Hit the Sand in Italy

Italy has some great food, wine, cheese, beautiful women but even more beautiful beaches. When you're in Italy eating the great food, drinking the wine and eating the cheese don't forget to check out the great beaches with your skimboard as well.

Here's a list of some of the great beaches in Italy.

1. Capri: This beach is located in Southern Italy on the Sorrento Peninsula. Capri is a cool place that is full of mountains. This beach is known for it's deep blue sea and great beaches. There are a lot of resorts and hotels along this beach and you should have no problem finding a place to relax and skim across the sand on your board.

2. The Italian Riviera: This place has long been a tourist haven. Attracting thousands and thousands of visitors each year. The beaches here are free of charge but that also makes them crowded. If you do a little hiking along the trails that are there you can find some good beaches that are less crowded. This place is also famous for it's pasta, so after a great day of skimboarding help yourself to a big plate of delicious pasta.

3. Amalfi Coast: This place has some of the coolest cliffs you'll ever see. And you can't miss them as you're driving through to get to this beach. There are two private beaches here that you'll want to visit. The Fornillo beach and the Spiaggia Grande.

4. Tuscany: Famous for it's wine, cool rolling hills and old culture. However this place has some of best beaches with it's white sand and old style villages that are behind them. Not to mention that the water is a beautiful crystal clear color and there's about 100 miles of coastline. When you come here you need to visit Viareggio and enjoy the old festival that's been going on for more than 100 years.

5. Sicily: Sicily has long been famous in many movies. If you haven't heard of Sicily before then you need to watch the Godfather, Goodfellas and any other grehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifat mafia movie. Some of the great beaches here are Mondello Lido, Lido Mazzaro, the Aeolian Islands and Spiaggia Sabbie Nere.

6. Sardinia: There is 35 miles of beautiful coastline here that you must visit before you die. One of the beaches you have to visit is Sardinia's Costa Smeralda. Also hit the Emerald Coast, Cala di Volpe and the Prince's beach.

Italy is a great place. You'll never get bored, get tired of the food, the beaches or gazing at all the cool sites. Hitting Italy's beaches is something that you have to put on your to-do-list-before-I-die.

SkimBoard Pros

Skimboarding in Vietnam

When you think of Vietnam, great skimboarding beaches is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. But believe it or not, Vietnam has some of the best beaches to go skimboarding. Vietnam has more than 3400km of beach and coastline. The sand along these beaches is a great powdery sand. There are many hidden coves, awesome lagoons and many other great features that beach lovers and skimboarders long for. This place is definitely paradise in it's own right.

Here are some of the great beaches you need to visit if you ever make it down to Vietnam.

1. Nha Trang: This beach has been famous for many years and is a tourist favorite. The closet town is not the best and you should be prepared for it but the awesome beach that this town sits by is definitely worth the trip. I highly recommend this beach for any skimboarder.

2. Mui Ne: This beach is famous for it's cool looking dunes and the great waves that this beach offers. This beach is a great place for anyone who is interested in any kind of water sport.

3. Phu Quoc: Some people call this island the most beautiful island in Vietnam. The beaches here are famous for having perfect white sand and a thick jungle behind it. This is a must see for everyone who visits this country.

4. China Beach: This beach has a few different names and is very famous for surfing. If you're a surfer looking to hit some great waves in Asia then this long stretching beach is just what the surf doctor ordered.

5. Con Dao: Not too tourists know about these islands and that's what makes them so special. Once these islands become discovered by tourists they are going to be the next big thing in Vietnam. Go now while you have the chance. Finding an undiscovered gem like this is rare and you should take full advantage of it while you can.

6. Doc Let: This great beach has beautiful white sand and is not too far from Nha Trang. If you're looking for some peace and quiet, this place comes highly http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrecommended.

7. Ho Coc: Last but not least, this beach can't be accessed by most tourists however there is one cool place that we recommend going. It's a huge, awesome sandbar that's about halfway between Vung Tau and Phan Thiet. A great place for skimboarders looking to get away from the crowds and hit some good sand with their boards.

