Where to live for wakeboarding
 

My wife and I currently live in the land of 10,000 lakes in Minnesota. While we love having all the lakes, the winters are just getting to us and we want to move somewhere warmer. We don't need to be in the extreme south, just something a little warmer. I'm looking for suggestions for places to live with good access to wakeboard lakes.

Our dream is San Diego, but I've heard Florida is known as the mecca for wakeboarding. Any comments around Texas? What about south carolina, or the the middle states like Tennessee or Missouri?

I grew in So Cal and it's not the best for wakeboarding or wakesurfing... Just no water unless you want to drive to the Colorado river.. Went to college on Florida and two thumbs up on water conditions.. I opted for South Texas.. Plenty of butter but we do get a month of winter in the 30's down here..

Wakeboarding in California, you will want to stay in the northern part of the state. Numerous lakes and the infamous Delta. We also have two cable parks now. You can ride all winter in a 4/3 or depending how you deal with cold a nice sealed 3/2. Depending where you live you can drive 2hrs and be at a mountain and snowboard/ski in the winter or drive 2hrs in a different direction and go surf the coast. California offers a lot awesome but you will pay for it depending where you decide to live with housing cost and other expenses.

Florida and more specifically, Orlando is defiantly the mecca for wakeboarding with the majority of the industry residing there. Lakes, canals, pro riders, gators cable parks. Lots of people to ride with. All up and down Florida you can wakeboard though.

Texas has a nice scene as well.. some nice cable parks, not overly familiar with the lakes but I'll let someone else chime in on that.

Florida Sucks!!!

No droughts in florida.Water aplenty!!If you can stand hot humid summers.:eek:

Arizona is nice. Lakes aren't too far and they're all big and a super cool view. Never too cold to ride really if you're alright with a wetsuit for a couple months. Scene isn't as big as Florida or California might be but definitely plenty of people to ride with!

I've only ever been on the Delta once and I was blown away. To me it's Graceland. All the wind protected channels and endless amounts of waterways is just so cool to me. I have family friends that have 125 acres of land with their own bay and no neighbors for miles. Such a cool spot. I forget how far inland they are but they can get to San Francisco by boat if they wanted too.

Tenn & Ketucky have some really nice lakes and you get a little bit of weather change. Your not going to be able to board all winter long but they have a nice long season. I'm in Indiana and we go there if we want really good water.

Most lakes in Texas are low and have been for a few years. Years of prolonged drought have taken their toll and unless you plan on being in south east TX then you will probably run into water level problems before the end of summer if the lakes have any water in them at all. Most everything around DWF is 7-12 ft low.

I live in between Dallas and Houston. We ride on the Trinity river and it never has depth issues. And with wetsuits you can ride year round

If you move to social, it's a year long sport. I just advise a salt series boat. With all the hate on salt water, the local spots are always empty.

DONT MOVE TO CALIFORNIA. srsly though, don't.

If you move to SoCal, you are going to be disappointed with the number of lakes available to you. Most of the lakes are reservoirs and are no water contact. I live in San Diego and we have 3 public lakes available in a 45 minute radius. One of the lakes is very small and caters to fishing (El Capitan). Lake Elsinore, just to the north, has a depth of 6-20ft. The last, San Vicente lake, has been closed since 2009, but will be opening in late 2015/2016. They have more than doubled the capacity of the lake after spending nearly 1 billion dollars on a damn raise. This will invariably be your best and possibly only option in the San Diego area, save Mission Bay salt water. The river is a 4.5 hrs drive (Parker/Havasu).

I wouldn't live anywhere else, but if lake options are a requirement in your decision, Northern California is a better bet at the moment. The water recreation scene in San Diego has suffered significantly since the San Vicente closure.

You could easily move to fountain hills in phx and be about 20 minutes to saguaro lake, 45 from pleasant, and there is also bartlett, apache, and for your big weekend trips havasue and powell are like 4hrs away?

Plus, AZ taxes are awesome, super cheap to live there AND you get decent snowboarding about 2 hours away. And youve got tons of area to ride dirtbikes, mountainbikes, camp, hunt