Annual Stone Skipping Contest continues Wimberley Tradition

Not even the rain could dampen the spirits of those at the annual World Champion Stone Skipping Contest held at The Back Porch this weekend.

“It was perfect,” Jay Bachman, owner of The Back Porch said. “It was one of those days where a lot of people who had participated in this almost three decades ago came back with their kids to do the same thing… We could really tell the families that had been practicing all summer. We had some really good totals put up and the bands were amazing. It was just perfect.”

Benjamin Gayler placed first in the competition with 27 skips, just three shy of the lake record set last year.

“We got really close to a record,” Bachman said. “Jerry McGee’s record was 29 from the 1990s and that was broken last year with 30. We actually got to 27 this year in the rain, which is hard to count and even harder to do. There is no surface tension on the water when it rains, so I think that would have been a record skip had the water been still for him.”

And there were even a few glimpses of the past. Longtime local resident Jimi Malone brought a t-shirt from the first annual rock skipping contest held in 1989.

“It is old and has holes and stains and has been well worn,” Bachman said. “It’s absolutely wonderful. We’re going to frame it and put it on the wall.”