The Rock in River festival that includes the Pennsylvania State Stone Skipping Championship was not held this year.

The City of Franklin has hosted the event for 20 years. The city took COVID-19 precautions this season and canceled large-scale gatherings.

I was told that two weeks ago. Then, early last week, I learned that some of the top guys would be traveling to Franklin for whatever competition they could get. My son, Alex, was invited. I was, too, maybe even on my own merit.

So, instead of a festival, there was what some called a family picnic. It was a much smaller event than usual.

Photo by Richard Sayer Andy Severns of Tidioute casts a stone into the Allegheny River in Franklin on Saturday during the 2020 Pennsylvania State Stone Skipping Championship. Severns took third place in the event for the second straight year.

By coincidence, the family included some of the heavy hitters of stone skipping, as the usual suspects gathered for a clandestine competition at Riverfront Park.

World Record Holder Kurt Steiner (88 skips, there’s video), several-time Pennsylvania champion Dave Ohmer, and relative newcomer Andy Severns of Tidioute ended up on the podium.

On hand to record the competition-turned-picnic-turned-competition was the crew from Go Live Sports Cast — wearing ESPN gear. They shot the National Stone Skipping Championship at Mackinac Island, Mich., that was shown live on July 4. The Pennsylvania event was not broadcast live.

It was a good year to have video. A 44 was only good enough for second place. The best skip of the day was a 50.

With the event officially canceled, there weren’t as many participants as usual. The professional field was down almost 50 percent.

Photo by Richard Sayer Brian Ferry congratulates his son, Alex, during the 2020 Pennsylvania State Stone Skipping Championship Saturday in Franklin.

There were some youth and amateurs, but not in nearly the usual numbers.

My younger son, Liam, finished third in the youth for the second time in two tries. He’s been to the festival as many times (9) as I have, but didn’t start skipping until last year.

My brother, Matt, came up for a visit at the picnic. With some friendly arm-twisting, he entered, competing for the first time, and took second in the amateur division. His best skip qualified him for the pros.

Out of eight people who won fudge — the traditional prize at the event — two of them were named Ferry.

There were no known internationals among the field. That meant Drew ‘the Canadian’ Quayle (2017 Pennsylvania event winner) was not in attendance, nor 2018 champ Keisuke Hashimoto, the Japanese stone skimming (distance, not number of skips) king.

Enzo Ferrari of Baltimore was there as was Allan Passmore of Arkansas. Other than those two, the event was pretty local to western Pennsylvania. There were masks and, by the nature of the contest, social distancing was pretty easy.

The diminished field did not take away from the competition.

I had my best day ever as a stone skipper. I set my personal best and had several very good casts — by my standards.

Going back and checking records makes me think I like a good fish story. I’ve been telling people that I took second in the state with a 38. It was third with a 37.

This year is fresh in my mind and I have photos.

My first four stones were 31, 29, 34, and 38.

There was a new event this year — aggregate. The skipper with the most total skips over 12 stones — six in the professional division plus another six in the bonus round — would win a prize.

I was averaging 33 through four stones. That’s awfully good.

I did better than Alex, this year. I don’t expect to crack the top three often, but, while I root for him to do well, I try to defeat my son (it sounds rude when I come out and say it). He topped out at 36. That’s a lot of skips for seventh place.

My victory ended abruptly there.

Each of my turns was right before Steiner’s. There’s nothing quite like having the world record holder go right after you to keep your ego in check.

He was as-advertised. Steiner had four skips of over 40 in his first six and the other two were both over 30 — a six-stone average of 39.

Ohmer and Severns followed Steiner. There were 15 competitors, but the three before and nine after those guys turned out to be filler.

Severns had a 42 and took third place. He represented — wearing his Pennsylvania State Championship Fishing Tournament shirt.

With the result, Severns is the only skipper to place in the top three in each of the last two years.

In his first trip to the event in 2018, he crushed all skippers with a 46 in the amateur division. That qualified him for the pro division later that day, but didn’t count toward that competition — he had to start with a clean slate. If it had counted, he would have taken first place in 2018 and been on the podium three straight.

Steiner had two 41s and a 42 to go with his 44 — good enough for second place. He was the clear winner in the new aggregate event. All of the other contestants had at least a few sub-par skips.

Ohmer brought home the big box of fudge and another state championship with a mammoth 50. His second best was a 43.

Aaron McCracken had a 40 for fourth. I edged Greg Winger on a tie-breaker (better second-best stone) for fifth.

Ferrari won a bonus prize for hitting a stone cairn in the water. Unfortunately, the stack stopped what probably would have been his best skip of the day. If there had been an award for most enthusiastic dog, he would have won that, too.

The 2020 championship was a good one, but, hopefully, the Rock in River will be back bigger and better than ever in 2021.

And, although it was pretty cool once, hopefully there will be no interest in having Stone Skipping Championship masks among the prizes next year.