How to Skip a Stone

Stone Skipping has long been a favored lakeside pastime. However, there is a distinct technique for changing throwing rocks into the lake into skipping stones. Here are some pointers to help you to accomplish the perfect skip.

The Rock

First, you must pick the perfect rock to skip. The search for the right rock can be the best part of the trip. It can't be too large or too small; a nice medium size rock that fits in the palm of your hand will do just fine. But once you've got the size you want then you need the appropriate shape. This would be sort of flat, but not extremely flat like shale, flat and rounded around the edges. These sorts of rocks are usually found beside the lake and have been rounded by years of erosion.

The Lake

You must pick a day to skip stones that is not windy or raining. A beautiful blue-sky day, where the lake is absolutely calm is the perfect day for skipping stones. If there is any chop on the water, or if there are waves of any kind, your stone will sink like a rock before the first skip.

Also, try to stay clear of fishermen and passing boaters, as they get very upset if you disturb the fish or hit their boats with rocks. Further, swimmers may come out of the water and beat you up if they start getting pelted by rocks. Your best bet is to find a calm, deserted part of the lake to practice stone skipping.

The Technique

The best technique for skipping a stone is to grasp the rock firmly in your hand between the thumb and forefinger, gently curling your other fingers under the stone. Don't hold it too tightly as you want to be able to throw it, but you also don't want it falling out of your hand before it gets to the water.

To throw the stone, you would use a stance similar to one that you would use to throw a Frisbee. That is stand sideways to the water, slightly crouched, be very relaxed. Hold the stone loosely in your hand. Then, curl your wrist in toward your body and snap it out, your arm will extend toward the lake with the force of the snap. Release the stone at the full extension of your arm.

The key is in the snap of the wrist. What you want to do is get a good spin on the stone, so that it will fly over the water. If you have too little "English" (spin) on the stone, it just drops into the lake without skipping; too much and it could go twisting out of sight at a high arc before it drops into the lake.

The angle of flight is also a key factor in stone skipping. Be sure that you are low enough to the water that you can get the stone to slide across the surface. This makes for a great skip. If you are too high above the water, the stone will fly nicely out and land in the water without skipping; too low and you throw the stone directly into the water.

Lastly, you want to relax and practice, because, although there is a record number of skips of a stone on a lake, it is not necessary to beat that record. Just remember what you are really at the lake for: relaxation and vacation. Skipping stones can be one of the most relaxing and rewarding things you do this summer.