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Old     (landonpowell)      Join Date: Feb 2015       10-08-2015, 8:44 PM Reply   
Hey Guys my name is Landon I am 15 years old. I have the killer dream of becoming a Pro Wakeboarder. The biggest obstacle i have right now is minimal water time. I am only getting like a trip to the lake maybe once a month if lucky. I am just getting jumps down, but I see myself learning quickly if I had more water time. If anyone has tips on how I can pursue my dream of becoming true please give me it all!

Thanks!

Landon
Old     (MICAH_HARPER)      Join Date: Apr 2010       10-09-2015, 4:56 AM Reply   
to be honest...at 15 you are already behind.

But always pursue your dreams!!
Get on the Water every day. And practice practice practice
Old     (Ttime41)      Join Date: Nov 2011       10-09-2015, 6:31 AM Reply   
The best thing you can do with your time while you're off the water is spend it on the trampoline. You'll pick things up quick on the water if you have them down on the trampoline first.

Like Micah said though, 15 is a little late to be starting. A lot of the pros you see in magazines and such started soon after they learned to walk and have parents that poured a ton of time and money into breeding them to be a pro.

Last edited by Ttime41; 10-09-2015 at 6:34 AM.
Old     (skiboarder)      Join Date: Oct 2006       10-09-2015, 7:19 AM Reply   
I disagree 100%. 15-16 is the perfect age to really start wakeboarding. Starting aggressive sports at 11-12 vs 15-16 will cut a third off of your pro career. It is an interesting field and gaining speed. You are far more likely to have a career ending injury if you start sports before puberty.

The curve from amateur to pro is only about 3-4 years. Basically, if you haven't made it by 5 years, you won't. That would put you at 20. The perfect age to travel the wold without a wake-dad.

Wakeboarding aggressively any younger than 15 gives you no real advantage. That said as will all professional sports, you either have it or you don't. Hard work is key to becoming a great rider, but a pro must have the spark.
Old     (matty_gs)      Join Date: Sep 2008       10-09-2015, 7:36 AM Reply   
I'd reach out to some local riders and bum as many pulls as possible. It's going to be next to impossible to get enough water time without parents dedicating a ton of resources and I definitely agree to work on the tramp as much as possible. Where are you located?
Old     (skiboarder)      Join Date: Oct 2006       10-09-2015, 7:48 AM Reply   
There are still riders being made the old-fashoioned way. Get a job to earn some gas money and be willing to ride behind anything that will pull you. You need to start writing letters to ski-schools now so you could be a camp-cabin-boy next summer.
Old     (Nordicron)      Join Date: Aug 2011       10-09-2015, 8:02 AM Reply   
Yeah if u don't have access to a boat, meaning parents don't own and u don't live on a lake already chances of making a living doing this aren't really good.
Guessing almost every rider in the top 50 grew up with parents living on a lake. It at the very least mom and dad towing a boat every other day!

Another good option while not behind the boat would be find the wake parks and maybe look into taking gymnastics classes.
Old     (dyost)      Join Date: Jan 2007       10-09-2015, 8:31 AM Reply   
Water time, water time, water time.....

Does your family own a boat? If so, you need to do whatever you can to demonstrate enough responsibility that your folks will let you take the boat by yourself when you are old enough to drive.

Is there a cable near southern cal? If not, do you have any family or someone you can stay with in Sacremento? If so, you should be angling for summer jobs/internships at Velocity Island Park.

Go to Mike Schwenne and Derek Cook's wake camps. After spending some time there, hit them up about summer jobs or anything you can do to work at the camp and help out.

Assuming you have the skills, getting connected in your local scene is probably equally important to riding ability. And with getting connected, the water time will naturally come. The cable and camps are a great way to do this.

As some have said, a lot of the big name pros come from wealthy families where the previously mentioned "wake dads" have poured a fortune into "grooming" their kid to be a pro wakeboarder. This starts at a very early age. Let's face it, wake boarding is a very expensive sport, in any discipline of riding. Cable is probably your least expensive... but to put it in perspective compared to other board sports, the money spent on a new gear set up and cable pass every year would probably put a skateboarder in decks and shoes for 3-5 years.

The big money riders tend to all be boat and contest winning riders. There are maybe a handful of guys making really good money, the rest probably just enough to get by. So you need to have a realistic expectation of what it means to be a "pro". Not everyone will live like Harley, Phil, Rusty, and Parks.

I would guess in the majority of cases a college grad with a degree in the right field (i.e. engineering) would make more than most "pro" wake boarders and have benefits to boot.

Having said all that, there is definitely something to be said about enjoying the heck out of your 20's, traveling the world on someone else's dollar, and making just enough to get by on doing what you absolutely love.

And as Justin said, there are still a lot of self made riders these days. I would say they tend to be more on the cable side these days.

