speed and still make it out to every wave I wanted to because of how steep the slope is was such an incredible feeling. The first couple of days we were there consisted of waking up at 6/6:30 am, going to skim for a couple hours, then relaxing back at the house. My family and I visited another family in San Diego one of the days so we got a short skim break which was much needed. Fast forward to Saturday, it was the best skim day I’ve ever had. A lot of the locals showed up and got some of the best barrels I've ever seen. It pushed me to do better, and I got a couple good waves that I was proud of. Looking back on the videos my dad and Zach took, I can definitely see progress from the first day to the last day, which was my goal in going to California." - Evan Rubin
"A little while back I got the opportunity to go out to Southern California after my semester ended. We ended up getting super lucky and scoring some consistent SSW swell for 5/6 days that we were there. We got super lucky to score a couple proper Aliso shorebreak days with many of the local crew out there. Although there were definitely a couple injuries, it was fun to skim with a bunch of guys ripping at their home break. We also got a couple sessions in with Mason Broussard who was in the area. Unfortunately, we did not get to score any siders working, but it didn’t even matter with how fun the skim was. Overall, it was a super fun action packed trip, with waking up at first light to go skim, then surfing in the afternoon, then back on the skim for sunset sessions. Huge thanks to the Rubins for letting me crash on their couch for the week and giving me a place to stay on an awesome trip." - Nico Traykovski
"Having the opportunity to travel to California for a skimcation was one of the best experiences I’ve had since I started skimming. We flew in Monday afternoon and headed to 1000 Steps Beach for a sunset session to get a feel for the power that California waves have. Going from 75° water to 60° water was unreal. The next few days were the same: waking up early for a morning session, grabbing lunch, showering, going through videos and pictures that Garet took, eating dinner, then going to bed. I was catching a couple waves here and there but going from flat Siesta Key to slope-y Aliso was a difficult adjustment in addition to timing the waves right. It was like starting skimming from scratch. However, on Friday, my trip turned upside down. My third wave of the session I turned too slow and got sent over the falls and dislocated my shoulder on the sand. Thankfully my dad popped it back in within 2 minutes. No more skim for me. Saturday and Sunday the sun came out and the skim was clean and many of the local pros came out. As I couldn’t skim, I filmed many of them and watching them skim their home break in person was awesome. As Nico said, Mason was there and I got to film a couple sick ones of him. The wind killed the waves on Monday so we didn’t skim but did a hike along the cliff faces near Dana Point which was a fun way to end the trip." - Zach Rubin
