It seems that every sport has its super fans, the Vancouver Canucks have the Green Men, football has its fat half-naked painted dudes, and skimboarding has Jesse Gibson.
Jesse goes by many names: “Dolphin Boy”, “Hesse”, “Meat Hamster”, the list goes on… His infamous dance moves at skimboarding events have become one of the primary reasons to attend such events. Last year’s Sub Zero dance performance produced his more recent nickname ‘Dolphin Boy’ where his moves included pointed toes, a floor routine consisting of belly slides, awkward stare-downs, and what appeared to be a full loss of control of his limbs.
Jesse hasn’t been named SkimBC’s #1 fan simply because of his dance moves, he is consistently the guy standing on the beach in the freezing cold drinking a beer (or a first degree burn, hot chocolate and fireball) while cheering on the boys in the water. Typically he’s got a buzz going while on the skimboarding trips, but he always manages to work harder than anyone else on mini-projects. For example, he spent a great deal of time last summer building a steam room by digging a deep hole in the sand, building a small structure out of driftwood, then topping it off with tarps… We have also found Jesse climbing small rock-cliffs to snag some unique skimboarding photos, as a result photography has naturally become one of his new passions. Last summer Jesse accompanied me on a skimboarding road trip from Victoria to San Diego, California, he shot skimmin’ photos the whole way down the coast of myself and everyone that we met up with… He has quite a lot of passion towards skimboarding without even being a skimboarder himself!
His commitment to the sport and his consistent recklessness on the dance floor and to his body in general has earned himself a prominent spot atop the fan-club of skimboarding.
If you feel that you have someone in your crew has displayed above average support for the sport of skimboarding but doesn’t actually skimboard… Let us know here and we’ll write a story about them!
About the author
Brandon has spent much more than the majority of his life skimboarding, born in '86 and skimming since '91 he has dedicated countless hours to progressing the sport for himself at his local beaches. Since 2002 Brandon has been trying to push the sport outside of the beaches by developing SkimBC.com, a labour of love for the sport that has helped shape who he is!
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