Blair Cherico Professional Skimboarder
Name: Blair Cherico
Nickname: C-Pit
Age: Can I lie? mentally I would be around 15 or 16, where I want to be is 25, but I'm going to turn 36 in August.
Weight: 168lb
Stance: Regular Foot
Home Town: I was born and raised in Wilmington, but spent my summers here (Dewey Beach) and now I live here.
Home Break: Out front, Dewey Beach, Carolina St. Good ol' Carpenters jetty.
Board: Grape Skimboard, the shaper was Paul Wade one of the original shapers for Victoria skimboards, he kind of broke off years back. After riding for zap for 9 years, may be a little bit longer, I stopped competing and moved on to riding some different boards.
Sponsors: Dewey Beach Surf Shop, and Run Drop Slide with Steve Pullara, he takes care of me, working with Freak, just little things, so I can get some free stuff.
How did you get the nickname C-Pit? that's a funny story, it started with Zap Skimboards, on their website they had a professional riders profiles, under the nickname for mine it had C-Pit and no one knew where it came from, no one had a clue,so one day I was sitting around with some of the younger kids and somebody was like "what's up C-Pit?" I totally blew it off had no idea what was going on, the next thing I know somebody came up to me and said, "whats up with the nickname thing?" I went home and looked at it, called Zap, asked where did it come from, they said, it must have been on the profile sheet you filled out, (laughs) but it was never on my profile paper!! it just stuck.
How many years have you been skimboarding and where did you start?
I started on Salisbury st. in Dewey Beach, 1983, that's a long time, 27 years.
Your first board? My first board was a Sand Piper, plastic, little handles, a stick together, big round nose, square end. I think I had 2 of those and moved on from there.
was there a defining moment when you went from just skimming around to seriously skimming? I think with any sport you get competitive even with your friends, when you are growing up you skim with a guy in town and you are always trying to be competitive about it, but I think when it really hit home to me and got serious, was probably when I was 17, 18, right after I graduated, most of the guys I skimmed with bailed and it was just me and Jeff Dearie, and then he bailed so I was on my own, I said I'm not going to stop skimming, I've been doing it forever, I love it!, what else am I gonna do to progress and get better?, saw some videos of the guys from Laguna and decided I was going to start traveling. I think about 18 yrs old I got super serious.
Do you do any other sports?
I've always been involved with sports, for the past three years Jiu Jitsu, Judo and Muay Thai have been a huge part of my life.
Does it keep you in shape for skimming? With out a doubt, that is by far the best shape I've been in, when I was competing with that (Jiu Jitsu, Judo and Muay Thai ) and when I was competing in skimboarding. Great strength, great balance, helps out in skimboarding.
Viewed by you, give a time line of skimboarding in Delaware? lets see...Oh god, that would be a long time line, when I came on the scene it was around for a little while, there were some guys that were pretty hard core, they weren't too much into helping out any of the kids, we got pushed to the side, just watching, of course kind of sneaking in trying to claim our grounds. As they got older, we moved on. I have always seen skimboarding come up and go down. Right now skimboarding is in a plateau, it isn't up or down. I remember at one point in time, this is one thing that sticks with me, the contest was super huge and we had TWA
(airline) as a sponsor, they were giving away 4 continental US airline tickets for the top 4 people in the super heat. We didn't have a professional division at that time and of course I got 5th please, so I was bent but I ended up placing the next year. That winter we had a bunch of Northeasters and it took out the boardwalk, the beach all kinds of stuff, the next year for prizes we were given dune grass. That's the rise and fall, and it seems that it has been that way constantly, from mega money, even then in the 80s or early 90s when that was going on with TWA, it was 6 to 7 thousand dollars in a contest, it was huge for that time, the next years we literally, we had plain t shirts with small sponsors on it, probably had $1,500 involved in the contest, literally given dune grass, and planted it were the contest was that year. People just waked off the beach and it was over with. I have watched it do that timeline from the time I've been a kid, I've watched it grow and fall, and right now it is finally where it needs to be, so many people are good, growing up there was always somebody, that was 10 years ahead of everybody else, made the sport kind of get a little funky and hard to get sponsorships. Now it has found its place and I don't think we are making a ton of money but we are not falling apart. So look for the future for the rise and fall again maybe,....I don't know.
when do you think the skim scene became obvious in Dewey Beach? It was way before me, the skimboard blood goes deep in this town. Like Francis Walsh, his family lived here before I even thought about being here. I came here at 6 or 7 yrs old and skimboarding had already been here for a decade, those guys were killin' it. I think it is relevant that you come to this town and skim, it's a shore break...it has exploded beyond Dewey Beach. Still funny to go on the beach and have people come up and ask you what kind of board you have, makes you think it still hasn't made it outside of here, but usually you find out those people are from the Midwest.
I know you like to travel around the world but specially to Chile, what makes it so good there?
