Welcome to the november issue of Flatland Magazine. I'm stoked to bring you another issue full of skim photos from around the world.

I wanna thank everyone who submitted a photo for the cover-photo contest. Just a few votes separated Mith Elder/Dillon Phillips and Anthony Davis/Yuri Choufour with Mitch/Dillon barely squeezed by for the win and the $50 DB Skimboards gift card. Mitch's photo is on the cover and Yuri's is to the right. It's great to see so much participation.

That being said I am announcing the Flatland Magazine Video contest. All entries must be shot and edited between Nov 12, 2012 and April 1st, 2013. The best 1 to 2 minute video wins $100 cash out of the pocket of our editor's pocket. The contest is for the best overall video. Riding, filming and editing will all be taken into consideration for the contest. Start shooting!

- Matt McDonald

In the flats of Houston, Texas lies a paradise in the middle of the Cypress suburbs. Cypress Creek is a place full of tranquility, where you can get away and appreciate the green trees, insects buzzing, and the birds chirping. The most radical thing about this paradise is the constant flow of fresh water that runs through it.

Cypress Creek also referred to as, The Creek, is surrounded by trees. Tons of different insects and many different animals inhabit it. There are many different groups of people, who enjoy The Creek, but to us skimmers it's something more than just a creek to hang out at, it's a place for great flatland skimboarding.

The water conditions are great year long unless we get a bad rain storm; this will leave The Creek flooded for a few days. During the winter, you don't see as many tidewatchers (people who come and don't skim) but you will find a lot of the 2GNAR crew out there shredding, that's for sure. During the spring every year you see more and more new faces popping up, flatland skimboarding is really starting to explode down in Texas.

There are two main skim sections at The Creek. The Front side also known as "Big Cyp" has a fat beach with great skim. There is a huge rope swing located in this area which makes it really chill spot to hang out when you're with lots of friends. Then there is a section that flows into "Big Cyp" this section of the creek is called "Lil Cyp" this is where a lot of the main skimming goes down. This is preferably the spot to skim for the more serious riders. You can get great upstream pop which leads to "FAT TRICKS". The cool thing about The Creek is the locals. Everyone is real humble and chill to skim with. Everybody gets along and take turns, we all look after each other's backs.

The Creek has seen a lot of talented flatland skimboaders from other states and countries. The skimmers who have made the journey include the godfather of flatland skimboarding, Lon Porteous, Isaac Thomas, Emile Panerio, Blake Zimmerman, Tony Saddler, Friedrich Fluh, Garret Young, and Evan Steitz. That's a great list of shredders so far. Hopefully, more will make the journey sometime in the near future to skim this paradise we call "The Creek".

The Review

The 2012 Streamline Pro from DB Skimboards had a noticeable addition. A dimple bottom. It was claimed that the dimple bottom minimizes resistance when sliding over wet sand and PVC piping.

Naturally, I picked up the board and rode it about 50 percent of the time I skimmed during the summer of 2012. I have ridden the "streamline" shape in the past, but I do prefer the "proto" or twin tip shape usually.

I didn't notice a huge different with my normal skimboarding and on rails. I did notice the board makes kind of a "zippy" noise when going over PVC though. I gotta say I did notice a difference on bank slides though. Where my normal board would catch on sand the Streamline Pro appeared to give me a little more sliding potential.

Take a look at the video I made to see the board in action on some banks in Bellingham.

Hopefully this will get the Vancouver Island skim scene on the map and letting people know that there's a pretty big skim scene here on the big island. Our skim scene here is very chill and relaxed. There not much competition between everyone around here. We are all easy-going skimmers. There are quite a lot of people up and down the whole island that skim. You have guys in the Courtney/Comox area, guys in Nanaimo, Victoria, Tofino and lots of other places. It’s cool cause almost everyone knows everyone and if not, you sure have heard of them or seen picture/videos of them skimming.

