Words: Sydney Pizza // Media: @devindmedia
Coming at you from Dewey Beach Delaware, August 7th, 2026. The start of the 44th annual Zap Pro/Am World Championships of Skimboarding is here, and we are frothing for it. A sunny day, with not a cloud in the sky, clean and glassy 1–3-foot conditions ALL DAY, and a beautiful southwest wind slowly building as the day went on, it really doesn’t get much better than that. Today and this weekend are showing to be all-time Dewey, and the best conditions we have at this contest in the last five years.
The record-breaking attendance of over 200 competitors has given us three full days of skimming and non-stop action, and there is no better way to start that off than with the Professional Men and Women. In attendance we have Casey McCullough, Gerardo Valencia, Sydney Pizza, Leo Freitas, Alex Yokley, Mason Broussard, Elian Juarez, ET Beaugrand, Kika Freire, Kate Warrington, Lucas McCoy, Eoin Lally, Juan “Machete” Real, Emma Okoniewski, and Zach Rubin. The Pro Women hit the water first with Kika vs Syd vs Kate. Showing a wide variety of maneuvers, and some light tech to warm up the crowd, Kika and Syd took the top spots to move on to round two and join the rest of the pro ladies. Straight into the first round of pro men, team standouts were Elian Juarez, and Leo Freitas both winning their respective heats with ease, style and combos that they made look way too easy! Also joining round two were Eoin Lally, Mason Broussard, Gerardo Valencia, and ET Beaugrand. All the guys are ripping doing three shuvs out, five shuvs in, big spins off the lip, crazy re-entries, and bigger spins up the beach. Liners line these are blank canvases to our Zap boys.
The Pro Women were back in action, and just like she never left, Casey was on her A-game today, finding liner to barrel after barrel after barrel. Alex killed it with innovative tech for the ladies, and Syd stuck to her guns with smooth style, and some tricks on the lip to make it through to tomorrow. Back to the Pro Men, Leo and Elian yet again won their respective heats and are secured into round three along with Mason! Way to go guys!
Straight into the amateur divisions our Grand(Tent)Master Alex Bevard showed up today with some excellent style, and smooth combos to without a doubt take the win in his seeding heat! Then the Mini Girls and the Semi-Pros hit the water. With a great performance in his opening heat, Trent Moranda had a day! With massive air re-entries, and tech beyond his years, he’s looking to have a great weekend. Also advancing to the next round was Gio Tomasi! He absolutely ripped with ease down the line on his front hand, throwing three shuvs up the beach and 360s on the lip, he killed it! Evan Rubin, and Yuan Bonhayag also had very successful Semi-Pro heats, with more three shuvs and big spins from Evan and enough speed for ten people from Yuan, all the boys have proven exactly why they are where they are today!
From there we went into the opening rounds of Jr. Women, Jr. Men, Boys, Masters and to close out the day the Menehunes. In the Jr. Mens division, yet again Yuan had a great heat, he carries so much speed and it looks effortless which is not an easy task to do. Allowing him to rip three shuvs, five shuvs and bigger spins like they are nothing, not to mention how he flies down the line!
The Boys division had a ball with Gio Tomasi and Brody Chandler-Thompson doing their day-to-day tearing it up. From speedy liners from one end of the contest site to the other, three shuvs in the pocket and back up the beach, big spins on the lip, and the most stylish turns both boys advanced with ease into the second round and into day two! To round out the day for team Zap the Masters division let Evan Rubin loose to do what he does best, flow and rip. Scoring as high as a 6.90 Evan dominated his heat with tricks to the waves, on the liners, and back up the beach, it was effortless and stylish separating him from the pack with ease.
Day two is going to be action packed with the first heat of Pro Men hitting the Water at 8am, we can’t wait!
Check out the LIVESTREAM OF THE EVENT HERE!