Kurt Steiner holds the world record for stone skipping, with 88 skips achieved on a lake in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest. From Wikipedia:
An early explanation of the physics of stone-skipping was provided by Lazzaro Spallanzani in the 18th century.
The stone generates lift in the same manner as a flying disc, by pushing water down as it moves across the water at an angle. Surface tension has very little to do with it. The stone’s rotation acts to stabilize it against the torque of lift being applied to the back.
Research undertaken by a team led by French physicist Lydéric Bocquet discovered that an angle of about 20° between the stone and the water’s surface is optimal. Bocquet and his colleagues were surprised to discover that changes in speed and rotation did not change this fact. Work by Hewitt, Balmforth and McElwaine has shown that if the horizontal speed can be maintained skipping can continue indefinitely.