When did you start? Share your first wakeboarding memories... Mine start about '96

[trayson]

So, me and a buddy have been thinking back about our history with wakeboarding. I started in 1996. I began snowboarding2 years earlier (the 94/95 season) and I'd grown up as a kid water skiing most my life.

My first wakeboard was a 1996 Neptune Impala.
http://www.wakeworld.com/products/images/products/large_17_11_03_brdimpala.gif

And my buddy had a Neptune GTO. He was a slalom skiier and there were three of us that were living together in a house. My friend had just gotten his first tournament boat, a 1996 MB Sports Boss 200. One of the reasons I was down to rent a room from him was most certainly because he just bought a tournament boat!

I remember the first time I strapped my wakeboard on, I yelled "hit it" and stood right up. It was just like riding a snowboard on the water. I was crossing the wake that first pull and I was totally hooked. Later that season (or maybe the next season) I contributed to the cause buying my buddy a Skylon extended pole. Towers weren't even on the scene. (from my understanding, towers hit with the 1998 Sport Nautique).

Through the late 90's I was getting out what I consider a lot, 2 or 3 times a week throughout our Pacific NW summers...

So, that's where I started with wakeboarding. How about you all?

[jmvotto]

1988 skurfer, then 2007 ronix vault

[gregski]

I started wakeboarding in the late 90's. My real passion is snow skiing; to me, summer was always that annoying time between seasons. A friend of mine had a boat and all of the toys. I knew nothing about water sports but strapping boards to my feet seemed like such a natural thing to do that I knew I needed to get in on it. I begged my way on to the boat with lessons and the rest is history. Now that I have summer and winter covered, I only have a few precious weeks between season to get anything done.

[sandm]

had a brief stint as a kid at a cabin on the lake our family owned around water but never did recreate behind the trihull with the 65 'rude on the back. it never really ran that good and my old man didn't like working on it. it was a family-shared cabin and he took the stance that why should I work on it all weekend for others to enjoy. can't say I blame him as I reflect on the times up there.
didn't get into real watersports until july '07. went with my cousin on his boat to the lake one Tuesday night. tried surfing and got up on my second try. loved it. he then strapped a wakeboard on me and that was disaster. after several attempts and swallowing lots of water from floating on my stomach and not knowing the secret to flipping a wakeboard over, I gave up. but... bought the supra a week after that and have never looked back. my next try at wakeboarding yielded great results, but it's only a sideline for me. surfing is what we enjoy and what we spend 90% of our time doing. if I would have gotten into boating at 25 instead of 40, might be a different story on wakeboarding but today, I just don't enjoy falling that much anymore. I do still strap it on a couple of times a year and hope to continue to do that for many years to come.

[moombadaze]

1988 skurfer, then 2007 ronix vault


think it was the same for time period and a skurfer too

[Wax]

I started around age 12 or 13 ('98 or '99), about the same time as snowboarding (but I grew up skiing since before I was 2). My buddy's parents had a new 3 seater SeaDoo GTX and they bought him a cheap wakeboard with like those sandal bindings. It took us all day one day to even get up, but both of us snow ski and snowboard so once we finally got up it was great. I talked my parents into also buying a 3 seater jetski (we had a 2 seater) so that I could wakeboard, and my dad bought me a cheap wakeboard too with better bindings though. We wakeboarded all the time behind the jetskis for years, every now and then I got to do it behind somebody's boat but I had no idea what I was doing.

When I was 19 I bought a 2000 Glastron 17' I/O for $5k cash because I wanted to wakeboard more, but couldn't afford a wake boat. I had that for one season; we loaded that thing down with a big fat sac and people, and I even learned how to do a backroll behind it lol. No tower, just eye hook...had to rotate really fast!

That fall, I bought a condo on a lake. Would've been '06. I also decided in early spring to start looking at wake boats because I really wanted to get into wakeboarding more now that I was going to be on a lake. I sold the Glastron and financed a 2000 Supra Launch. From that point forward my life basically revolved around wakeboarding/surfing in the summer and skiing/snowboarding in the winter; that season I saw wakesurfing online and bought a CWB ride at the local shop. Nobody on my lake was doing it yet, so it was really interesting and a lot of fun to kind of bring it to my lake and get my lake buddies all into it.

