Let me just say it: Wakeboarding is hard. In a series of events that were largely out of my control due to misinformation being fed to me by a friend, I ended up at Wakefest ’11. Wakefest is an event organized and run by the Gator Wakeboard Club, and it took place this past Sunday on Lake Wauburg.
Arriving with the intention of learning to wakeboard, I instead realized the nature of what was happening when I looked around and saw the merchandizing, the sponsorship and photographers. It finally sank in when someone helping me sign up asked if I’d like to be in the beginner, intermediate, advanced or whoa-that-defies-physics category. My face at the time probably said it all: “I have no idea what I’m doing.” I felt like I was trapped in an ‘80s teen comedy.
It turns out this was a competition, though friendly, and I have never wakeboarded in my life. Beyond the series of expletives between myself and my misinformed friend, the day was beautiful and there was energy in the air. Also, there were energy drinks all over the tables; that’s sponsorship. But the crowd was quite friendly, and most people were pretty open and good-humored.
After striking up a couple conversations here and there, including one with a guy who had apparently been wakeboarding for some time, I’d mentally taken in about as much as I could to prepare myself to be yanked by a boat cutting its way across the lake, trailing behind while strapped to a fiberglass plank. Hopes not being too high after watching my friend repeatedly perform a move he called “the submarine” (eating water while being dragged), I failed three times in a row to lift out of the water. I was wrong to think “there’s no way I’m not gripping this hard enough.” With the cord handle snapping out of my grasp, the boat driver, captain, pilot, whatever, told me I had one more try and then we were going back to the dock.
It was now or never, do or die, win or cry, and I don’t know how it happened, but somehow my death grip held, and I found myself moving forward without having the handle ripped from my hands like my lunch money being taken by some bully. The board leveled on the surface of the water, and I heard the vague din of cheering at the dock over the roar of the boat motor. I was doing it. I was wakeboarding!
This lasted about five seconds, and I took the “Let the boat do the work” advice a too seriously, leaned back a little too far, and that’s all she wrote.
Still, there was plenty of food, sun, positive atmosphere and swag to go around. I got a shirt and a hat out of the whole ordeal, and I am sure the next time I go out to wakeboard I’ll be far more competent and fearless. By the way, I overheard some chatter, and remember the guy I talked to who’d been doing this for a while? Yeah, he’s a six-time collegiate wakeboarding champion or something crazy like that. Everyone watched him perform 20 minutes of “giving gravity the finger,” and it makes you appreciate how dedicated some people are to one particular thing. It is truly awesome to watch.
I strongly encourage anyone, if found way outside your comfort zone, to sometimes just take in the situation for what it’s worth and to give it a shot because you only live once. And even if you only get about 12 meters out before sinking into the lake like a rock with arms, you’ll walk away having surprised yourself in a good way.
UF is full of surprises like this; go find them.
Wesley Campbell is a fifth-year English major. His column appears on Wednesdays.
