All these info about tips and how to skim are from Victoria Skimboards please visit them!

So you just bought a board, now what? Skimboarding is a total gas no matter what your skill level. Peel off the shipping tabs, and newsletter. Wax the deck with surfboard wax, this will keep your feet from slipping. You can also use car wax on the bottom, this will reduce the wear and tear from the sand. With adult supervision, skimboards are a big thrill for kids as young as 5. They love to push them back and forth, sliding onto their knees and gliding across the sand on flat beaches. And with kid supervision, adults as stiff as 50 are enjoying the sport on a regular basis. Find a flat beach with a wide area that is covered with a 1/4" thin film of water from the previous wave. We teach beginners to slide along the shoreline, not directly into the waves. Some beaches have cusps which are the crescent shaped cuts in the shoreline made by the waves. Start out at the point nearest the ocean and aim your slide toward the back middle of the cusp where the beach is flattest. This will give you a nice long slide before you curve back toward the ocean. Waves tend to swoosh up onto the sand. Skimming up the shoreline and turning off of the swoosh is called a speed run. This is the safest, easiest maneuver in skimming. Pick out a wave coming in that looks like it will have a good swoosh. Keeping your eye on it, try to time your slide so you will hit it when it has just flattened out enough to ride up on. Start running up the shore, keeping your eye on the wave, look down long enough to drop the board and get on, look at the wave, bend the knees and prepare to ride up onto it and turn toward the dry sand. The wood skimboards will not float if a thin layer of sand has washed over it. At the end of your slide it is necessary to get off the board before the sand can cover it. Just before you stop sliding, kick the board away from you, back up the slope of the beach. Then, as you turn to walk up the slope, the board is easy to grab. Wood boards are excellent for beginners because they are steady and they glide a long way across the sand. Plus the novice is going to abuse the board in the process of learning how to use it, so why wreck an expensive foam board if the rider is still learning the basics of running and jumping on. Foam boards become valuable once the rider has started trying to ride out over deeper water to catch the breaking waves.