Ben Skinner is a very accomplished surfer. He spent his formative years in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands between France and England, and he’s devoted his entire life to surfing. He started when he was just three years old. Before he was ten, he was competing in local events.
Then, when he turned 11, his family packed up and headed for Cornwall, where Ben really immersed himself in the world of competitive surfing. By the time he was 13, he had two British Shortboard Championships under his belt. Quiksilver picked him up, and he was firmly in the driver’s seat on the road to a life he’d been dreaming of.
When he was 15, he began messing around on longboards. Two years later he had won every category in every major British longboard event. Most recently, he walked away from the world championship in Hainan, China with a solid third place finish. His take on surfing is one born from a lifetime doing it. As his surfing has progressed, he’s become a world class shaper. “Surfing, for me, is about flowing from one thing to another with ease,” he says. “There’s something so powerful about being part of the ocean and having that closeness to nature that you get from being a surfer. It’s really important for a surfer, a shaper, or an artist just to keep evolving… it’s the key to everything.”
