If you are one of the thousands who have seen the post “Brad Domke + Skimboard + Tow-in =?”, and besides the question that entitled the article, also had a bunch of other questions in your head after watching these amazing 4:30 minutes of video, don’t worry. We’ve called our friend Domke in Florida, to answer a few of these questions, or at least try to:
First of all, congratulations on the video again. Two days after releasing it on Layback, and it’s already the most viewed video of the month, on it’s way to becoming another viral of yours.
Wow, that’s crazy! It’s funny to see the feedback of the video and everyone discussing about it… in reality I don’t even think that much about it, I’m just doing it to have fun and make clips!
… Well, Tony Hawk has just twitted a photo of yours!
I saw that man! I was surfing, just got home and saw it. Wow! Who better than Tony Hawk, huh?!
For sure. So, shoud we still call it Skurf?
You know man, I simply call it… (long pause)
“Getting out there”?
It’s nuts dude, what I’m doing out there, it’s hard for me to say, but as much as I love skimboarding, I’ve been trying to persue the passion of finding the best waves, so I’m really pushing myself in learning how to paddle and surf and, be more of an “ocean man” than a ” land-to-ocean man”, you know? I don’t really know how to call it, ’cause it’s another level, those waves, in general, are hard to surf. I’m not really all about using a ski too. What I enjoy in surfing is paddling and getting up. But on the Skim… on days like this, trust me, I’ve tried to catch waves, but it’s so difficult, and it takes hours. So, it just comes to a point when I know that if I get in one of this waves with my Skimboard it’s gonna be one of the funnest rides of my life. So, I’ll use a jet ski for this, because the waves are so big, I feel like I have done enough time on my skim, I don’t even care how I got on it, I just wanna be on it.
So, you wanna surf bigger waves but you’re kind of stuck with the skimboard…
Yeah, well the skimboard is such a big part of my life, I feel so comfortable on it, I guess it’s like a blessing to feel something deferent than most, to capture something that we all love, riding good waves, but with a different toy. I’m really stoked that it became something that people appreciate. I just wanted to almost do it for myself, kind of showing where it can go. Because there’s the tricks, the airs, shove-its, carves… this video for me it’s just a demonstration of how you can ride the pocket of a barrel. Makes me think “well, if they are stoked now, wait ’til they see the tricks”.
The first time you did that was last year in Puerto Escondido, right?
Yeah, that was the first time. I was down there to go surfing, I was surfing for a couple of weeks, and it was gnarly out there, I seen so many people get hurt, so much stuff go down there. But dude, that’s my style, I grew up in Florida surfing beach breaks, even if it’s shitty one foot beach break, they’re still top-to-bottom little waves. That style of waves always captured my interest my whole life, so once I saw the most bombing beachbreak of my life, wich is gnarly even for a pro surfer, I was sold. It’s definitely the Mexican Pipeline.
The waves on this video are much bigger than in the last video, though. When you shot that video last year, did you know it was possible to ride barrels as big as these on a skimboard?
Yes, I was pretty much just waiting for that moment in my life to be in the position to do that. Honestly, I feel like I just have so much love for this sport. I’m straight up from Florida, and I’m 24 years old now, and it’s crazy to think about all the spots I always wanted to skim when I was a grom, like Cabo, The Wedge, Newport. Waves that could be insignificant to most, but in the skim world, those are pretty nuts spots. Once I got all those out of the way, I just wanted to keep going. And I’m really into surfing, I surf! A lot of people are just like “Why don’t you just use a surfboard for that?”, I use a surfboard all the time!
Sure, if you can do that on a skimboard, why would you do that on a surfboard, right?
Exactly! And there’s a lot of things that people don’t realize. Like, it’s cool to see everyone super stoked and arguing about it. It’s cool ’cause they don’t understand it. I’ve been doing this most of my life and if you think I look uncomfortable on it, I’m really having the time of my life on that wave! Feeling a little 3 foot board on that beautiful huge wave… I’ve done it on the surfboard, and I tell you, I think that on a skimboard it’s much more fun to me. I don’t wanna say any names of new spots that I wanna do for the next videos, but I’m definitely gonna take it to the next level.