What is the skim scene like in your area?
But talking about the Qualicum scene in particular it's very mellow, everyone is so chill it's awesome. Lots of the kids at the local high school skim and now we are seeing some of the younger kids starting to skim, which is awesome because we get to teach those kids how to skim. And I tell ya, some of them shred. They are getting pretty good. With every skim scene you have your hard core skimmers that skim almost every day, then you have the weekend warriors, who skim on the weekends and then the guys who go out maybe once or twice a month. Most of our community is pretty supportive of skimboarding and really enjoys watching us down at the beach, especially in the summer time. Most of them don't quite understand what we are doing and then when they ask we have to explain to them but that doesn't happen very often. Smithfords (a small shop in the town) is our main supplier of skim stuff, boards, rail wax ,etc. They have really made skimboarding known within the community. OSBC (Oceanside Skimboarding and Beach Culture) was created to help push skimboarding in our town, we have put on skim camps, competitions and private lessons to help the kids within the community become a better all-around skimboarder, and it has really helped push skimboarding here. We skim all year round here.

What makes your area unique in comparison to other skim spots?
I would say our skim scene here is pretty unique meaning we have so many beaches that we could go to skim. We have a river skim spot, Qualicum beach, Parksville beach, Hall beach, The bluffs beach (kind of in between Parksville and Qualicum) Surfside beach Judge's Row and lots more. You could skim four beaches in one day if you wanted to. Start off at Surfside then go to Qualicum then to Parksville, then finish off at the river spot. The tide affects all of them but Parksville beach and the river spot stay out the longest, you could probably get a 4-5 hour session out of either places in comparison to other skim spots where as you have one skim spot. It gets pretty damn cold but to help with that you can wear a wetsuit, or just wear a lot of clothes. It does suck when you fall and are soaking wet and freezing cold.

Who do you skim with?
I personally skim with a lot of people, but the people I skim with the most would have to be Peter Christensen and Ryan Mountain. I try to go down to Nanaimo to skim with Cam Montrose and Jesse Derosa. When Kyle Lynch and his crew come over to the island I try to meet up to skim with them. There’s too many to name though. I start to notice that as the weather changes, the temperature drops and the water gets colder, some people stop skimming, but not me, about mid-September and early October I start to skim by myself. My spot where I skim the most would have to be the river spot, which we just call "the spot" we only call it that because we couldn't think of a name for it at the time. The Spot is secluded within a small estuary and it’s an inlet which runs off the main river. There's a small sand bar within it which is perfect for skimming. Only problem is that's it's a hassle to get rails there, so when we bring one there it stays there and doesn't leave unless we really need it for something else.

Where do you see flatland skimboarding going in the future?
Flatland Skimboarding has really expanded in the past couple years. With the technology that is put into the boards today and the skill level now amongst every group of skimboarders is so much better than what it used to be. In the near future I see flatland skimboarding really making its mark in water sports. It's getting bigger and bigger every year and hopefully it will stay that way.

What's your favorite part about skimboarding on Vancouver Island?
Probably the best part of skimbaording on Vancouver Island is the people you skim with and the locations you skim at. When I say the people you skim with I mean everyone here is so laid back, relaxed and chill. We are a really friendly bunch of people. Everyone here isn't in competition with anyone we are all on our own levels of skimboarding, which is awesome and gives every skim sesh a good atmosphere. Some are better than others and some are quickly learning and progressing fast, but that doesn't seem to bug anyone which is awesome. The places we skim at are also amazing and really unique I think.

Hawaii is a skimboarders paradise whether you skim flatland or waves.

I recently went to Oahu with my girlfriend for eight days and there was no shortage of skim. In Hawaii there are a lot of places where you can skim flatland and/or waves within just a short distance of each other. This trip marked my seventh trip to the islands and was one of my favorite trips yet.

I primarily skimmed at Lanikai, Sandy and at Waikiki beaches.

Sandy Beach
This is a pretty much just a wave spot. I am sure you can flatland skim the shoreline, but I would not suggest doing that because either a wave or a local is most likely gonna kick your ass. Also, most years Sandy Beach has more neck injuries than any other beach in the nation. That being said you really need to bring your a-game to this spot.

