By Will Collette
Photos courtesy of Cheryl Dowdell
It was a nice finish to a new Charlestown event that had a very tense
beginning.
Event organizer Michael Dowdell underwent rigorous,sometimes skeptical, quizzing from Town Council members at their May 14 meeting. Since Charlestown
forbids all forms of surf-boarding, this event needed a special waiver to go
forward, even though it was going to happen in a largely unused stretch of
beach.
I watched this extended discussion go on and on. I had to
keep reminding myself that this was a skim-boarding contest, not an event that
involved plutonium, dancing bears, human sacrifice or wind turbines.
But finally, with a long list of caveats and conditions, the
Council finally agreed to let the event go forward with the Charlestown Parks
As it turned out, the contest on the 23rd drew a
nice crowd on June 23, despite being in competition with probably more local
events than Tom or I ever remember happening on one day.
It was a beautiful day
for it and, even after the event started, it drew more spectators from nearby
beaches who were attracted to the action.
There were thirty competitors. Drew Plourd from Connecticut won the
competition. Noah Smith came in second. Charlestown ’s
own, Mike Dowdell and Paul Cross, tied for 3rd.
Robbie Toth of Charlestown ,
assisted with scoring.
Michael Dowdell had hoped to hold a training camp for
aspiring skim boarders in the days following the contest but not enough people
registered to make that viable.
But pulling off a successful contest on the 23rd
will hopefully create a buzz and make the event even bigger next time, and
attract participants to the training program.