But like I said, tons of water time will super important. Wakeboarding is a hard sport to do several times a week if you don't have the set-up, location, and funding.
Old     (behindtheboat)      Join Date: Aug 2006       10-09-2015, 9:26 AM Reply   
Line up working at a cable park or summer camp for next season. Go to a camp over the winter or spring break.
Old     (conrmic)      Join Date: Jan 2015       10-12-2015, 9:41 AM Reply   
Listen, I have the same dream and kind of posted the same thing as you just did. You're gonna get a lot of negative feed back and pretty much people telling you that it's a stupid idea and you can make more money doing other things. I didn't read any of the other replies so I'm not sure what people have been saying. My advice is just to ride as much as possible and go to camps to help you learn new things. Also, make sure you don't screw over your future if this doesn't work out. Like I'm hoping to move to Florida and get residency while i pursue my dream so if wakeboarding doesn't work out (and in all honesty it probably won't for me) then college there will be much cheaper and I can start getting ready for the next part of my life if that makes sense.
Old     (whiteflashwatersports1)      Join Date: Dec 2012       10-14-2015, 12:40 PM Reply   
Rusty Malinoski was 15 when he started riding so don't let anyone crush your dream.
Old     (andy_nintzel)      Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Minnesnowda       10-20-2015, 7:56 AM Reply   
HOLY DREAM CRUSHERS! 15 is not to young at all. Not every pro rider that is 21 started riding at 5. So many kids with the right environment and determination spring board from not riding but a handful of time to pro in 2-3 years. Hell, I am going to date myself but I think Gerry Nunn turned pro at like 30 or 31, didnt start riding until his 20's.

Don't let these dudes get you down man, just keep searching for the right crew to hook up with and you can get your chance. If you lived in Minnesota I would start pulling you around. Most fellow riders just want to hang out with people who are stoked on riding. The guys I ride with range in age from 50 to 10, as long as your stoked and have a positive attitude I will drag you around the lake. I think a lot of wake crews feel this way. Your 1 year away from being able to drive that will open up a whole new world.
Old     (skiboarder)      Join Date: Oct 2006       10-20-2015, 9:22 AM Reply   
I'm with Andy on this one.

You can't buy pro skills. I water-lambo and daddy's credit card will more likely hurt your career than help it--I've seen this over and over. There are plenty of pros who didn't grow up with a boat. It will equal a lot of hard work, but if that is what you want, you need to go for it.
Old    BamaMojo            10-26-2015, 12:19 PM Reply   
Never give up your dreams! I had a guy ride with us that is a pro and started riding at 17. It can be done....
Old     (slidin_out)      Join Date: Apr 2010       10-27-2015, 10:03 PM Reply   
Man give it a go if it's a dream just always have a backup plan. I've seen people learn to get up one week and the next were able to do w2w 180s then just blow up and learn a ton of technical tricks in one summer. So everyone progresses at different rates. If you have it when you start doesn't really matter. Give it hell but always have a backup plan.
Old     (deltawake)      Join Date: Sep 2004       10-27-2015, 10:52 PM Reply   
Reality check: Competitive wakeboarding is increasingly becoming a young man's sport. Look at the last two tournaments of the year in the left hand column here on Wake World. Worlds- Tony Carroll at 27 is the old man in finals. Houston pro- Steel at 23 is the old man in finals. In both cases, every other rider is 21 or younger. All of these guys have been riding since they were very young. Tony started in his early-mid teens. In the ranks of the junior riders, the decent riders are doing mobe 5s and 9s in their mid teens. At 15, if you are jumping the wake and riding once a month, you are behind. That's just the harsh cold truth. Alex Albin just won Jr. Boys at Nationals. At 9 years old, he is landing 540s, multiple inverts, he is close to a crow mobe off the kicker at the cable. He studies wakeboarding in his free time. By next year, he WILL be a lot better.

That being said, if you want to pursue your dream, I say go for it. I would like to give you a practical path. First, you need to figure out how to get out on the water more often. Every day or nearly so would be best. Second, you need coaching or at least you need to ride with with riders who are better than you on a regular basis. Third, you need to start competing ASAP. Compete in every grassroots event you can get to. Start competing in every national level Pro-Am event you can get to. Events like the events in the Nautique Wake Series. These events will be an eye opener to you. If you have fire in your belly they will motivate you and show your where you need to be to get to the next level. If possible talk your parents into homeschool or independent study, so you can spend more time on the water. Study Wakeboarding videos. Study wakeboarding tutorials. Read every magazine cover to cover. Then read the tutorials again. Subscribe to WakeJournal and read the tutorials in there. Study style and try to develop your own innovative and pleasing style. Watch every video you can get your hands on. Figure out what looks good and try to imitate that. Make yourself unique. Don't worry about sponsors. When you get good enough, they will come.

