Teen shatters world record for skipping a ball across water

POOLER, Ga. (WTOC) - A high schooler in our area recently broke a pretty off-the-wall world record. He didn’t just barely beat the previous mark, he absolutely crushed it.

I caught up with him to figure out what went into the effort and how he got so good at something so niche. Waboba skipping.

17-year-old Isaac Sherrod starts his day at Memorial Park in Pooler with rocks. Each one gets a quick dip in the calm water before being skipped across it as a warmup.

Then the record setter comes into focus soon thereafter.

“It feels pretty good I won’t lie”, he says.

Sherrod now holds the world record for Waboba ball skips on water.

“I mean I don’t really know how far I can go with competitive Waboba skipping but we can see how that goes in the future for sure.”

He tells me Waboba is short for water bouncing ball, but there’s nothing abbreviated about the way it bounces out of Isaac’s hand. Especially on that record breaking throw.

“Once I saw the skip pattern like right off the bat like you can hear me yell in the video ‘I did it’ because I was like that had to be more than 23. And then we watched it back and it was a good bit more.”

The old record was set using a slingshot, and he beat it by more than a dozen thanks to his technique. Sherrod’s throw came in at 41 skips.

He says he puts topspin on the ball to maximize skip density. A splash science he picked up swiftly.

“I don’t mean to sound like arrogant or anything but I kinda like... that was my first time getting the Waboba balls.”

He’s barely had the things for three weeks, so I think it’s safe to say he’ll only get wa-better with these Waboba balls.

“There are definitely people out there with better arms than me, but I kinda had a natural inclination for it because I do like rock skipping and stuff.”

Now, he’s in talks with the folks at Waboba about maybe breaking the record again with them at his side. A collaboration that could have even more world record breaking potential than Isaac already has on his own.