Words: Sydney Pizza // Media: @devindmedia
The 2025 Jackalope festival has come to a close and it ended with a bang! This year Jackalope was bigger and better than ever, and we were right in the middle of it all!
Let’s set the scene…to the left of the contest area was the classic vert ramp, right behind the scaffolding was a sick BMX set up with a Monster energy hang out area, and to the right of our beautiful Zap tent was a wakeboarding demo area and a flatland skim pool, not to mention the epic view of the high-line wire and base jumpers. A little bit of everything for all!
We had quite the weekend with a strong team showing and great all-around performances to back it up Jackalope 2025 went down as one for the books! Saturday and Sunday help beautiful beach days showcasing that summer is finally here! A slight breeze coming out of the south shifting throughout the day with a solid 1’-2’ swell and beautiful peeling liner was picturesque for the festival weekend. While conditions did not hold perfectly and progressively got smaller as the weekend went on the Zap team did just the opposite, we came out of the gate strong and showed Virginia Beach how Zap rolls!
Without missing a beat our ‘Menehune Monsters’ were back at it, but this time things looked a little different. Gio Tomasi and Brody Chandler-Thompson both advanced through their semi-finals on Saturday with ease and were then set to meet again on Sunday in a heated final. Brody put together one of his strongest performances and skimmed just about a flawless heat, pulling out the underdog win against fellow team rider Gio! Using his technical savvy and relentlessly practiced combinations, he left quite the impression, CONGRATS Brody, and a very well-done job to Gio as well! This is shaping up to be one of skimboarding’s best rivalries!
To keep things rolling Will Grady skimmed very well the whole weekend using his Mini Monster prowess to land stylish front and back 180 airs and combinations of big spins and shuv-its to land himself a hard-earned 2nd place! A special shoutout to Will for getting to Virginia early this week to help the contest organizers and SkimUSA put on another rad contest!!
Moving into the Grand Masters division our guy Alex Bevard. Held. It. Down. He skimmed strategically, effortlessly using combos and finesse to make his way to a 2nd place finish. Wraps to 3-shuvs, lofty big spins and tech out to and finishing wave rides, are just a couple examples of Alex’s performance.
Our Professional Women have done it again, show after show, they don’t stop and don’t get any less fun to watch! Nicole was a beast this weekend with many technical combos and some heavy backside hacks she took the dub with a huge smile on her face and the best vibes to go with it! She is working hard and it is paying off tri-fold!
The Men’s Professional was nothing short of blast to watch! Including top team riders Gerardo Valencia, Mason Broussard, Elian Juarez, Eoin Lally, Dylan Duncan, and Dave “Monster” Armstrong these boys put on a clinic! From Mason’s patent late shuv-its and big spins that blow your mind to Elian’s long stylish liners to cover up to Gerardo’s air re-entries off the lip of the wave, the crowd was going wild! Making it through 4 rounds, our final 4 were Gerardo vs Mason (a Nokomis rematch) for 1st and 2nd and Elian vs Ethan Redefer for 3rd and 4th. Two very distinct match-ups, both heats goofy vs regular, we were in for a treat on Sunday!
Our boys delivered on every front showing the widest variety of maneuvers, the greatest amount of creativity and innovation in fun and later flattening conditions, and the best sportsmanship on the beach! After very hard-fought heats, Gerardo ended up taking the win over Mason with the undisputed eye of the tiger, and Elian earned a very respectable 4th place finish in his first US contest of the year. If this is any indicator of what OBX has in store, I am already counting down the days! A special mention to Eoin for showing up with major style and shredding all weekend on his skim, and on the tech deck course!
To wrap it all up, some of the most exciting news of the weekend was a confirmed renewal of skimboarding to continue to be a part of Jackalope Fest: Virginia Beach!!! VA, we will see you next year!
For full results, click here: https://liveheats.com/events/359450