I have surf fished from Cape Henlopen in Delaware and
caught some huge skates.
When you hook them, they swim up and down the beach
and all you can do is yell to people to get out of the way,
cause you are running full speed with (surf) rod in hand.
When you finally land that sucker, you are so disappointed cause you figured it had to be a huge shark.
Here is a link to a UK fishing charter specifically for skate,
it shows the size that skates can grow to.
http://www.skatefishing.co.uk/info.htm
By the way, did you know that Europeans eat skates?