Words: Sydney Pizza
Jackalope Fest 2026 is here! Finally, one of the most anticipated skim events of the year, and a true team favorite skim contest has arrived. Jackalope Festival, put on by Tribu, is a crossover festival where almost every extreme sport from Moto Cross to skimboarding to vert skating meets in Virginia Beach, Virginia for a 3-day festival of greatness and non-stop action.
Day 1 is a wrap, and Team Zap is having a time! The day started off strong with a 7:30am call and an 8am start for the pros as conditions were expected to dissipate as the day went on due to increasing wind. The pro line up consisted of Mason Broussard, Gerardo Valencia, Elian Juarez, Eoin Lally, Zach Rubin, Pablo “Machete” Real, Chip Sanders, Sydney Pizza, and Nicole Phillips. Heats got underway with light winds coming out of the Northwest and a 1’-2’ swell, in some challenging conditions. Round one was a sneak peak of what the rest of the weekend has in store. Mason coming out of the gate strong took the win in his heat using the wind and his skate style to his advantage! Up next Elian using his effortless style and re-entry magic to his advantage also taking the win in his heat! Then we saw Gerardo and Zach take the win in heat 3 with ease, combos and more re-entries for secured spots in round two. Last but not least, a rising star this year Eoin and visiting Mexican team rider, Machete, taking the top two spots in the last heat of round one for a cleaned house round one for team Zap! Lining up round two for finals day to look good!
From there into the Pro Women, Syd and Nicole faced off with new pro Eve Redefer, showing all types of combos and three shuvs, the Pro Women are heating up and is some of the most entertaining skimboarding to watch! With a tough battle Syd will be meeting Eve in tomorrow’s final for 1st and 2nd.
Moving into the amateurs with the Masters division, Evan Rubin with clean and concise wave rides finding the opening faces as the tide dropped and the wind picked up was in a groove. With backside liners and clean pop shuvs he moved himself to the Masters final. Then came Semi-Pro action. Gio Tomasi, Will Grady and Evan Rubin all had great days working with the conditions, each in their own ways, found the right waves to make it through two rounds of Semi-Pro and into quarterfinals tomorrow. We also want to shout out Yuan for a great day battling through tough heats, and pushing limits with speed, he is one to look out for!]
Not only did these guys rip in their Semi-Pro heats, but their divisions were also on notice with the skill these boys brought. Will made it to Men’s semifinals tomorrow working through a mild ankle sprain, he is going to give it his all. He had great heats today with both frontside and backside re-entries and one of the few to consistently find an open face.
Rounding out the first day, the Boys Bashers were back in action, Gio and Brody in the opening two heats did fantastic! Both on their backhand with now upwards of 15 mile per hour winds out of the straight Northeast, used the wind to find liners that fit them both using every combo they have with nothing but style, won their heats and are into Semi-Finals tomorrow!
Be sure to tune into LiveHeats tomorrow for all of the finals action with all of your favorite team riders!
