With “a wrist flick so fast it defies physics,” Dana “Launching Panda” Olson won the 2025 W.T. Rabe Stone Skipping Competition, held July 4 on Mackinac Island’s Windermere Point. Each contestant skipped six stones, with judges recording the number of skips on each toss. The winner was the competitor with the most skips on any one throw.
In addition to the professional competition, the event included an amateur stoneskipping division and a gersplunking contest for kids. Find the full results at the unofficial home of the Mackinac Island stoneskipping championship.
Past winners of the event that has been happening for more than a half-century include Julie “From the Rock” Benda, Jon “The Green Giant” Jennings, Russ “Rockbottom” Byars and world-record holder Kurt “Mountain Man” Steiner.
The competition will be held again next year on July 4 on Mackinac Island.
Skip The Straits World Record On Mackinac Island
The W.T. Rabe Stone Skipping Competition followed a special Mackinac Island event held on Thursday, July 3. About 85 people participated in an attempt to set the world record for longest skip of a Waboba ball, which bounces off the surface of the water.
Participants waded into the water and tossed the ball from one person to the next, leapfrogging ahead of each other to keep the relay moving. The ball made it 7 miles around the island in clockwise fashion before a celebration was held at Mackinac Island’s Mission Point Resort.
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