[kaneboats]

Skied my whole life till around 2005. My brother got an O'Brien Buzz off ebay or something so we could all try it. I used to drive almost 90 min. to the water. I'd get to ski 3 times and be exhausted. I decided to try the wakeboard. Loved it right away. The first time I felt myself moving downhill on a wake was the coolest feeling (didn't jump anything at that point -- it had "sandal" bindings). So, I started riding every time out. Eventually decided we needed a Moomba for the kids. Still enjoy it but with an arm injury I only went about 3X last summer. Trying to get healthier for this season.

[bergermaister]

Great stories.

Grew up skiing and kneeboarding behind anything that would pull us. Around 93 or so during college borrowed a buddy's skurfer for the summer. Behind a 1968 tri-hull doing 20mph that thing was like death on a stick. My brother's neck still bothers him from a nasty wipeout that year.

Around 2004 (pre Moomba) went out with some friends on their little cuddy and wound up riding in a pimped out red MC X-something with the biggest stereo known to mankind at the time - 4 subs, I think 6 amps, big row of tower speakers. Dude's name was Chopper. Watched my buddy take a set. Then it was my turn. That whole experience right there hooked me - however I rode the board like a slalom ski at first and never lifted off the wake.

Cold brews, hot weather, insane stereo blasting Aerosmith 'Sweet Emotion'. (Still one of my favorite songs and makes me think of this outing every time I hear it.) No idea what board I rode - I was too awe struck by the whole deal to pay that close of attention.

[mikenehrkorn]

I didn't grow up with a boat in the family, but I did have a buddy in high school (early 80s) who did so I got out maybe 5-6 times a summer skiing -- I'm not sure if kneeboarding even existed then but we weren't doing that yet. Through college and then my early adult years I didn't know anyone with a boat but I missed it badly. Then I met my wife when I was about 30 and her family had a nice little cottage on a lake (which we still own and use all summer long) and got back into skiing behind an army-green runabout with a 60hp merc. I can still remember slaloming behind that thing and being pulled forever waiting for it to get enough speed to finally pull me out of the water!!

That pretty much hooked me and the family that came later for life -- we had a couple of somewhat nice used boats and then finally got the first new boat in a I/O SeaRay bowrider and became much more proficient at skiing, kneeboarding and finally got into wakeboarding at that point. Then slowly but surely got the kids (now 17 and 16 yrs old) involved and they just loved kneeboarding and then wakeboarding when they got a bit older.

From there, after 9 yrs and 450 hrs on the old SeaRay we finally took the big plunge into a Moomba last summer. We were immediately hooked on surfing and my ever aging knees certainly love the easier surf as opposed to the pounding on the kneeboard, skis and wakeboard.

[trayson]

I started wakeboarding in the late 90's. My real passion is snow skiing; to me, summer was always that annoying time between seasons. A friend of mine had a boat and all of the toys. I knew nothing about water sports but strapping boards to my feet seemed like such a natural thing to do that I knew I needed to get in on it. I begged my way on to the boat with lessons and the rest is history. Now that I have summer and winter covered, I only have a few precious weeks between season to get anything done.

Funny. I started snowboarding right out of college. I had to wait because until then there was no money for that expensive of sport. I literally took up snowboarding to get me through the depressing wet winters in the PNW. I tried skiing for a day and then tried snowboarding. I knew snowboarding was for me.

I did try to snow ski again many years later. I was very proficient at snowboarding so I figured that skiing wouldn't be that hard. after taking 30 minutes to go down a green run and ending up with my knees on fire, I knew I couldn't ski.

