From way across the pond, stone skipping champion returns

As the rains came down, the scores went up at the Pennsylvania Stone Skipping Championship Saturday afternoon in Riverfront Park, Franklin.

Keisuke "Firefly" Hashimoto of Japan captured the trophy with a toss of 43 skips. It is the second title for Hashimoto, who also won the championship in 2018. 

Hashimoto was among the competitors who struggled early in the contest when the summer breeze caused continual ripples across the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River. He threw a 17, 18, 15 and 4 through the first two rounds. 

By the start of the third round, the skies had opened up and the rains started falling, at times quite heavy. To fans, it seemed skippers were rejuvenated by the rain. This included Hashimoto, who threw a 43 and a 28 in his final turn. 

He was one of eight of the 24 professional skippers who threw their only 30 plus toss of the day while standing in the pouring rain at that edge of the river.

Father and son duo Brian and Alex Ferry of Warren each tossed a 37 in their final turns. Alex Lewis of Stirling, Scotland, who started the contest with a kerplunk, skipped a 36 in the storm. Also slinging 30 plus skips in the rain were Ryotara Kimono of Japan with 31; Jon "Green Giant" Jennings of Louisville, Kentucky with 32; Aiden Woosley of Buffalo, New York with 33; David "Spiderman" Ohmer of Erie with 34; Connor Transky of Columbus, Ohio with 36; and Drew "The Canadian" Quayle of Hamilton, Ontario with 40.

Quayle's toss, his last of the day, was good enough to take second in the championship and beat last year's winner, Andy "Big Rock" Severns of Tidioute, who placed third with a two 38-skip tosses.

Severns was the day's most consisted thrower, accumulating 195 skips to win the special honor for the highest total score. Honorable mention in this category went to Kyle Graff of Soquel, California, who had four of his six tosses skip at least 30 times for a total of 170. Kimono was third in the accumulative contest with 168 skips. 

Noteworthy: The professional competition had 24 throwers representing eight states and five countries. There were only two Franklin locals in the mix, Nate Beggs and Greg Winger. 

Franklin is on the stone skipping map because of the late Russ Byars, who at one time held the Guinness Book of World Record for the amount of skips and brought recognition to the competitive sport with being featured on television news programs and a documentary.

Mike "Airtight Alibi" Williamson, a crowd and thrower's favorite, announced Saturday would be the last time he would add any more stones to rivers, at least not competitively.  Each year Airtight makes it a point to remember to those skippers who have passed away by holding an en masse toss with all the competitors lined up on rivers edge.