SOQUEL >> If someone told 30-year-old Kyle Graff that he has rocks for brains, it wouldn’t be an insult. After all, they’re often on his mind.

This is a story about a young man channeling his inner Little League pitcher and his ability to skip a rock dozens of times across nearly any body of water. What started as a hobby for Graff, grew during the COVID-19 pandemic and is now a borderline obsession.

The 5-foot-11 right-hander, a Soquel High School alum who works as engineer for California State Water Resources Control Board, moonlights as professional stone skipper. It’s not a stretch to call him a rockstar.

“I took it and I kinda ran with it,” Graff said of his hobby.

In his first competition in 2023, Graff competed at the Rock in River Festival in Franklin, Pennsylvania, and prepared to impress the large crowd gathered at the picturesque confluence of French Creek and Allegheny River.

Three onshore judges stood nearby, ready to count the number of times Graff’s throw skipped off the water and average their totals. After one of his throws, the public address announcer didn’t wait for their tabulations. “Three,” he said, flatly, as the lawn chair-seated fans groaned.

Despite that throw, Graff didn’t hit rock bottom. In fact, he had a memorable showing. He started the competition as an amateur and, by generating more than 30 skips on another throw, was moved up to the professional competition.

He’s a pro, but Graff doesn’t take himself too seriously. In fact, he posted the video of his three-skip throw on his Instagram page, “rockskippingpro,” and quickly learned about the power of social media.Before he posted the video, he had a couple dozen followers, mostly friends and family. Nearly overnight, that total blossomed to more than 85,000. The video of his three-skipper, pinned to his page, has received more than 1 million views.

Lorraine Padgett, Graff’s girlfriend of three years, has been his No. 1 supporter. She’s also a key contributor to his online success. She serves as his personal photographer and videographer and produces some entertaining angles and content.

“It’s pretty cool. Since he made pro, I can tell people I’m dating a pro athlete,” she said, giggling. “But we’re both surprised where it’s gone.”

Humble beginnings

Despite his growing status in stone skipping, Graff can walk down the streets of his coastal community in relative anonymity. But, it should be noted that he’s a stone’s throw away from being one of the best in the world.

Things didn’t start out that way.

“I remember the first version of Kyle’s ‘Three’ video,” said Santa Cruz’s Brian Tong, a classmate of Graff’s at Soquel.

Roughly five years ago, the friends took a road trip from South Carolina, where Tong’s dad relocated to, up to Ottawa, Canada. Along the way, they stopped by several bodies of water and skipped stones.

As a youngster, Tong skipped stones with his father when the family lived in Santa Cruz, so he had an edge on Graff early on.

Tong moved back to Santa Cruz just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and credits Graff for not only keeping their friendship alive, but keeping them both sane.

When shelter-in-place restrictions lightened and people were allowed to go outside for socially distanced activities, Graff invited Tong on walks along the beach and they skipped stones. Eventually, they came up with challenges to spice things up. They’d choose poorly shaped rocks for their opponent to use, or throw three stones at once. They’d even skip them off or over waves, or compete in target practice, if there was a stick in the water.

They’d do this once or twice a week. Graff looked forward to their outings and proved to be a quick study.

“He’s got an arm, which immediately put me at a disadvantage,” Tong said.

When shelter-in-place was lifted and businesses began to re-open, their outings became less frequent. Tong took up weight lifting and bulked up. Graff scoured the internet for videos and articles, hoping to take his skills to the next level.

When they met up again, their competitions were no longer competitive. The pupil had passed the teacher.

“I started skipping rocks with my dad as a kid,” Tong said, “so there’s an ego attached to it. … Now, when we go skip rocks, it’s no contest.”

Graff loved being able to track his improvement.

“When you start, 10 to 15 (skips) is pretty exciting,” he said. “Except the skips keep getting better and better. I continually amaze myself when I have a good skip.”

His personal best in competition is 38 and during practice, it’s 50. “It’s a ‘Holy cow!’ feeling of I just did that,” he said.

A rockstar

Any time, any place — if there’s water — Graff is ready to rock. He keeps a bag of smooth, flat and circular stones he collected at local beaches in a bag in the trunk of his car. Among them are some gems that he collected from the shore of Lake Erie.

Intent on showing his personal growth, Graff competed in his second Rock in River Festival, unofficially the Pennsylvania Stone Skipping Championship, on Aug. 17.

If spectators didn’t remember him from 2023, he made sure to give them a refresher: Padgett’s mom, Melinda, designed T-shirts for the couple. They featured a cool, stone skipping logo on the front, and on the back, between the shoulder blades, it read, “GRAFF.” Below his name was a large number “3.”

There were no groans from the crowd this time around, just plenty of “oohs” and “aahs,” along with a smattering of applause.

Graff took second place for his cumulative skip total. Four of his six tosses skipped at least 30 times and he finished with a total of 170. Andy “Big Rock” Severns of Tidioute, Pennsylvania, won with a 195 total.

Graff’s best individual throw garnered 36 skips, which was just shy of a top-three finish. Keisuke Hashimoto of Oyama, Japan, won the title with 43 skips.

Twenty-four throwers, representing eight states and five countries, competed in the professional division. The winner earned a large trophy and a pound of fudge.

Though some competitions feature cash prizes, it’s typically not enough to offset travel costs for out-of-state competitors. Still, Graff wants to attend more.

There are four major competitions in the United States each year. The Rock in River Festival is one of the bigger ones. It serves as a qualifier for the Mackinac Island Tournament in Michigan on July 4.

Graff wants to test himself against the best. Months ago, he considered entering in the 41st World Stone Skimming Championships, which took place in Argyll, Scotland, on Saturday, but he was late for registration, which sold out in an hour.

“I didn’t know it was that popular,” he said.

It’s a guarantee that he has the registration date for the 2025 World Championships written in stone. That leaves him another year to improve his craft. And he’s more than OK with that.

“It never gets old,” he said, of his better throws. “It’s pretty satisfying even though it only lasts 7 to 8 seconds.”