Words: Sydney Pizza
Possibly one of the most entertaining finals days of the 2026 skim season, day two of the 21st annual Exile Oktoberfest, kept everyone on the edge of their seat, no matter what team you ride for, it was a pretty great day for skimboarding. Both the Professional Men’s and Women’s UST Champions for the 2026 season were crowned today, and it all came down to the final and semifinal heats respectively. Most exciting of all, our girl Alex Yokley was in the mix, so all bets were in on Alex.
Before we get into world champions, the details of the morning were as such; cloudy to begin with the sun poking through about mid-morning, at a solid low 80’s and about a knee-high bump when it did not trough up, and when it did, it was around chest high. The conditions were tricky due to a lack of swell in the water, so the technical aspects of skimboarding were much more key today than on Saturday, boding well for our east coast riders.
Starting the day off with Men’s Professional quarterfinals, our only tiger left was Leo Freitas, who was matched up against fellow Brazilian Joao Lucas. A tough heat initially for Leo he just couldn’t get things to click quite the way he wanted but never gave up. Joao had priority as the final set of the heat came with about twelve seconds to go. The first wave came through, Leo shakes him off and gets Joao to go, leaving him at the top of the slope for the second set wave, which was the biggest actual wave of the day forming on the far south side of the contest area. Coming down to the last five seconds of the heat, Leo lines it up and charges, on his backside, three seconds board is in the water he’s mid-turn, pumps twice and pulls into the biggest barrel of the day, rail grab down the line, onto the dry sand, the crowd goes wild and he pulls in the score he needed to take the win and move onto semifinals.
Up next the Pro Women’s semifinals. Alex Yokley vs Sydney Pizza, a match up we’ve seen many times before, so we knew it was going to be good. A back-and-forth heat at the beginning, Syd landed some nice combos, and went the more technical direction, while Alex relied on the bigger hits and sprays. Syd couldn’t get what she wanted to click, and Alex got the win moving onto the final! Syd’s Oktoberfest campaign will end in the semifinals, being her best finish at Oktoberfest a solid 4th place result to round out the podium. In terms of the title race, Syd had to lose to Alex but get enough points to finish in 3rd for Alex to win the title (put in the simplest way possible). Because Syd got 4th, even if Alex won the contest, Chabe White would still have earned enough points over the other title contenders with just a 3rd place finish to clinch the title. Therefore, after the semifinals were over the title had gone to Chabe White. Our girl Alex Yokley finished her title campaign as #2 in the world!
A break for the 30-39 division quarterfinals, and back to the Pro Men semifinals. Leo now matched up against Timmy Gamboa one of two left for the title. Leo gave it his all, pulling out three shuvs, five shuv attempts, and creativity on small mush, but just came up short against Timmy, rounding out his Oktoberfest campaign in a very well-respected 4th place!
Pro Men & Women finals were on! Alex vs Jaclyn Koder and Dane Cameron vs Timmy Gamboa. With increasingly difficult conditions, Alex couldn’t land quite what she wanted to and did her best to click with the trough but just came up short against Jaclyn, at the end of the ten- minute heat. She skimmed well and earned a very solid 2nd place finish at Oktoberfest! The Pro Men’s final decided the UST title for the year, and coming out with the win was Timmy Gamboa.
Straight into the 22-29 division and Semi Pro quarterfinals and semifinals, our east coast boys Evan Rubin and Brody Chandler-Thompson were ready to rip. The wind started to pick up a little as the day went on, so conditions were looking very east coast like. Evan ripped in his 22-29 division quarterfinal throwing massive spray, and tons of combos he eased his way passed the quarterfinal and semifinal and into the final! Then the Semi Pro semifinals, in their respective heats, Evan and Brody threw more tech and more combos with all the five shuvs, three shuvs out, air re-entries, 360 wraps, and three shuvs up the beach to work their way into the Semi Pro final!
Then finals for the rest of the day. 50 & Up went first, then the 40-49 division, and the 30-39 division. From there the 22-29 division final where Evan dominated. When the west coast looks like the east coast watch out for Evan. With the extra push that the water gave him, he looked flawless, showing Cali what he’s got. Three shuvs off the lip and back up the beach, bigger spins out the side, three shuvs out to the wave and back up the beach. The trough couldn’t stop him; Evan skimmed his way to a 1st place finish in the 22-29 division!
Next up came the 18-21 division, 15-17, and then the 12-14 division where our boy Brody absolutely killed it. Finding smaller but open-faced waves and throwing crazy combos like a backside three shuv out to small frontside liner to frontside three shuv back up the beach. Not to mention both frontside and backside 180 air re-entries and some five shuvs out-the-back, he finished in a solid 2nd place! Way to go Brody!
Rounding out the contest the Women’s Am 13 & under, 9-11 division, 8 & under division, and the Women’s Am 13 & Up division, helped end the day on a very sweet note!
We want to say how truly proud we are of all our team riders for their efforts and performances this year, UST, Skim USA and Euro Skim Tours alike, Team Zap is breaking bounds, and we could not be prouder of our crew! Cheers to a great season and we hope to see you all at the Skim USA banquet in November/December.
For full Oktoberfest results click here: https://liveheats.com/events/555437/divisions/999887
For final UST standings click here: https://unitedskimtour.org/2026-mens-ust-points-standings/
For final Skim USA standing click here: https://liveheats.com/skimusa/rankings?series=60579&division=3664
For Day 1 recap, click here: https://www.zapskimboards.com/blogs/the-zap-skimboards-blog/recap-oktoberfest-day-1