So like a lot of others, it's snow all winter (the wife and son ski) and now I can boat all summer. It's fantastic.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-a73PjH1f3Ug/UquCM2gyr1I/AAAAAAAAPoE/PCpZacZkR3w/s800/3%2520shred%2520a.jpg

[Boatdrinks797]

My 'not so favorite' memory was around 15 years ago when my buddies decided they could make their own boom out of a 10 foot fence post. At the time, we trucked it around to which ever of our dad's would let us use their boat for the day. It worked flawlessly for one summer until we strapped in my dads 17ft Crestlner. You see, my soon to be engineering friends devised a system of eye hooks and ratchet straps to keep it in place on a small 2x4 platform.

My buddy cried out 'hit it' and I dropped the hammer on the 120hp sterndrive. Before I could take my next breath I was bobbing in the water with blood in my mouth watching the boat spin in the 'death circle' while my buddies in the boat were pinned against the side of the boat. The boat made a single revolution before they realized what happened and peeled themselves from the seat and put the boat in neutral before myself or the rider in the water got hit. One of the ratchet straps snapped and the boom hit me in the shoulder and face and tossed me out of the boat before I knew what happened. No one got seriously hurt, and we all got a great story out of the deal.

[TJockey]

I started waterskiing with my family at about age 7, so that would have been around 1974 or 75. We lived at the lake in the summer so we pretty much grew up on the water. Got pretty good at Slalom skiing and idolized Sammy Duvall. Though the early years I got into Trick skis, kneeboards, and barefooting. Then my career choice pretty much ended all waterskiing at age 25 or so. Jump ahead to age 40. My wife and I sold our business and I took a new pilot seat just a 15 minute drive from the lake cabin. (best move I ever made) When I got back on the water I noticed that I was not seeing that much skiing, mostly wakeboarding. So I looked into it. I was watching wakeboarding on you tube trying to figure it out when my daughter walked into the room and asked me what I was doing. I told her I was thinking about learning how to wakeboard. She said, "You can't wakeboard, you are to old!" That was it..... I drove to the sporting goods store bought a wakeboard, and by that weekend I was wakeboarding. Not very well, but still I was doing it. Now the whole family is into it and last summer our neighbor at the lake got us hooked on surfing. So it was time to buy a v-drive and dive into it. So glad the wife and kids love it as much as I do.

[rdlangston13]

I first started wake boarding the summer I bought my boat. That must have been 2010 or so, a coworker of mine lived on a lake in Mississippi and had a MC Maristar and we would talk boats all the time. Well one day he called me up and asked me if I wanted to come hang out for a few days so I drove down the MS that after noon and got on a wakeboard for the first time behind his boat. Only took two pulls to get up and going. Then I bought the LSV that fall and didn't wakeboard again until April 2011 and now I am hooked.

I grew up with friends that had boats and stuff and I knew how to slalom and stuff already so I was familiar with water sports and had always wanted my own boat. Glad I got to fulfill that dream 24 years old!


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[EricU]

I grew up skiing the NorCal Delta behind my father's POC cuddy cabin with a small outboard. That thing put out a huge wake which back then was bad for skiing, and now we pump 3,000 lbs of water in our boats!, then at 17 years old, I bought my first of many many boats. Always singled skied and never used doubles as I couldn't control two skies. I still have my old wood Maja up in my garage storage. Had a Skurfer back in the late 80s and a knee board, but we only did those after a few good slalom runs.

Then in '03 I went down to my local boat shop to get new bindings for my HO Mach 1, I ended up buying;

New Waterski
Two wakeboards
A brand new $65k Team Edition Air Natique



I figured that I had better learn to wakeboard, my reasoning was that my boys who were still quite young would want to wakeboard rather than ski and I figured I would need to learn to do it better so I could teach them.

Well after jumping the first wake I was hooked!! Haven't touched a slalom ski since.

[trayson]

Some cool stories for sure! Keep 'em coming.

[MLA]

I realize the thread title about wake-boards, but I dont board on a regular basis, I surf.

Back on 06 when we bought our tow boat, we pickup up a Liquid Force Venture 5.0 based on a recommendation. We absolutely struggled that first season with the entire setup, until I surfed a different board, behind a similar boat with similar weight setup. I then realized the POS board was a surf slug :p