Competitive Stone Skipping – Tips from the World-Record Holder

By Alex Kochon

The idiom “just a stone’s throw away” is quickly getting outdated with professional stone skippers – aka stone “skimmers” – breaking records for most skips and farthest skims across a body of water.

That’s right, skipping stones is a professional sport, and one of the “Big Four” American stone skipping contests was recently held at Lake Paran in North Bennington, Vt.: lakeparanvt.org. New England’s only stone skipping event, the annual Stone Skipping Festival took place in September and attracted about 400 people, with some from as far away as Kentucky and Arkansas.

The day started with kids throwing stones before the amateurs and pros tried their best tosses. Amateurs who skipped a stone 20 or more times with a single throw could level up to the pro category. In 2021, a Vermonter named Trevor Klee (nicknamed the “Trevorator”) won the day with 39 skips. He earned homemade fudge, the traditional prize in U.S. stone-skipping competitions, and a trophy. 

According to pro stone skippers Paul Fero and Kurt Steiner (Steiner holds the world record with 88 skips), larger competitions offer prize money up to about $200 dollars. However, fudge was the award at the inaugural U.S. stone skipping event held on Mackinac Island in northern Michigan in 1969, and it’s a staple that’s stuck through the years.

Both Paul, who’s from the Catskills, and Kurt, who lives off the grid on a mountain in Pennsylvania, competed at Lake Paran this year and enjoy spreading the word about the pastime that’s developed into a highly competitive sport.

“We go out, we look for stones, we travel miles up and down the creek and enjoy nature around us,” Paul said. “It’s all part of the journey, and it all culminates when we all get together for these competitions. It’s a friendly competition, but we also want to beat each other.” 

“If polo is the sport of kings, I call this the sport of groundlings,” Kurt said with a laugh. 

Cost of entry is just a few dollars per competition and free for those who venture out to collect stones and practice skipping them in a nearby lake, pond or reservoir. Beyond that, a good throwing arm and a ton of dedication to technique helps one master the skip.

In the U.S., competitions are judged by the number of skips – which several Lake Paran judges impressively counted with their naked eyes. In the U.K., the World Stone Skimming Championships count distance rather than skips (stones must stay inbounds). Held at a quarry on Easdale Island, Scotland, the world championships require entrants to use sea-worn slate found there with a diameter of three inches or less. In the U.S., any natural-found stone is legal (and there is ongoing debate about whether to allow artificial rocks).

We’ve all thrown stones, but few of us are any good at it. What’s the trick? Both Paul and Kurt agreed it’s the grip, which affects the angle of the stone when it hits the water. Studies have shown the optimal angle is 20 degrees so that when it hits the water, it creates a wave to bounce off (and then another wave, another bounce, another wave, bounce, and so on). In reality, this exact angle is difficult to master, especially since no two stones are alike and water isn’t perfectly flat.

When gripping the stone, face the smoother side down and put the most projected edge (the “pointiest point of the rock,” as Kurt calls it) in the first knuckle joint of your pointer finger, right behind the finger nail. 

“In other words, if you were holding a diamond, you’d want to put it on one of the sharp points, tuck that right into the corner of the knuckle,” Kurt explained. “You want that stone to be horizontal, or tilt the front of the stone up a little bit, and then move your forearm parallel to the ground so that when you release, the stone comes out.

“Basically, hold the point of the stone in the crook of your finger and throw it at the water,” he continued. “And then assess that. If it bounces up, lean the front edge of the stone down a little more toward the horizontal. If it digs in, tilt it up.”

Beginners shouldn’t be afraid to throw hard. In fact, Kurt and Paul encourage it. Throw harder and closer to shore than you think you should. A far toss curves up then down before sinking. Instead, aim for a line drive — angled slightly down — across the surface. Once you get comfortable with the grip and adjusting the angle, you can begin adding power and body coordination, Kurt said.

Right-handed throwers should face down the shore to their right with their left leg toward the water and throw across their body. Left-handed throwers do the opposite, also throwing across their body.

“Don’t throw it like a frisbee,” he added. “Turn that hand around and throw with the palm out, not toward your core.”

“You can’t be afraid to fail,” Paul said. “If you don’t get good skips after six or seven throws, you’re gonna have to keep at it, and then you’ll get it.” 

To get the full experience, this writer took her kids, 3 and 6, on rock hunt – heeding Paul’s advice to look in river beds where water is constantly flowing (Kurt collects his rocks exclusively on the shores of Lake Erie). My family found about 15 decent stones; ideally, stones should be thin, flat, oval or triangular shaped, and about the size of your palm.

The most skips I had ever achieved before was probably two. On my first throw the other day, I counted four. I kept practicing and got an email from Paul that illustrated the correct grip. I tried to match my grip to his pictures and subsequently pulled off seven or eight skips. We quickly figured out which stones were the best, and went swimming in 60-something degree water to retrieve the ones that skipped farthest – which, apparently even the pros do after competitions.

The kids just had fun throwing rocks, which is all part of the experience. 

“I’d rather have people looking at rocks in their hands, and thinking about them in an analytic or even an aesthetic way, rather than staring at their damn cell phones,” Kurt said. “I’ll tell you you’re crazy if you’re not skipping rocks.”

The “Big Four” competitions are currently in Mackinac (pro invitational), Franklin, Penn., North Bennington, and Arkansas. According to Paul, there is interest in having a similar event in the Adirondack region.

“I know, growing up in the Adirondacks, everybody skips stones up there,” he said.

Alex Kochon (alexkochon@gmail.com) of Gansevoort is a freelance writer, editor, and outdoor-loving mom of two who enjoys adventuring in the Adirondacks.