Across the hardwood floor of the Seaside High School gym on Saturday, April 22, teams of double dutch jumpers showed their stuff as judges stood crouched nearby. Ropes, arms and legs moved at breakneck speed as jumpers relied on strength and finesse and pullers maintained steady control of the ropes. This was the fifth year of the Oregon Coast Invitational in Seaside, featuring three teams from Washington, one from Arizona, one from Montana, along with the host Tsunami Skippers.

“It’s all about the turners,” Tsunami Skippers co-founder Stacey Dundas said. “You have to be very much in control. Usually if the jumper misses, it’s because of the turners, not the jumpers.”

Speed is timed by the number of jumps per minute, as judges keep pace using clickers, counting how many times the right foot hits the floor for 30 seconds, a minute or three minutes. “You only count the right foot,” Dundas said. “You could never click quick enough for both feet. It takes practice. It’s harder.”

Dundas has jumped since fourth grade and started the Tsunami Skippers with Shannon Carey in 2004 as a nonprofit to give kids an alternative sport that would help young people learn teamwork, the benefits of exercise, self-control, self-confidence and respect for others.

Over the past 13 years the Skippers have performed at elementary school assemblies across Oregon and Washington, half-time shows and parades of all kinds.

This year’s squad features 30 members, ranging from second- to 12th-graders. The season runs January to June, with two to three practices each week.

Malory Dundas, 11, started performing at age 3.

Ella, 9, enjoys playing piano when she’s not jumping rope.

Alona Whisenhunt, 11, practices at least twice a week for “a couple of hours” each day.

“I really enjoy working with different people and learning different things,” Alona, 11, said.

Alona, a Gearhart Elementary School fifth-grader, also enjoys basketball and soccer. “But this is the only sport I do now.”

“I like learning new double unders,” Ella put in, describing a jump rope technique.

Ella is even looking at learning a triple under, her mom, Amber Clyde added, an advanced move of one jump within three turns of the rope.

The Skippers will travel to perform at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Theme Park in June and plan to compete in the World Jump Rope competition in 2019. They have hosted jump rope camps and workshops and performed at fundraising events, including the Providence Seaside Hospital Foundation “Outpace Diabetes.”

Next up for the Skippers: the Tournament of Champions in Kirkland, Washington, on May 11.

“They’re doing pretty good!” Dundas said of the team between events. “I think they’re doing all right!”