Alley-Oop Skim camps model of consistency

Going out on a limb and starting the first skimboarding camp in the area in 2000, Alley-Oop Skim knew that its camps would be a hit.

Fourteen years and hundreds of boarders later, Jason Wilson has seen the sport explode on Delaware shores thanks to his and co-founder Corey Mahoney's camps.

"We saw the need for programs based around skimboarding," Wilson said. "I was competing professionally and our other owner Corey was being recruited for college lacrosse and going to a lot of camps — he came up with the idea of sort of mixing the two."

Starting out with about 12 kids on the beach listening to their instruction in 2000, the camps have grown to where Alley-Oop Skim will see about 300 riders come through the program this summer. Showing the staying power, several former campers who are now riding in the amateur and professional ranks have returned to be new instructors.

"We've got a lot of other great instructors aside from myself and Corey, a lot of up and coming amateur riders and professionals in the area working with our kids," Wilson said. "We seem to have a lot of the kids that we had in our skim camp when we started now being 18 or so being our instructors, it's a pretty neat evolution of things for us here."

With other skim camps popping up along the coast, Alley-Oop continues to change as a program — taking advice from the former campers and instilling ideas into the several camps.

"We're always trying to do better instruction and take suggestions from these new instructors that have been through our program that know because they were in it, they (know) the things that we can do better," Wilson said.

Sessions range from a free hour-long clinic held on Saturday mornings through July targeted at those who haven't had much experience with skimboarding and want to check out the sport to riders already on tours looking to improve at full sessions. Alley-Oop offers private lessons and half-day sessions as well.

In addition to the time-tested camps offered by Alley-Oop this summer is the chance to have photos taken by photographer Kevin Newcomer, who has been seen in Eastern Surf Magazine. The photos act not only as a memory for some, but also riders can dissect the images to improve on their form and skills.

To raise awareness of the camps and the upcoming Zap Amateur Competition in August, the instructors of Alley-Oop will be hosting a skim jam on Wednesday before the Dewey Town Bonfire.

"We're going to do that from about 6-7 p.m.," Wilson said.

Visit www.alleyoopskim.com.