Kurt Steiner (born 1965) is an American man who holds the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for stone skipping. Known as "The Mountain Man", Steiner resides in rural

Cameron County, Pennsylvania Cameron County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,547 and is Pennsylvania's least populous county. Its county seat is Emporium. The county was created on March 29, 1860, from parts of ...

Early life

Kurt Steiner was born in 1965 in

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

. As a child, Steiner struggled socially but showed an early intelligence and natural apititude for competition. He excelled at sports, computer programming, and games such as

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

, pinball and arcade games like

Asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

. He earned his B.A. in English from

Penn State Behrend Penn State Behrend (PSB) is a satellite campus of Pennsylvania State University and it is located in Erie, Pennsylvania. PSB is a four-year campus with over 5,000 students and over 250 faculty, in five academic programs: the Schools of Business, E ...

in 1990. He picked up stone skipping as a child, leaving off in his 20s, and resuming it after college.

Stone skipping

Steiner entered his first competition in 2000 at the age of 35. He spends hours sourcing and sorting thousands of his own rocks, mainly from

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. He lives today in a self-built cabin and lives a frugal, minimalist lifestyle. He focuses on both strengthening exercises like squats, as well as maintaining a low

body fat percentage The body fat percentage (BFP) of a human or other living being is the total mass of fat divided by total body mass, multiplied by 100; body fat includes essential body fat and storage body fat. Essential body fat is necessary to maintain life and ...

, in order to improve his skipping. Steiner is widely regarded as the greatest American stone skipper, particularly after the death of his chief rival, Russell Byars. In 2013, Steiner set the current Guinness World Record with 88 consecutive skips at Red Bridge in the Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania. He also was the record holder for stone skipping from 2002 to 2007 with a throw of 40 skips, achieved in competition in

Franklin, PA Franklin is a city and the county seat of Venango County, Pennsylvania. The population was 6,097 in the 2020 census. Franklin is part of the Oil City, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Franklin is known for its three-day autumn festival in Oc ...

. He and Byars largely traded US national wins during this period, and Steiner credits much of his world-record throws to the heavy competition with Byars driving him. Steiner has also competed internationally, winning the 2018 Welsh Open, where he threw 373 feet. European records are determined by distance not by the number of skips; the current world skimming title is held by Dougie Isaacs, with a skim of approximately 399 feet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steiner, Kurt Living people 1965 births Guinness World Records People from Cameron County, Pennsylvania People from Erie, Pennsylvania