WATCH: Melbourne High, UCF Graduate Amber Torrealba is 3-Time Vic Skimboard World Champion

Skimboarding is mixture of skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing

WATCH: Melbourne High School/UCF graduate Amber Torrealba talks with Steve Wilson in the latest edition of Sit Down with Steve. Amber now lives in Laguna Beach, California, and is a 3X Vic Skimboard World Champion.

2021 NOMINATION TO SPACE COAST SPORTS HALL OF FAME

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Mapquest shows the distance from Palm Bay, Florida to Laguna Beach, California as 2,568 miles. It sounds like a long drive – and it is! But, for Amber Torrealba, it was something she had to do to reach her goals.

Torrealba, from Palm Bay, is a Melbourne High School and UCF graduate.

She played varsity basketball and ran varsity track in high school and credits her former basketball coach, Steve Sherman, for playing a big part in teaching her discipline, hard work and good character traits – all things that have helped make her the person she is today.

Growing up on the Space Coast, Torrealba spent a lot of time at the beach. Besides skateboarding and surfing, she fell in love with skimboarding.

When asked to describe skimboarding, Torrealba said it is similar to surfing, “except you are approaching the wave from the sand, and, there is no fin on a skimboard.” She went on to say that it is “kind of like a mixture of skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing.”

After graduating from UCF, Torrealba made the difficult decision to head west despite having a very good job in central Florida with a bright future ahead of her.

However, with Laguna Beach being the “hot spot” for skimboarding, she realized that if she was going to reach her goals, she had to make the move.

After arriving in Laguna Beach, and settling in, it did not take Torrealba long to make a name for herself in skimboarding.

The year after she arrived, she won her first of three Vic Skimboarding World Championships and has now won championship titles in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Along with skimboarding, filmmaking has always been a passion of hers. In fact, she minored in digital media at UCF. The connection between her skimboarding and filmmaking is a perfect mix.

Torrealba saw the two as going hand in hand and decided she wanted to make a career out of it.

Torrealba has partnered with some of the top businesses in the industry including Blenders Eyewear, SteadyMD, Adobe, Etnies, Panasonic, Victoria Skimboards, Freestyle Watches and Shark Wheel.

According to Torrealba, these companies have “seen my vision and have gotten behind me in whatever I wanted to put out in a creative way.”

The future is bright for the 3X World Champion. Yes, the 2,568-mile trip was a long one, but, as you can see, it has been well worth it!

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