skipping rocks

One or two skips is pretty easy if you practice a bit. Three or four if you do it often. More than that and I would be very impressed, especially if you could repeat the trick more than once.

Has a lot to do with the flatness of the rock and the flatness of the water. As a kid that age, lakes in West Texas and Alaska, 7-9 regularly, 12 or more sometimes, but those last 4-5 skips are as much guess and gift as anything else. They come so fast and so close together as the speed of the rock falls off.

The science of rock skipping

I once knew someone who could skip a rock dozens of times. I was pretty impressed until I found out he was a waterbender, and he was just cheating by manipulating the water.

Double figures is pretty good.

I can get six on a really good throw, but those last hops are pretty short.

I wouldn't be impressed with anything fewer than a dozen, but skipping a round stone is also impressive.

Gosh it's been a long time since I've skipped rocks! I think I would regularly get up to around 7. So yeah, to be impressive I would say at least 10-12.

But the kid only has to be impressed with himself, right? I remember being pretty impressed with myself for my 7-8. Kids often show things off that aren't all that impressive, so as long as he *thinks* it is . . . depending on your story of course.

Oh, and I should note it does have a lot to do with the body of water. So X number of skips at one body of water might not be impressive but be super impressive at a different body of water.

Clearly I am a rock-skipping amateur!

Technique and the rock are both highly important for the number of skips. I've been skipping just about everything all my life from good round flat stones to large misshapen things that I can still manage to skip 2-4 times. But up at either of the 2 rivers by my grandparent's house I can consistently hit in the mid to upper teens. The rocks there are so perfect that I usually tend to run out of room before the rock makes it to the other bank and the end is where you get the most skips.

I never though that the upper teens was a ton given that my dad and brothers could do it too and with those rocks and more room I'd be able to get more skips. But based on other responses it seems that this is well above average. So I'd probably go with 15 skips for your purpose. Don't use anything less than 10... I can pick up a marble sized pebble from the bottom of my lake and still skip that at least 5-7 times

Most I've seen (not by me) is 18, in a quiet pond. Because of where I live, a lot of the rock-skipping I've done is in Lake Ontario, which I think makes it a little more difficult to get to a high number of skips due to the waves. So if this is in the ocean or a very large lake, I would take that into account.

I grew up around freshwater, so skipping stones was a common past time If you skip a stone really smoothly across the water, and there is enough space for it to maintain its speed, it kicks up a trail behind it like a boat or jetski and it becomes impossible to tell how many times it skips. So unless your character has an uncanny ability to slow down time or observe quick movements, I don't think the number of skips is really relevant.

A dozen is impressive. Where I am, I can get one skip, but only if it bounces off a gator...

Jeff

Hendo said:

...from the bottom of my lake ...

Click to expand...

I'd give up quite a lot to be able to use this phrase in a sentence.

I had seven once and that memory has stayed with me some fifty years as quite a feat. I was pretty good at rock skipping, the only girl in a gang of maybe seven, ten year olds. I don't remember any of the boys ever topping that and believe me, they would have called it to my attention--s6

On still water, I can skip a rock upwards of a dozen times, ending in a kind of ski-slide until it stops and sinks. The trick is to get a rock of sufficient heft and flatness to really make it work. But it's not all that difficult.

Another fun trick is to see how far you can skip that first bounce. You need to hit the water at a slightly steeper angle for that.

Then again, I was a baseball pitcher in younger days, and can still throw pretty hard. Maybe it helps if you, like me, are a lefty (coriolis effect, ya know).

caw

Eight would be on the highish side for a river or a lake; twelve or thirteen for a flat pond on a calm day. Higher number for smoother, worn rocks and lower for jagged ones.