Stone skimming turns competitive at first-ever national champs
This May, Aotearoa's finest stone skimmers will test their powers at Lake Hāwea.
Stone skimming - as opposed to stone skipping - is the sport of throwing a stone as far as possible into a body of water. On 16 May, our local talent will get a chance to show off their skills on the shores of Lake Hāwea, near Wānaka.
With 25 cubic kilometres of water silhouetted by glorious mountains and "pristine" autumn conditions, the lake is an absolutely majestic spot for the Aotearoa Stone Skimming Competition, says organiser Richie Lamming.
"We say to the nation, show us your best skim," he tells Summer Times.
Lake Hāwea - named after an early Māori tribe - is New Zealand's ninth largest lake.
Tess Brunton
On the day, 150 competitors will select skimming stones no wider than three inches from the registration area, and each will be carefully measured by a Task Force Skim, Lamming says.
When it comes to a good skimming stone, he says you'd think complete flatness would be ideal, but some with a slightly convex or concave structure will go further.
More important than the flatness of the stone is a skimmer "keeping it skimple" - i.e., trusting their "intuitive feel" as the stone is released with a nice, fluid wrist at ideally a 20-degree angle to the water.
"You have freedom over how much spin you put on the stone as you release it from your hands, the trajectory of your arm, the velocity of the arm, your stance and hip motion as well.
"The forefinger, that's what creates leverage and torque on the stone, so the more rotation you get, then it will basically kiss the surface of the water, and that's ideal because it means less friction with the water, and the stone will actually go further.
"Any good wrist spinner [with a cricket ball] is able to have that flexibility within their wrist, so that's one other factor you can add to the release."
New Zealand's first stone-skimming championship
While flat, windless conditions are ideal for stone skimming, our national champions will be undaunted by the weather, Lamming says.
"We don't want to be recognised as a nation of fair-weather skimmers."
A little ripple on the surface of the water can sometimes even aid your skim, he says.
"It creates a grip, and that ensures the stone has a healthy interaction with the water."
A 20-degree release is ideal for stone skimming, says Richie Lamming, an experience and education manager at Lake Hāwea Station and the organiser of the first-ever Aotearoa Stone Skimming Championship in May 2026.
Lake Hāwea Station
The stone skimming world record of 121.8 metres is held by Scotsman Dougie Isaacs.
In New Zealand's inaugural competition, there are just two categories - Open Males and Open Females - but Lamming hopes that in the future there'll also be options for teams, juniors and "old tossers" over the age of 60.
The 2026 competition is a charity event to raise money for Melanoma NZ, and he's putting a call out to Air New Zealand support this cause and help out with airfares for the two category winners to travel to Scotland for the next world championships.
The national carrier's latest promotional video opens with a young woman collecting a "perfect skimming stone" from the side of a river, Lamming notes, which demonstrates that there's nothing more representative of our country than having a skim.
"Sending our national champions to compete as world champions, that is a New Zealand first, and we'd love to have Air New Zealand help us out there."
Tickets for the New Zealand Stone Skimming Championships (both competitors and spectators) are available here.