How’s that feeling in comparison to surfing on a surfboard?
It’s a beautiful feeling, I can’t really explain it. You kind of laughing and enjoying more so than trying to get serious, put your surf game on. Every time I do it I kind of trip out, ’cause once I get on that wave, I’m just thinking of all the possibilities… But to tell you the truth, that are so many things that I could be doing on these waves, that I’m not doing. But, I’m a surfer and, to my eyes, and my feeling, if you can look more like you are surfing when you’re on the skimboard, and do classical freaking turns, get barrels on a nice wave, it’s better than doing a 900 spin in the flats, or doing a bunch of shove-its. And that is the cool feeling to me, to really try to proper surf with the skimboard, to get in a deep barrel, maybe do a cutty. It’s just fun, I’m not really competitive with myself or anyone, I just wanna make a sick video, put some sick song on it, and have people stoked about what I’m doing.
Is it possible to explain exactly what you’re doing to keep the skimboard from drifting too much on such a big wave?
Well, I thought about so many ways of saying it… it’s kind of trippy, when I was a kid I amost put like 10 hours a day in skimboarding, and with all of that practicing, you bild up a muscle memory for the skimboard riding. It’s easy to just say: “I surf the wave with the rail”, which is pretty much what I do, but honestly, if you don’t know that felling it’s not as easy as it sounds. I’ts kind of hard to explain, but when I’m on a skimboard on waves like that, I feel pretty comfortable for most of the time, unless the wave wants to take me out. It’s usually like… 9 inches of the rail. Haha! Nah, I’m just guessing here. Also, people don’t realize that that board is as light as a feather! It’s much lighter than a surfboard without fins.
And you had some sessions with Bruce Irons over there?
Yeah, he was out there when I was there, which was pretty cool. I wasn’t really “with” him, he was on his own program. The guy’s nuts! It’s probably the most radical surfing I’ve ever seen in my life. And I feel he’s in a similar position, he’s done everything, he’s done so many paddle-ins, paddled Teahupoo blindfolded! He’s just trying to catch the biggest, craziest waves, and it gets intense sometimes, ’cause that wave closes out! It doesn’t always do what you want. It’s just a really heavy wave, you can get hold down for so long…
Yeah, it looks heavy! and you’re tall, right! How tall are you?
I’m like 6’1, 6’2… So you gotta take that into consideration when you watch the video. I’m doing it for fun, but it’s cool that it’s getting some publicity to skimboarding. We are straight up running to catch waves! And as I get older I appreciate that more than ever, and now I’m realizing that we can get on these waves paddling, and towing, it just has to be the right spot, the right board… I think there’s a big future for skimboard, I don’t know exactly if it’s skurfing or anything, but it’s a new feeling, we don’t have fins, and the boards aren’t as big, you have a lot more possibilities to get your skate style on. If you’re into Wakeskating, It’s more like a wakeskating surfing… It’s a whole different world, a whole other way of doing it.
You’re certainly doing a good job advertizing it. There’s no way people are not going to be impressed with what you’re doing in this video.
I don’t care if it’s good or bad, at least it’s something different. In this day and age it’s so hard to get your name out there, ’cause everybody is trying to do it. So it’s cool to do it with something that is so fun, and new. Hopefully I can keep doing it.
And how was the making of the video?
Man, I was down there for so long! It’s a fishing village down there, there’s not much going on, but it can be worth it waiting for the swell. That year was pretty freaking good. Nothing really bad happened down there, but there’s definitely some crazy shit that goes down. It was definitely a “production”, so to say. I was there with my filmmaker, Dylan, and my friend Brian Conley, who’s a professional surfer from San Diego who lives there. It was hard work, dude, it’s hard with only two people. It’s something I wanna do again, but I wanna take it to another level, other spots, but I don’t have a sponsor other than the Exile Skimboards and Freak (tailpads), but with more help I think I could do a great job. Thanks for the opportunity to say a few words to people in Brasil. Being a sport or not, it seems that a lot of people are interested in watching it, so.. that’s where I am now. I’ve got some calls, but nothing certain as of yet. But, I’m not thinking much about it, I’m cool… just got tired of surfing in Florida (laughs).