San Franciscan's fitness movement one of pure glee

SAN FRANCISCO -- A blue velvet cape flapping behind her and a red-white-and-blue top hat on her head, Kim Corbin bounces among San Francisco's downtown suits and skirts with a small entourage. "Skippers, skip on!" she shouts through a megaphone.

Homeless people ask her for money: She makes them skip for it. Kids on bikes mock her: She tells them to "skip off."

Corbin, 31, is a professional skipper.

"There's some unwritten law that says, 'Adults don't skip,' " she declares. "If someone wants to skip, then they should be able to do that. I feel that negativity has been ruling the roost for an awful long time."

Plus, she says, skipping is good for you. She's lost 25 pounds since she began workouts of skipping and other activities in April 1999.

Corbin got hooked on skipping after breaking into a skip with a friend on the street. It hit her: This is happiness.

Her immediate goal was to get in shape. This being San Francisco, she also wanted to start a movement and, naturally, her first move was to launch a Web site, www.iskip.com

Now there are head skippers who promote the activity in 32 cities, and a monthly newsletter that goes out to 1,000 skipping enthusiasts.

"I was amazed at her enthusiasm and her passion for this just through reading her diary entries on the Web site," said Mary Kay Lane, 35, the head skipper in St. Louis. "I thought, 'Wow, here's somebody who had an idea and just went with it.' I found it very inspirational."

Lane now organizes monthly group skips in addition to bouncing home alone every day after walking her children to the school bus.

"I'll just find myself in such a good mood, I'll just start skipping," Lane said. "It's so cool to see adults all of a sudden skipping."

Corbin admits she was embarrassed at first at people's reactions as she skipped along. But now, "I have found passion in my life. I'm so much happier, stronger and more content."

She quit her job as a publicity director at a book publishing company earlier this year and is writing a book, "Called to Skip."

Soon, she'll be taking her message to schoolchildren with funding from Novato-based Project Fit America, which promotes fitness in 320 public school systems in 38 states. Executive Director Stacy Cook says Corbin will use skipping to help persuade thousands of children and parents to exercise together.

To do that, she'll tour the country in a Webcam-equipped RV in the fall of 2002. The footage shot on the road will be put on the Internet, allowing kids to follow the Skipper's travels during the estimated $2.5 million project.

"It's been quite an interesting spiritual journey for me," Corbin said. "I make it into a game. Just sneak in five steps wherever you are and no one is even going to notice it. Your inner kid goes, 'Hee! Hee! Hee!' "

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