Waikiki
Minus the never ending sea of tourists it is a fun spot for both flatland and wave skim. I prefer to skim around "The Wall" since you have a flatland option on one side and waves on the other with some fun bodyboarding waves in between. Two things to look out for here: 1. Tourists - They do not care what you are doing and they will stand right in front of where you are skimming. 2. Lifeguards - technically you are not supposed to “board surf” in certain areas along Waikiki. I think this really depends on the lifeguard. I have never been asked to not skim at Waikiki.

Lanikaki
This is my favorite flatland skim spot ever. White sandy beaches, plenty of open space and a breathtaking backdrop. You can easily find something to use as a feature in the area to spice up your session and the small waves lapping on shore to help you boost your tricks. will

I can't express how nice it is to skim in nice warm water with white sandy beaches, which is quite different than what I am used to in the Pacific Northwest.

Skimboarding in the Philippines is a fast growing extreme-sport and is very popular nowadays. Our country is made of 7,107 islands, not including anything that may appear at low tide, and is located in a tropical region.

The skimboarding scene is pretty much the same as anywhere else in the world, but the difference is we only have two seasons: rainy and summer. This means we can skim the whole year round except during sucky-stormy weather, but it doesn't matter anyways. Filipino skimboarders are so eager to hit the beach, streams, lakes, rivers and even sometimes on the streets if it's raining. No matter what or where as long there is a puddle or water they will try it.

They don't care what's gonna happen as long they satisfy their need to skim. Even those who just started skimming push it.

What are the best spots to skimboard in the Philippines? There are lots of best spots in our country to skim. To name a few places Cavite, Bataan, Lucena (Luzon region), Roxas City, Lloilo City, Bacolod City, Escalante, Boracay Island (Visayas region).

What riders are pushing skimboarding the most in the Philippines? We have wave and flatland riders and we have mutual respect for each other. We share common love for this sports. All we do is share and spread the LOVE! Some notable skimboarders from the Philippines are Mykoll Saballo (Cavite Skim Crew), Kelbin David (Lloilo Flatsand Skimboarders), Mozer Smith (Lawis Skimboarders / Roxas City), Cheed Dexter (Lawis) and Kitz Aller (Cavite).

How do people get into skimboarding in the Philippines? We share ideas and tricks and use the power of world wide web too. We watch videos of pro skimboarders on Youtube to get inspiration. Trying out what we see on the net. Most riders make their own boards and hit the beach also.

Who started Pilipinas Flatland Skimboarders? Mykoll Saballo, Jeff Malong and RR Reyes of Cavite Skim Crew (Cavite City). Kelbin David and Alex Mendame of Flatsand Iloilo Skimboarders (Lloilo City). Mozer Sambrano and John Gumata of Lawis Flatlanders (Roxas City). Jojo Dejucos of Ormoc-Lahar Skimcrew (Pampangga). Raygen Gonzales and Lurlur Fart of Lucena akim crew (Quezon Province). The story behind PILIPINAS FLATLAND SKIMBOARDERS (PFS) is Flatsand Iloilo Skimboarders had an event "Flatsand Skimboarding Competition" in October 2010. We sent some invites to all the skimboarding groups all over Philippines through social media. They came on the day of the competition and we skimmed together. On that day, we had a discussion and we shared one common idea. To unite all skimboarders all in the Philippines. We put up a group in facebook and it is now called Pilipinas Flatland Skimboarders. Now our group is increasing in numbers and we share and help each other no matter where you are.

What are the next big step to help skimboarding grow in the Philippines? More events in different places in the Philippines, so people will be exposed to skimboarding. Every skimboarder in the PFS right now is pushing the sport. They're doing their best in promoting skimboarding all over the country. We get help from our friends and partners in the media also. People from the media are willing to help us in promotions and raising awareness of skimboarding. Big thanks to them!