Skipping stones down by a creek is a pastime long enjoyed by folks here in Kentucky, but for one Louisville man, that hobby has turned into his passion, and he's pretty good at it.

In fact, in 2025, he became the first American to ever win the World Stone Skimming Championships in Scotland.

How does someone go from being a kid in Graefenburg throwing rocks in a creek to a world champion?

Let's meet Jon Jennings.

[music playing] To watch Jon Jennings practice his craft is pretty remarkable.

Folks stop in their tracks when they see him skip a stone 30, 40, or 50 times.

How'd you get into this?

What possessed you to start skimming stones on creek beds like this?

I can't remember ever learning to skip a stone.

From the time I was a kid, I've always been able to do it.

My mom claims to have taught me, I always give her the credit.

I just grew up poor.

We didn't have a whole lot.

I grew up in the ‘90s when your parents would kick you outside.

They're like, “Hey, go outside and play."

We weren't grounded to be in our rooms.

We were grounded to be outside.

I just spent all my days out in the creeks.

When did you figure out you're good at this?

Was there a eureka moment where you're like, “Hey, I'm pretty darn good at this, I might be able to do something with it”?

In my 20s, I think people would see me skipping stones, and they're like, “Man, how would you do that?” I never knew.

I never knew the science behind it, really, or anything.

It was until I started competing that I actually learned the mechanics and everything behind it.

The mechanics are interesting.

We went to the mechanical engineering department at the University of Louisville to meet Dr.

Yongsheng Lian.

His explanation of how stone skimmers like Jon create their magic centered around two main principles.

The first was spinning the rock when releasing it.

This provides gyroscopic stability, just like a spinning top or a bicycle wheel that keeps it from wobbling or flipping over.

Next is the angle that the rock hits the water.

If done just right, the divot in the water creates a tiny ramp the rock can use, all while spinning, to launch itself forward over and over again.

Just like a ramp.

This rock actually will fly with the ramp, and the gravity will drop you down.

Then another one, another one, another one.

Basically, that's how it works.

You want it a little tilted back, 15 to 20 degrees is what you want it to hit the water.

Right.

You want to find something good that your finger clips right over.

When you throw it, you want to roll off your finger and kind of flick around to get that gyroscopic spin going.

Then there are the stones.

Jon is constantly on the lookout for the perfect one.

I have a feeling you walk around with your head down all the time because you're probably constantly looking for these stones, aren't you?

My wife always says that I'm the only person she knows that'll probably win a contest with a stone I found at the gas station.

[laughs] I'll be at a rest stop anywhere and I'm just searching through the rocks.

You're always looking around for one.

Yeah, if I see any kind of rocks, it's just second nature.

It always has been, too.

The best rocks to use were a big topic of conversation at the 2026 Kentucky Stone Skipping Invitational Tournament in Shelbyville.

Competitors from around the country participated in the pro division, and yes, there are pros in this sport, but it was also open to anyone who wanted to try it out, no matter their age.

Kids had a lot of fun trying to figure out the mechanics of the sport.

The kids division winner, nine-year-old Ben Ohmer from Erie, Pennsylvania, skipped a stone 24 times.

He has one piece of advice he always tells his friends.

You've got to spin the stone when you're skipping it because it only skips across the water if it's actually spinning.

I tell them that they had to flick their wrists so that it would spin.

Ben's dad, David Ohmer, won the pro division of the Kentucky Invitational, skipping a stone 34 times.

He picked up the hobby around 17 years ago while skimming stones with co-workers on the Allegheny River between work breaks.

Besides the connection the sport provides with his son, he enjoys the welcoming nature of the pro stone skipping community.

It is because we make it so.

We know what it's like to be the new guy at the competition.

You don't want to show up and just walk away going, “Well, those guys were really good.” It's like you got to give them an opportunity.

A new guy shows up and you think like, “Oh, that guy's really good at this.” It's like, well, give him some rocks.

Give him an opportunity to show really what he can do.

This is Jon competing at the 2025 World Stone Skimming Championships in Easdale, Scotland.

The key to winning here is distance.

The longest cumulative distance in three throws wins.

Each stone has to skip a minimum of three times and stay between the white buoys in the water.

The main achievement is hitting the big rock wall you see at the end of the channel.

Only one of my stones hit the back wall, and one of the guys did really good, the guy who got in second, and I thought that I had to hit the back wall three times.

When only one of my stones hit the back wall, I didn't think I won.

I was sitting there hoping for no one to [laughs] skip further.

I'm holding my breath almost.

Every time someone throws a stone, I'm waiting to see if it goes out of bounds or hits the back wall.

What's going to happen?

I literally at times felt like I was going to get sick.

I was so nervous, and my stomach was so knotted up.

Even after the contest, still with Fred telling me that I won, I was like, “I think I got second, man.

I think that this other guy had further distance than me.” When they announced it, it was insane.

I just went crazy, and I was so happy.

As for his future plans, Jon hopes to see the sport grow in Kentucky and America.

He has to hustle to pursue his passion.

Chasing sponsorship dollars is key to him being able to compete as most tournaments offer no prize money.

In fact, he even has to give back the world championship trophy he won at the end of the year.

Short term, he's hoping to win more titles and possibly break the world record of 88 stone skips.

He's come close.

Long term though, Jon hopes to create a legacy his four kids will be proud of.

Hopefully one day, one of my kids will be sitting on a creek bank like this talking about how they grew up with their dad as the world champion so they wanted to go in the worlds as well, overseas.

Not bad for a kid from Graefenburg who used to spend his summers standing out next to the creek throwing rocks, right?

I know.

I was actually skipping yesterday in the neighborhood.

I invited them out to the stone skipping contest, and I was like, “Hey, you never know where that creek leads you.” [music playing]