With sunlight fading and only a few days left in new Zealand, I managed to squeeze in one final skipping session, and it was worth it! After nearly two years of making concrete skipping rocks, practicing my skips, and filming these ridiculous videos, I finally managed to best the 121.8 meter distance record set by Dougie Isaacs in 2018 with a 123.5 meter throw. Even though this is with a nearly perfect, custom made concrete rock, it is still a big achievement. What a fantastic conclusion to the Skipper Chris rock skipping adventures in New Zealand!
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My name is Chris Magoon, and I like to skip rocks. I grew up in New England, where perfect flat stones are reasonably easy to find. Now, living in the volcanic region of Rotorua, New Zealand I've been making my own custom made skipping stones from cement and local sand, trying to engineer the perfect rock.
In my videos I'll be on missions to find the best stones in the country, discussing the design of my concrete rocks and the physics of skipping, practicing my skips at local lakes and estuaries, and just having a good time skipping stones.
I'm by no means a professional skipper, but I think that with a little bit of engineering and a lot of practice I should be able to get close to the world records for skip count and distance. When I started this project, Dougie Issacs 121.8 meter distance record seemed like a lofty goal, but I’ve now been getting very close with skips coming in around 110 to 115 meters already. Kurt Steiner’s 89 skip record remains a significant challenge. I have been designing rocks with a focus on distance, though it is clear that tuning stone design for high skip count is also possible.
My mission to find the best skipping stones and skip on perfect flat water have taken me all around New Zealand. I’ve collected and skipped natural stones on the beautiful South Island lakes of Hawea and Wanaka, the Clutha river, Diamond Lake, Moke Lake, and just about any body of water large and flat enough to glide a stone across. Home on the North Island, I spend most of my time practicing with my concrete rocks in the shallows of Lake Rotorua and Blue Lake, with lunchtime skips at work on the Te Puna Estuary.
Its going to be a long journey, so follow along to see it all unfold.
I'll skip you next time!
