How to Make Perfect Skipping Stones

In this much anticipated video, I finally demonstrate how I make my precision engineered concrete skipping stones. With no suitable rocks around where I live in New Zealand, I've been designing and casting custom concrete rocks for perfect skipping. Enriched with high density sand, precision stamped, and hand ground to shape, these are some advanced rocks.

Camera: Sony A6300

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My name is Chris Magoon, and I like to skip rocks. I grew up in New England, where perfect flat stones are reasonably easy to find. Now, living in the volcanic region of Rotorua, New Zealand I've been making my own custom made skipping stones from cement and local sand, trying to engineer the perfect rock.

In my videos I'll be on missions to find the best stones in the country, discussing the design of my concrete rocks and the physics of skipping, practicing my skips at local lakes and estuaries, and just having a good time skipping stones.

I'm by no means a professional skipper, but I think that with a little bit of engineering and a lot of practice I should be able to get close to the world records for skip count and distance. When I started this project, Dougie Issacs 121.8 meter distance record seemed like a lofty goal, but I’ve now been getting very close with skips coming in around 110 to 115 meters already. Kurt Steiner’s 89 skip record remains a significant challenge. I have been designing rocks with a focus on distance, though it is clear that tuning stone design for high skip count is also possible.

My mission to find the best skipping stones and skip on perfect flat water have taken me all around New Zealand. I’ve collected and skipped natural stones on the beautiful South Island lakes of Hawea and Wanaka, the Clutha river, Diamond Lake, Moke Lake, and just about any body of water large and flat enough to glide a stone across. Home on the North Island, I spend most of my time practicing with my concrete rocks in the shallows of Lake Rotorua and Blue Lake, with lunchtime skips at work on the Te Puna Estuary.

Its going to be a long journey, so follow along to see it all unfold.

I'll skip you next time!

[hamishcarter]

Great video! Your filming has gone up a level. I also liked the baking references.

[Lee-One]

Damn such a well made video, you deserve so many more views because this is really well shot and made and well voice overs.

[TartarSource]

Thanks for the thorough explanation Skipper Chris!

[Elzie]

Do you have any links to your STL files for the molds?

[daveohmer]

This is really cool. I'm interested in purchasing a mold with a more aggressive grip. Is that something you'd be up for? I'd prefer 4 sides, with round corners, and one corner with a protruding trigger for a more aggressive application of spin. I'd play with grind tapering the bottom surface to avoid drag interference, and attempt to counter the weight imbalance with an angled press. Not sure if that makes sense.

[flactivities]

Do you retrieve the stones after you skip them? Are those materials good for the environment?

[Lee-One]

Yeah can you only use ironsand? Or can you use normal sand or what other things?

[hanjung]

Hi Chris, I'd really love to make my own flat rocks though I'm not sure where I'd collect Iron sand or really just get the cement powder or clay...

Can I substitute any sand I'd find along a waterside or should I be looking for specific things like particular things such as clam living in the soil?

Also if I don't have a mold or a 3d printer, do you have another recommendation to create a densely packed rock?

Thanks for the awesome vid, hoping to get to make some of these rocks.

[juliehenderson]

Could I buy one of those stone cutter?

[SimonYpsilon]

Nice video! It would be awesome if you could upload your molds on thingiverse or printables, so that we can also try making our own stones :)

[ramdas]

The fact that you throw these into pristine NZ lakes makes it worse than it already is. It's illegal as well.

[孙常立]

😅I always use natural stones and that wasted a lot of my time