The World Stone Skimming Championships (WSSC), an annual international tournament for long-distance rock skimming, or skipping, is marred by a scandal after organizers said that multiple competitors admitted to cheating during the 2025 competition.

Organizers of the event, which was held on September 6 on Easdale Island, Scotland, wrote on Facebook on September 10 that numerous participants admitted to breaking the rules.

“The competitors in question have been contacted, they have admitted their transgression, and have been disqualified,” officials from the competition wrote. According to The New York Times, 400 people participated in the 2025 event. Event organizers have not divulged how many people cheated, or the identities of the accused rulebreakers.

How, exactly, does one cheat at rock skimming? By doctoring their stones, of course.

Per the rules of the competition, participants are allotted three attempts to skim their stone as far as possible. Their rock of choice must be “naturally formed Easdale slate stones” found on the island, not measuring “wider than 3 inches at their widest point.”

Easdale is a small, sparsely populated island off the western coast of Scotland—it’s also home to the international rock skimming competition every September.

The rules explicitly forbid anyone from using a rock that was brought from another locale. And when someone does bring in foreign rocks, scandal ensues.

The WSSC’s online post kicked off a flurry of international coverage of the cheating scandal, with stories appearing in the BBC, New York Times, and even the New York Post. Dr. Kyle Mathews, one of the event’s organizers, told the BBC that the cheaters “held their hands up” and apologized after being caught.

The WSSC added that for many competitors, selecting their own skimming stones before the event is one of the highlights. If organizers become aware of stone doctoring in future competitions, they “will be forced to insist all skimmers use stones pre-selected by the WSSC.”

To participate in the annual stone skimming contest, competitors must stand with both feet flat in a fixed position—no running or throwing is allowed. For a skim to count, the stone “must bounce at least twice on the water’s surface.” The distance of the skim is measured to the point where the stone sinks below the water. The distances of these three attempts are added together for a cumulative total, which is used to determine the winner in six categories: adults, teens, children, elderly, teams, and locals. Beyond this, the rules are surprisingly simple.

After the cheaters’ disqualification, the event proceeded without issue. American Jonathan Jennings achieved the farthest overall distance, skimming his three stones a total of 580 feet. Jennings is the first American to win the WSSC, but he’s far from the only American stone skimming legend.

Since 2013, Kurt Steiner has held the Guinness World Record for the most consecutive skims (not distance), with a staggering 88 skims. Steiner, also known as “Mountain Man,” once even taught Outside how to skim stones like a professional.

Although the first formal WSSC occurred in 1983, stone skimming has been a local pastime for generations. Easdale was the hub of Scotland’s slate mining industry for much of the 1700s and 1800s, and a wealth of prime skimming stones lies around the island’s defunct, and in some cases, flooded quarries.

After the initial competition in 1983, there was a hiatus, but since 1997, the WSSC has been held regularly, drawing in hundreds of competitors from around the world every September.