You should definitely put Vietnam on your places to go skimboarding. Not only is it a cool place to visit but the skimboarding there is great and an experience you won't ever forget.

SkimBoard Pros

Skimboarding and Other Board Sports

Whenever I tell someone that I love to go skimboarding when the hot weather hits the first thing that comes out of their mouths is "what the heck is skimboarding and what does a skimboard look like?" If you've ever seen a skimboard before it's easy to imagine but if you haven't it's very difficult to picture in your mind. I always tell people it's a mix between a body board and a surfboard but the way it's ridden is very very different.

Not only do you not paddle out into the surf but the sand starts out being your best friend. And the smoother the sand the better the skimboarding will be. There's nothing like a smooth patch of sand for a skimboarder. If we have a beach clear of people and nice smooth patch of sand, us skimboarders are in heaven.

Body boarders on other hand love waves that break closer to shore but still need the waves to get their ride. And body boarders not only dislike but hate the sand and only want to see the sand when they're finished riding their waves. If a body boarder is seeing sand too soon that means that they're most likely eating sand and that's not fun. I can speak from experience.

Surfers on the other hand want to get as far away from the beach as possible or wherever the best waves are breaking. Even if that means paddling out to where most tourists would never ever venture. I can still remember my first time surfing in Hawaii. I had just hit Waikiki beach with my surfboard and was paddling out to find the good waves. And way out on the horizon where you could barely see unless you were squinting were a few dozen local surfers. Being my first time to Hawaii and not being too sure if I should paddle way out there and interfere with their waves I decided to stick closer to shore. After awhile I was able to talk to a few of them and was welcomed to go out there and ride with them. It turned out to be an awesome experience and I made some friends in the process.

So as you can see these popular board sports are very different but are all done on hundreds of beaches all over the world. If you go to any beach in the world I can almost bet that you'll see one of these board sports being done by some of thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif locals.

Well enough talk about all these great board sports. It's time to go hit the waves and enjoy the summer time. There's nothing like summer time. Sorry but winter is not fun!

SkimBoard Pros

Skimboarding Traction Pads - Need or Don't Need?

We get asked this question a lot from many different kinds of people. Do you think that I should use skimboard traction pads or not? Well it all depends on you and your experience and if it feels right or not for you. When I was first starting out skimboarding I liked to use traction pads rather than using a wax. The reason for this was I wanted to be more focused on getting the basics down first. I didn't want to have to worry about waxing my board up each time I went out and hit the waves.

Many times I'd come home from school and didn't have the time to wax up my board. It was a lot easier just to come home, toss my book bag in the corner, grab my board and hit the water. But at first it was more like my head hitting the sand. Then as time went on I got better and better and the sand wasn't breaking my fall as much it was back when I was first starting out.

So I can say that skimboarding traction pads are great for beginners, they definitely were for me. They also help by showing beginners where they should stand on the board when they're first starting to learn where they should stand. Skimboarding is super fun but like any sport can be a little challenging at first. Once you get the hang of it though it becomes very addicting and you develop a lifelong passion and healthy addiction.

I still have boards that I use that have traction pads just for the very reason that I don't always feel like waxing up my board or again have the time. Waxes and traction pads both have their pros and cons. I always recommend to people to try out both and then decide which one best suites you. Different strokes for different folks as I like to say.

The best thing to do is just get a board and start learning how to skimboard so you understand what an awesome sport it is. Then you'll understand what I'm always babbling on about. Experience is the best teacher they say. I happen to agree with that.

There's nothing quite like skimming across a perfect wave on a perfect day. I recommend it for everyone who has an adventuresome spirit.

Spring is here and summer is just around the corner. That means skimboard season is here.

Thanks,

Jason Fackrell

SkimBoardPros

Skimboarding a Beach in Texas

Some people might not know but Texas has some great beaches especially for skimboarders. We're going to go through some beaches that all skimboarders have to hit before they get too old and leave this world.

