COLLEGE Wake teams
 

Im not sure if its just me but i think we can do a much better job promoting college wakeboarding.
I think ASU has done the best of promoting!
coming from being a freshmen at Central Washington University we have a good amount of people.
and I'm excited for what has to come!
What ideas do you have to go about promoting Wakeboard teams?

What do you mean promoting, as in like social media reach? I'm a WakeDevil and have noticed that it's really about social media relations that gets us noticed.

Talon,

Since your team is most likely student funded, you all should be targeting the current student base. Call me old fashioned, but get on campus as much as you can, and grow awareness throughout the current student body and local community. It's not flashy, but that's what it takes to promote your club/team.

Build a strong face to face presents on the campus and you will get the best advertising and promotion money can buy: word of mouth.

Take it back to old school and have fun.

I'm the President of the Virginia Tech wakeboard team and we do a TON of on campus marketing. For starters....in the Gym we play some of our wakeboard videos on the screens around the gym and we have flyers in most of our gyms. This year we towed our boat out to the center of campus and basically advertised our club as students went from class to class. Also this year we are having a premiere of the new movie Prime, on campus which we are using as a fundraiser. We also make T-shirts, Jerseys, Hoodies, beanies and such every year and raffle/sell them to students on campus both in the club and not in the club.

There are a lot of things you can do to promote your club! Like Brad mentioned, you really need to target the student body.

Other things we've thought of here at Virginia Tech, but were shot down by the school. About two years ago we came up with the idea to setup a System 2.0 above our duck pond on campus, we had full backing from Red-Bull, but the university shut the idea down after stating that the pond was not a reservable space. The idea was to have the competition (sliders and such included) during a football game day. It would have been a huge promotional opportunity had it gone through.

Having a really good social media presence helps out as well.

Just some ideas......

Grant, you had full backing from Red Bull? How'd you swing that? I guess define "full" backing, like they were intent on covering all expenses?

^^^^ Yeah, curious to know how you pulled that off. That's a sick idea though.

I'm on the team at Baylor and we do a lot of on campus marketing as well. We have our boat on campus early in the school year and at the club fairs to advertise the team. We have 60 something people in the club this year and most of them signed up because they saw the boat on campus. Social media is big too, especially instagram. Posting pictures and videos is a great way to get people interested.

Jordan, how many people are in the club at ASU?

BTW... How many schools have teams and are the funded at all by the school?

My daughter is only 13, but I think she would be interested in college wakeboard/wakesurfing.

James, we get very little funding from the school. It's almost entirely from our sponsors or out of pocket. I don't foresee college wake becoming NCAA anytime soon either.

A lot of schools have a Student rep for Red Bull. Look that person up, and put together some ideas. We did a rail jam and kicker contest in one of UT's indoor pools in the middle of winter that was backed by Red Bull. We also had a lake day with Adam and JD which was backed by Red Bull. The student Rep loved working with us because it was something different and got a lot of attention from the media both on and off campus.

In that particular case (Virginia Tech), Red Bull came to us. It was a pretty incredible opportunity and ya I'm still bitter it got shot down.

When I was the university of north texas wake team president, red bull came to me as well! it was pretty sweet, we got to ride cable with JD Webb

I'm trying to start a new club right now for The Fargo Moorhead colleges and was wondering the best way to get new members to join, and sponsors to jack us as well.

Sean - Which school do you go to? I'm a junior at NDSU and Ive always wished we had a club

I was part of the wakedevils just 3 years ago and when I was there we had nothing. The boats that we rode behind were an old ski nautique and Durty Curts mormonbu if we got lucky. We didnt have any school funding at all and managed to make it to a few comps that year with the sponsorship of our parents and they were all a blast.
We all just were really great friends with a common hobby and the team ended up blowing up not because of the sponsors but because of the members.
Its easier to find sponsorships if you have a team set instead of trying the "we are creating a team and looking for sponsors" approach.

Elevated Clothing has been making college wake team shirts and jerseys for the past few years now and clothing itself is a great start to "official" team or club so if you need anything made shoot me a pm and I can get you in touch with Machi.

I am also a junior at NDSU and always looking for new people to ride with and start the club with!

Most schools you become a sport club, this allocates a little bit of money. It also puts you under university rules, etc, and they usually want you to be a competitive or striving to compete club rather than just a social club. Social clubs are different to most schools, and limited on funding, allocation and resources. Problem with college clubs is most students expect use of a boat, gear, gas, site, etc, all for little to no cost, which is not realistic nor feasible to sustain a club.

Take a look at how Ohio State is doing it. Video from Midwest Regionals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3VqL0vPDbA

Please Help!
 

Hey guys can you please do me a favor and take this survey about wakeboard winches. I need 300 responses and only have 8. Thanks have a nice day!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NKQK9HQ

Damn, That would have been sweet! I might have gone to more football cames.