"We don't want to see any Kerplunks"

Kerplunk is a perfect word for what it stands for, which is the sound of a rock that is tossed into the water.
It is not the sound a competitive stone skipper wants to hear however. Nor is it a word he or she wishes to hear the judges yell, almost mockingly, when the rock they throw fails to even make a single skip.

Saturday, at the point where French Creek dumps it waters into the Allegheny a few dozen people gathered to skip rocks. The annual Rock in the River Festival was cancelled this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. Each year a few hundred people gather in Riverfront Park in Franklin for the Pennsylvania State Championship. This year they decided to have an unofficial gathering of a few champion skippers, but when word got out a few more wanted to come and then a few more and.... well it wasn't the usual crowd but folks showed up.

Dave "Spiderman" Ohmer, who has won this event before, said "All these people came out basically so 10 of us could throw."  Ohmer and world record holder Kurt "Mountain Man" Steiner have both won several events and they were joined by a dozen other competitors, one drove in from Arkansas and another from Baltimore.

A crew from GoLive Sports based out of Michegan also made the trek to do a story. They are content providers for ESPN, though they don't know if or when the segment will air at this point. They had four camera angles to capture this event.

Judge and sponsor Patrick Pelletier pushed for the event to go on despite it being cancelled this year. They dubbed it the Unofficial Underground Stone Skipping Competition. No trophies where handed out, but the traditional fudge was still the coveted prize. 

Long-time former record holder, the late Russ Byers of Franklin, started the tradition because he loved fudge and would be seen wearing t-shirts with "Skip Stones for Fudge," around Franklin. He and Events Coordinator Ronnie Beith began the event in Franklin many years ago. Byers passed away after a battle with cancer over a year ago.

Saturday the river didn't look hospitable for good tosses, it was choppy and the waves can really affect the skips.  However, right before 1 p.m. the waters calmed and several high scores recorded. Ohmer had tossed a 43 to set the tone. Steiner soon followed with a 44. This skip held up until Ohmer's next toss when he released one that actually achieve a round of applause from the socially distanced crowd as the masked judges huddled to figure out what they each witnessed. 50 was announced by Pelletier. This number held up despite a few more tosses garnered crowd applause. Several 40s were recorded and several more skips hit into the high 30s.

At the end of the professional round, some of the youngsters got a chance to competel. First timer David Mohnkern, who came with his brother Jerry, was given a special rookie award and a small box of fudge. Ohmer's son David followed in his father's footsteps and won the youth division. Jerry Mohnkern, who has been to the event many times took home the top amateur prize.

Jerry spent time making videos and encouraging his younger brother. His brother was paying attention. "I was really focussing on the power and the spin," he told the camera in his brothers hand. "You're doing awesome," Jerry told him. "It's harder when you know someone is watching and recording it," David told his brother. "You have to almost think that isn't happening, you have to really just think about nothing."

Kelly Rime, of GoLive Sports went around asking all the competitors a series of questions like how to spell their name, where they are from and what is their nickname. Almost all rock skippers have some sort of nick name. But perhaps the most telling question for those serious about rock skipping was this one, "What makes your rocks so special."
​ Brian Ferry, of Warren, told her that he gets his rocks locally from his hometown and he probably uses a slightly heaver rock than most. Ohmer and Steiner get a lot of their best rocks in Erie. And yes, they know when they have a special skipping rock and will save it for competition. ​​​​​​

Even though Saturday's event had to be dubbed "unofficial" by all accounts it wasn't a kerplunk.

To view more photos from the event please visit ​https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p201717493sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p201717493