Corpus Christi/Padre Island National Seashore: This beach is located just off of Padre Island in South Texas. This beach is huge and long over 70 miles long and is a great place for skimboarders. It's not very developed and has an enormous amount of nature. This beach is also a great place to go camping. This park also has some great dunes and sand. This place is also famous for windsurfing.

Galveston Island: This island is 27 miles long and more than 3 miles wide. This island used to be home the Native Americans. This island is also where the greatest American natural disaster ever recorded in history happened. 6,000 people lost their lives in 1900 due to a hurricane. There are a few beaches to skimboard on but mostly it's a cool place to visit because of it's history.

Mustang Island/Port Aransas: This island is just south east from Corpus Christi. This place has some very interesting landscapes and some great beaches for skimboarding. This island is 18 miles long and from the air it looks almost like a strip of bacon.

South Padre Island: This beach has been a popular vacation spot for many years due to a resort on the island and it's nice beaches. South Padre is a barrier island which means that it's a relatively narrow strip of sand that parallels the mainland coast.

For anyone living in Texas or the surrounding states you know how popular Corpus Christi is and how great the beaches down there can be. Skimboarding and summer are just around the corner.

Skimboarders, get your boards waxed up and ready to hit the waves, summer will be here before you know it.

http://www.SkimBoardPros.com

Skimboarding and the Lime Light

Compared to other popular sports such as surfing, football, soccer, golf, basketball and other mainstream sports, skimboarding is like a 6 month old baby that is about ready to have a giant growth spurt.

Just in the last few years skimboard sales and products have sky rocketed and the number of kids and young adults picking up a skimboard is growing substantially every year. Youtube has definitely helped the skimboarding industry because it's been able to show a huge audience what skimboarding truly is. Most older adults have never even heard of a skimboard. Now you can go onto the internet and type in skimboarding and thousands of pages of information and videos are at your finger tips.

Whenever I head to the beach now I'm amazed at all the skimboarders and how popular it's grown over the last decade. When I was a kid which has been some time I would never see a skimboarder, it was body boarding or surfing.

It's great to see so many young people picking up this sport and especially inland skimboarding. The great thing about this sport is you don't need an ocean and waves to go out and have fun. All you have to do is find a muddy puddle, river, pond or lake and you can have a riot all day long with your friends.

In this awesome day and age of technology it's good to see kids still going outside and having fun. When I was a kid I had the first edition of Nintendo but I still spent most of my time outside with my friends raising havoc.

http://www.SkimBoardPros.com

Skimboard the Snow

We know it's the middle of winter, there's a foot of snow on the ground and your spit freezes before it hits the ground. However that doesn't mean you can't get your board out of the closet or garage and start waxing it up. Skimboarding season is only 2 or 3 months away depending on where you live in the world. We know most skimboarders are getting cabin fever right about now unless you snowboard in the off season. For those of us who don't snowboard the best thing for us is to do is sit, dream and wait for the warm weather to come back either that or fly to Hawaii or Australia.

Here's a novel idea. How many of you have tried taking your skimboard out on the snow? We have and let me tell you it's a fun and wild experience trying to skimboard across the snow. We just recommend that you find some soft snow and not a hard patch of ice. I can guarantee that you'll wipe out and you want to make sure your landing is a semi-soft one. If you've ever been tubing, sledding, snowboarding or skiing then you know how it feels when you hit a patch of ice or some hard snow with your face or head.

This is one way to kill the skimboarding winter blues. Just because it's colder than a witch's finger out there doesn't mean our skimboarding spirits have to get cold too. The winter blues is not fun especially for those who love the warm weather. Just keep thinking positive and think how spring time is right around the bend and will be here before we know it. We'll be hitting those waves in no time.

We wish everyone a good time. Go grab your board and go have some fun.

http://www.SkimBoardPros.com