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Lucas Fink is one of the younger men’s professional skimboarders in the pro rankings today, and this guy is an extremely promising young rider. We could easily see Lucas Fink begin to take over the rankings over the next few season, as 2019 has already been a strong season for him. This young Brazilian skimboarder is only 21 years old right now, and he was born on August 24th, 1998 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Lucas began skimboarding competitively when he was only ten years old, way back in 2008. Lucas has really risen to prominence in the global skimboarding rankings, but for a while he was strictly competing in his home country of Brazil. Currently, the two-time World Champion Amador, South American Champion, and Brazilian Professional Champion of skimboarding. Lucas was able to secure the Amateur World Champion title back in 2014, and this was the demarcation point that signaled the beginning of his rise to prominence as a professional skimboarder.
The next year, during the 2015 pro skim season, Lucas hit another big milestone in his career. By this time he was competing within the ranks of the United Skim Tour, which is the largest competitive skimboarding organization in the world today. In 2015 Lucas Fink was awarded a huge honor for Brazilian skimboarders; the United Skim Tour named Fink as the Best Ranked Brazilian in their global rankings at that time.
Lucas Fink’s rise in men’s professional skimboarding hit a major boost point in 2018, when Fink was able to secure his first ever United Skim Tour competition victory. He came in first place at the United Skim Tour competition in St. Augustine, Florida, USA. This was a massive UST victory that really catapulted Lucas Fink to the profile he has today, as one of the top contenders in the sport at only 21 years old. That is really what prompted us to write this profile piece on Lucas Fink; the fact that he has already accomplished so much in this sport and still has so many years of viable competition left in his career.
Fink is one of those athletes that are able to prove themselves very early on in their overall career, and he is definitely in a position to dominate the sport if he can hold his current trajectory. His 2019 season is going quite well at the present time, and every skimboarding fan out there today should be keeping an eye on this up-and-coming titan of the sport.
For the benefit of skim fans everywhere, here is a compilation of Lucas Fink’s best performances and career highlights, along with some of his sponsors and preferred skim gear. Continue reading on to find out more about the elite men’s professional skimboarder, Lucas Fink!
Lucas Fink’s Sponsorships and Skimboarding Equipment Rundown
Lucas Fink is really at the top of his game right now in 2019, and he certainly has an array of top-tier sponsorships right now for that exact reason. With elite sponsors like Red Bull, Exile Skimboards, and an assortment of smaller names, Lucas Fink is living his best life as a skimboarder right now.
Fink can almost always be seen ripping his Brazil-colored (Green/Yellow) pro model Exile Skimboard, and this tends to be the board he has been competing on this season. Lucas Fink’s Brazil-themed Exile skimboard model is designed around the technical style and aerial-focused riding modality that Fink is becoming known for these days.
Fink’s skimboarding style demands an aggressively shaped board with a low-profile and lower thickness around the core of the board. Exile has designed a board for him that performs exceptionally well across most surf conditions, and it allows him to achieve the crazy speeds that he needs to achieve powerful aerial spins and air drops from the wave lip.
Whether he is training in his home country of Brazil, or enjoying the sunny shore break waves of Southern California in the Laguna Beach area, you can almost always see Lucas Fink rocking his signature Green & Yellow Brazil skimboard from Exile Skimboards.
Lucas Fink’s Favorite Skim Beaches On Earth
As a Brazilian native, it is not surprising that most of Lucas Fink’s favorite skimboarding beaches are found on the tropical beaches of Brazil. One such spot that is frequented by Lucas is called Valinha Perfeita, and this is an especially unique skimboarding spot that gives Lucas a spot for training on larger, more dangerous shore break waves. This spot in Brazil does not offer small, typical wave breaks, but instead it is basically Brazil’s version of “The Wedge” in Newport Beach, California.
A wedge style wave break is basically a wave break that is amplified by a secondary wave break that ends up doubling the size of the wave and turning it into a towering “wedge” shape. It is important for any well-rounded professional skimboarder to have experience on all or most types of wave breaks, and so training on a wedge break is a critical thing for Lucas do to, and thankfully Brazil has a couple wedge break spots of its own. Wedge break surfing can be an extremely dangerous thing to do, because wedge break waves can be very unpredictable. They have a tendency to pitch forward violently and unpredictably, and this is because of the secondary wave amplification that defines a wedge-style wave.
The Green Coast of Rio is another location that Lucas Fink loves to ride and train at, where somewhat smaller and more predictable wave breaks can be found. The Green Coast of Rio is much more similar to the generic shore break lineups that are found all up and down the coastline of Southern California, where many of the high-profile skimboarding competitions are held.
Some of the other big skimboarding spots that are frequented by Lucas Fink in Brazil include Sununga Beach and Macumba Beach, which are both specific beach locations near the west side of Rio de Janeiro. Whether the waves are knee-high and barely breaking, or pumping overhead shore break waves, you can almost always find Lucas Fink out at the various beaches along Rio de Janeiro, training and perfecting his craft.
Lucas Fink’s Best Competition Performances and Career Highlights
With his career on the rise, 2019 has been another landmark season for the young skimboarding star, Lucas Fink. Toward the end of August 2019, Fink was able to secure a victory at the 2019 Florida Pro/Am competition. This victory moved Fink into the UST rankings position where he has now achieved his first ever United Skim Tour Championship Title, making Lucas the current UST men’s professional champion for 2019.
This is no small honor in the professional skimboarding world, and in fact it places Lucas Fink basically at the helm of the competitive men’s pro skimboarding rankings. Not only is this a massive honor for Lucas Fink on an individual level, but it is also a milestone for his home country of Brazil. This is because Lucas is the first Brazilian, and first non-American skimboard athlete to ever have a victory in the United Skim Tour.
Lucas is the perfect example of a skimboarding athlete who is truly well-rounded, and comfortable in all aspects of the sport. Whether he is having a technical battle in small waves, or throwing down in overhead shore break, he always seems comfortable and confident regardless of the mode he is riding in. From massive frontside and backside aerial tricks, like the huge Frontside 180 that helped him win a competition in Dewey Beach, DE this year, to more technical board-spin tricks, Lucas Fink has an incredible arsenal of different tricks to tap into.
At the young age of only 21 years old, Fink is already forcing the rest of the men’s professional competitive field to step their game up in a variety of different areas. Lucas has truly raised the bar for technical and trick oriented skimboarding, introducing trick combinations that have literally never been seen before within the ranks of the United Skim Tour.
One example of an ambitious and daring trick combination from Lucas Fink would be his ability to throw multiple board-spin tricks, such as his favorite 360 shove-it, right before entering a huge front or backside wrap on a large wave. Combinations like this require incredible board control, balance, and timing to pull off properly. Lucas is able to make it look easy, and this ability to pull off insane trick combinations under pressure is what makes Lucas Fink the rising star men’s pro skimboarder he is today.
