Welcome to the Zap Awards for the 2025 season. In this series, we’ll be highlighting our riders as we give them various awards for the 2025 season, including Rookie of the Year, Legend Award, International Rider of the Year, and Rider of the Year! First up is Rookie of the Year. The winner of this award has been grinding all season long and she definitely deserves it! Congrats to Nicole Phillips! Check in with her below.
ZAP: Congrats on being named Zap Rookie of the Year! What does this honor mean to you?
Nicole: This honor means so much to me and it is so cool that my fellow teammates thought of me for this award! I feel this award is so special because it means more than just recognition for winning competitions. It means that my team appreciates the work I've put in, the way I carry myself, and the mark I left my first year, which I think is so nice, and I'm so grateful to be part of the best skim team in the world!
ZAP: What were some of your highlights from the 2025 season?
Nicole: 2025 was such a fun season for me! The whole first part of the season for me was a highlight, since I focused on a ton of improvement between Sebastian and PCB, in preparation for my pro debut at PCB. I had lots of fun skimming with the pro women for the rest of the season, and competing at such a high level was very exciting and pushed me to keep getting better! I was happy to end the season 3rd on the Skim USA tour, and placed 5th at my only UST contest that year, which I felt were both big accomplishments for my first year!
ZAP: What are your plans for the 2026 season?
Nicole: I plan to attend as many contests as I can and spend as much time at the beach as I can. I've been really busy outside of skimming, between running, work, and classes, which makes it tough to balance everything, but the skim community and all the fun places I get to explore traveling to compete in skimming will always keep me coming back!
ZAP: Looking back, is there anything you’d change about your 2025 season?
Nicole: Honestly not really! I worked really hard to improve, and regardless of the outcome, I am proud of that work. I made so many new friends and saw new places, which I am thankful for! I would've loved to travel to more UST contests, but with my schedule, it wasn't really possible. Otherwise, I would just say that if I could, I probably would've told myself prior to the season to take the process seriously, but make sure that I prioritize having fun and making the most of every event, even if I don't place the way I hoped!
ZAP: What was your favorite event from 2025?
Nicole: I'm torn between two! PCB in 2025 will always be so special since that was my pro debut and first pro win, but other than that, OBX was so so fun! I placed second which I was happy with, and I had such an awesome time with a big group of my friends, who I stayed with there for a week! The contest is 3 days, so it is 3 full days of hanging out with the whole skim family, and that contest is so well organized, and we also got to sand skim down the huge dunes at Jockey's Ridge, and skim a bunch of different beaches while we were up there.
ZAP: Is there anyone you’d like to thank?
Nicole: As always, I am so grateful to Zap for the opportunity to be on the team and supporting me so well throughout the season, and I'm so thankful to my family who comes out to cheer me on and helps me get to contests! I couldn't do it without them.
