Francis Walsh surf and skim!

by Angelica Clemmer



Name: Francis Walsh

Nickname: "Swa" as in Francois/Fransua

Age: 43

Weight: 175lb

Stance: Regular foot

Home Town: Dewey Beach, DE

Home Break: Dewey Beach, DE

Board: HIC for my surfboards and Vics (Victoria) for my skimmers.

As skimboarding gains popularity on our beaches and while our professional skimmers work hard to promote and progress the sport, we can't forget Francis Walsh, a pioneer in skimboarding and one of the first surfers in Dewey Beach. Francis has paved the road for generations to come, with his dedication, determination,amazing style in both sports and a charismatic personality. A true local, true waterman and a good friend to many, Walsh is the Original Classic!


You were born and raised in DE and your family has roots since the 30s in Dewey Beach, How was growing up in Dewey as the youngest son and from an original local family? Yeah! born and raised right there, back then there weren’t a lot of original people, actually, you know, there was only four or five families that lived in Dewey, so we grew up just a couple of people,my brothers and sisters, we usually hung out, there was not a whole lot of people to chill with, not a lot of people skimming, nobody surfing, we really didn’t have anybody to watch, there wasn’t anybody else doing it. We were the first people skimming and surfing on that beach. and you had the breaks to your selves......totally (laughs) that's not good!

You surf and skim, what did you start doing first? I started skimming first.

Who got you into water sports? at what age? My brothers and sisters at age, four or five, those guys always went down to the beach, and skimmed on plywood skimmers, they would go up to the house, cut one out with a jig saw and rout it, no glass, no nothing on it, just paint it and run down there and use it until it de-lam (delaminate). I would pick it up when they were done and start fooling around. Then a guy from Dewey that owned a place next to the Exxon gas station, Russ’s Surf Shack was probably one of the first guys who got, real Vics, glassed Victoria's into his shop that were all wood and we started seeing what some of those guys were doing out west just on poster and photos, we started taking off with it and doing our own thing.

You have made movies, been in contests, travels around the word, what was that like? Yeah I made a couple little videos, contests yeah, a lot of traveling with Harry Wilson and those guys, it was pretty wild, we traveled because we were promoting skimming, no body really knew about it, so we would go to a beach, me a Dave Crowley. Harry Wilson would throw us in a truck, we would drive 15 to 20 hours sometimes, unload the truck and set up a little demo on the beach. Dave and I would skim and try to promote it in a lot of the big surf contests, we would come in and do our little promo, try to get the word out about skimming. It caught on apparently, there is a lot of people skimming on the beach now!

Whats in your quiver? How many boards do you have? Right now, 5 surfboards, 2 skimmers.

What are your thoughts on the skim community today? Its amazing, I really don’t keep close tabs on it, a couple of the guys that are local, Jim Weber's little boy, he has been tearing it up so I’ve been keeping tabs on him, and if any of the local boys start getting up on the top then I’ll sneak down and take a peek at them when they are in the pro heat. All and all I really don’t keep on top of it, I probably should, its kind of like it already hatched and its a chicken now, so I just let it roll.

Why do you think skimboarding has not made it mainstream? I really don’t know how to answer that question, nobody really gave it 100% of the respect that is due,because it's not a really up in front, in your face kind of sport. A lot of guys are just skimming little waves, it could definitely become a mainstream sport but I don’t think it would be good for it, I like it grass roots, the way it is now, it's more laid back and mellow, it will probably take off but its going to change the whole aspect of it. The skim community is very close-knit, doesn’t matter what town, state or country, everybody knows each other. Exactly, and that is awesome, and when it goes mainstream its going to be a bunch of stuff that it probably doesn’t need, I like it just the way it is, like you say very connected.

Did you know that a lot of the pro skimmers look up to you, and they call you “The man”,”The Legend”, they say you have the best front side steeze (style)? how do you feel about that? (laughs) ..... Just a lot of skimming, skimming, skimming, in Dewey that's all we had to ride on, primarily it broke right, a regular foot was pretty natural for a right sided wave, I actually double sided, I would ride front side both ways for a while, then I got to where I could ride backside left. A lot of the guys that are pros now, were kids, Jason (Jdub) and those boys were tini, when we were in our first contest, they were two and three, I got to see Joey V, (Vavala) at the beach the other day, we hung out for a little while and I watch him skim, and those guys are doing good, they are tearing it up, makes me happy to see those guys rippin’ it and to have those guys’s respect its a good thing.


Best skim session in DE? where, when, how was it? Oh boy! that was probably, I have to break out the album! looking at early 80s in Dewey, late September, big south swell, 75 to 150 yard liners, just get in and get stuffed, get barreled, spit back out,and just work it to the inside, sometimes the only thing you could do was line it, cause it was just lined up, it got so big, it got past the point of skimming and we had to plop our boards on the beach, and run up the street to the house as fast as we could to get our surfboards.

Best surf session in DE? where, when, how was it? Definitely South side, around the same period, may be a little bit later, around 88 or 89 may be 90 big south swell, south side, no more needs to be said, big shacks!.

How does someone progress in water sports? Practice,you get it in your head as soon as you get the bug, and if you stick with it, keep rocking,you keep on it, keep on fresh boards, good fresh equipment, that's is not out dated, and keep riding, that's 98% of it.

How much importance does knowing the ocean and how it works influence your progression?. Immensely, total 100%, if you know you can look at the ocean and gage what going on, it saves time, from going place to place, specially growing up right on the beach like I did,we didn’t have cars to get anywhere we gaged what we saw, to either go south or north. and skate there? ( laughs) yeah, skate, walk, skim, or bum a ride from the older guys.

Heard you have done some commercial fishing, and that you almost went out in one of the other boats when the Andrea Gale disappeared, is that true? Actually the Andrea Gale was one of the boats that was in the fleet. Bob Brown from the Perfect Storm , that was the fleet that he owned, we were on the boat called the Hanna Boden (female capt boat), we knew a couple of the guys that were on the Andrea Gale and the Monica Gale. So it is definitely true, I did it for about a year, it was brutal, you can see that stuff on TV now, with all the crabbers and long liners, and that's for real. All the boats were stationed in Marblehead Mass. we fished a couple of trips to the Grand Banks and Georgia Banks, then we took the boat down to Haiti up in the Bahamian channel, and I got off the boat before it went to the Panama canal on to the west coast.


could you live away from the ocean? Absolutely not, NO WAY

When was your last surfing session, how was it? today and it was pretty good, it was fun.


What advice can you give the next generation of local surfers and skimmers? Stay in school, get your education, stay healthy, skim and surf a lot and mind your manners when you are in the water.

if it was crowded in the water would you block for me so I can catch more waves? (laughs) you know I would!

Do you plan on surfing forever? as long as I can, no doubt about it, till the body gives out, and that usually happens before the spirit goes.






Thanks Sua for the interview, it's always great to hang out with you.