My number one thing for going there was the waves, then when I showed up, it had nothing to do with the waves, not one bit, from the time I was there to the second time I went, a lot of it had to do with the beautiful scenery,beautiful water, the people and the culture. The family side of it was so huge, it drove home to me. Growing up, my family always stuck together, always dinner on the table, where everybody would converse. It was the same when I got to Chile, everybody sat down, and at the end of the day everybody talked about their day, didn't hurt at all that it was a good 9 feet, on the beach the day I arrived (laughs). Monster swells, nailing on the beach, in Algarrobo, I fell in love with that place. I would move there just for those hot dogs they sell with guacamole, tomato, ketchup, I want one of those things again. I love that stuff. (laughs)
how do you describe your style of skimboarding? Powerful maybe? I'm not so graceful in my skimboarding, I wouldn't say technical, just more powerful than anything else, I have an old school technique to me, with a bit of a progressive side cause I've stayed in it for so long. I tried my best to keep up with what is up and coming, you can only go so far with your body and what it gives you. The years catch up to you. So powerful and progressive.
where is the sport of skimboarding going? The years I have been involved and the years I've put in the surf shop, I hope there is something in the future for the sport, where kids can find scholarships off of it, make a living off of it, even if is not some huge living but just the companies that are out there, like the larger surf companies would just hugely recognize it and make it part of their industry. We build from the ground up, surfing is such a huge thing, everybody can buy a board and paddle out, skimboarding becomes a little harder in trying to learn, that the surf industry shuts us down everywhere. I think the only way it's going to ever build up is if we build the empire and that the right people are involved in it, and not the people that have been doing it, it seems to be that most of them are involved for themselves in the upper side of this, where is just a financial thing for them, it has nothing to do with building the sport, they are perfectly happy making the money that they make, they don't care about were these kids end up.
your favorite all time skimmer? why? that's a tough one, there are a bunch on that list at this point in time, because I know a lot of them very closely their personalities would cause me to say , I like one more than the other, but just for skimboarding style, Noogie, Brandon Stevens, the guy is 5'4" and slays some of the biggest stuff I have ever seen in my life and has the biggest heart on earth, the first time I met him he was crying on my shoulder (laughs) I was like "this guy is riding giants but tearing up over here". Beaker (Bill Bryan) and Paulo (Paulo Prietto) Geo (George Bryan) all those guys have slayed it for years and its hard for me to pick one.
biggest wipe out? I ate it pretty bad in Cabo (San Lucas, MX) one time, and you would think it was off of something really big. I've been lucky when I'm riding the big stuff, I hold on for dear life!, but I was running off to something, a sider came off the beach and I dropped my board and something ate my board, at a full dead run, as fast as I can run, I dropped the board, stepped on it and it came out from underneath of me, on the driest sand on earth, I went face first and slid about 10 feet on my face and then got destroyed by some monster wave coming in and got pushed on the beach. I was just laying there like a piece of sea weed. I didn't budge for about 5 minutes, I just rolled there, caught my breath, collected thoughts in my head, about who I was, where I was, and making sure that bones weren't broken. That one I remember pretty well, but there has been some other bad ones. That one might of cause permanent injury.........mentally (laughs)
best session in Delaware? That could never be answered, there was a sick session, a couple of seasons ago, in front of the old Nomad Village. On fire liners, chest to head high, some over head sets were coming in and open barrels, but we get that so often around here, you end up having to be at the right place at the right time. If you grow up here, you will get that once or twice a year. I had epic liners out of North Side (IRI), I'm going to claim North Side for the first time in probably 15 years, since that place got hit with a Northeastern, there used to be 10 feet of sand on that beach, and the slope was steep, and when the hurricanes would come in they would push the largest waves down the beach. Naval Jetty I've caught some great stuff, I think by far, best sessions come from North Shores, I say mile long liners but at least 70 yard liners, and South Side with its big lumpy barrels you can't beat the fact that you can get inside something so hallow on the East Coast, I've never found a place on the East Coast like it. I've been to one end from the other, and I've never found a place that opens up like South Side.
biggest fear? Growing old I guess and not being able to skimboard again, I think that's my biggest fear, to have to put my board down and say this is not for me anymore. Have to sit back and watch somebody else do what I wish I could do.
The love of your life? by far my daughter Sage, without a doubt, she is the love of my life and every portion of my life.
do you skim everyday? I try to, responsibilities take a toll, sometimes when I wake up in the morning things don't work so well, my body has taken its toll, Jiu Jitsu has taken its toll too, few car accidents. (laughs)
is there something that all skimmers need to know to cross to the next level? Just like anything else and in any other sport, be determined don't get frustrated. In our skim camps, I tell all the kids, whether it's 5 kids that week or 35 kids that week, I tell them, don't get frustrated, keep being determined, if you want to be good at something you just have to do it, over and over again. I've been skimming for 27 years, I still don't know everything, I can take advice from somebody, and I could skim more if I was really determined to get better, if there is something that's not working for me, I'll just do it over and over until I get it. Don't give up, don't get frustrated.
Skimboard Camps? Yeah, the skim camps have been a great thing. Around 11 years ago the camps popped up, and it has definitely helped push the skimboarding envelope, we have taught over 1200 hundred kids or even more, how to functionally skimboard, a lot of them moved on but a percentage of those are the new up and coming guys that are beyond up and coming, they are all killin' it and they come out of this town, you will talk to these guys in a few minutes, can't beat it. I have been doing them for 11 years now, I've written the programs and we change things up, we take suggestions. I've never seen a camp like this in my entire life, sometimes it gets frustrating,the waves or the weather doesn't go so well for it but you can't find a camp for the price, $300 feeds your child all week long,they get to play on the beach all week long, and hang out with this type of mentality, and the level of skimboarding that they get out of it........ its amazing. Not only do our counselors put in their time,they are underpaid, and still want to give back to the sport by helping these kids, they may not decide to make skimboarding their life, but these kids had a week of fun on the beach, while learning something positive. I can't say enough about the counselors or the program, on how good it is. All these guys right here are counselors, Johnny and Max. couldn't make it.
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