You have an uphill battle. If you want it bad enough, you can make it happen, or at least you can give it your best shot and see where that takes you.
Old     (DenverRider)      Join Date: Feb 2013       10-28-2015, 7:51 AM Reply   
Make sure you aren't falling behind in school because you're going to be a pro athlete. As pointed out, most wake boarders are done competing by 30 and NONE of them made enough money in competitions to live the rest of their lives. The guys like Parks and Murray that actually make money in the sport do it with the business ventures they create using their reputations and skills. These are educated guys with savvy business sense. Besides, you need something to fall back on if (and I probably mean when but let's be positive) things don't pan out.
Old     (deltawake)      Join Date: Sep 2004       10-28-2015, 9:32 AM Reply   
I agree about not falling behind in school. Finish high school and position yourself well for college or trade school or whatever you want to do for the long term. But, at some point every single wakeboarder who is able to truly call themselves a pro has gone ALL IN on wakeboarding. (By pro, I mean that he is actually making a living at wakeboarding. getting free boards does not make one a pro IMO.) Also, my previous comments were directed at boat wakeboarding. The path to being a pro as a cable rider may be more open. By that, I do NOT mean that you don't have to be as good. The competition is fierce, and with all of the new cables, younger and younger kids are getting better and better. What I mean is that the financial cost would be significantly less. If you can spend a couple of years riding cable nearly every day, you will know whether or not you are on the right trajectory to make it as a pro. Your cost of admission would be two annual cable passes, 10-20 boards, etc. That's a whole lot cheaper than a boat, gas, and all of the other related expenses that go with being a boat wakeboarder. Plus if you are hanging out at a cable, you are automatically riding with great riders. That in itself is motivating and educational.
Old     (fly135)      Join Date: Jun 2004       10-28-2015, 10:10 AM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by deltawake View Post
Your cost of admission would be two annual cable passes, 10-20 boards, etc.
If you don't want to go through 10-20 boards in 2 years, get a Jobe Conflict.
Old     (dvsone79)      Join Date: Dec 2012       10-28-2015, 8:30 PM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by skiboarder View Post
I disagree 100%. 15-16 is the perfect age to really start wakeboarding. Starting aggressive sports at 11-12 vs 15-16 will cut a third off of your pro career. It is an interesting field and gaining speed. You are far more likely to have a career ending injury if you start sports before puberty.

The curve from amateur to pro is only about 3-4 years. Basically, if you haven't made it by 5 years, you won't. That would put you at 20. The perfect age to travel the wold without a wake-dad.

Wakeboarding aggressively any younger than 15 gives you no real advantage. That said as will all professional sports, you either have it or you don't. Hard work is key to becoming a great rider, but a pro must have the spark.
How do I put this politely? That is a load of horse *****.

If I hear one more time how it's harmful to play sports/lift weights/walk down the street before (insert whatever arbitrary age you want here) I'm going to b!+ch slap someone.

Wakeboarding is a risk. Whether you do it once or a thousand times. There's a chance you fall or land wrong and hurt yourself. Someone that has wakeboarded for 10 years is twice as likely to incur an injury as someone who has only done it 5 years only because they've been doing it twice as long, not because they started at an earlier age. If you start at 5 and quit when you're 25 you'll be no more injury-prone than if you start at 25 and quit when you're 45. If anything you're more likely to injure yourself in your 40s assuming all other factors are equal (skill level, type of riding and how much you push yourself to progress). So I would argue that you are safer to learn as a young child.

Last edited by dvsone79; 10-28-2015 at 8:34 PM.
Old     (buffalow)      Join Date: Apr 2002       10-29-2015, 8:05 AM Reply   
Hey Landon, I have been riding almost twice as long as you have been alive . I have trained and ridden with many of the pros over two decades. I have seen plenty of kids that start at 9, kids that start in the teens, 20 somethings and older. There is no correct path. I have found there are a few common elements to the ones that are successful and rise through the ranks. First they are internally driven every day to get better, smoother, and go higher. They are not driven by what others think or what others are doing,. Secondly they have to be athletic. Thirdly they all know how to fall correctly somehow. When I train people that are learning that are "special" I find that that rarely take bad falls. Thats not to say when they start learning the elite tricks they don't take a heater, but on the basic invests and spins they are not taking bad ones. Where the average wakeboarders will tend to take lots of heaters and take lots of attempts to pick up even the basic tricks. I believe you can become a pro, but without video there is no way for us to determine if you posses the basic skills yet. Either way - lots of hard work, thousands of water hours and determination and you can move up the local ranks.I agree with the guys - go to every tournament, read everything you can, and watch everything you can. I believe that cable riding will speed your learning curve faster than anything - it teaches you edge controls and line tension. That will take you years to learn on a boat.I know several guys that ride 6-8 hours a day at the cable which is almost impossible on a boat. Than when they come to the boat it is just getting used to the big wake, speed, and different line tension. Also the guys are right in that there is not much money in the sport until you get in the elite group. You may get product, but rarely money. I have told everybody that asks how I did it and I tell them - always look at it form what you can do for a company and not the other way around. Which means if you are looking ford a board sponsor - what can you do for them? can you work boat shows/sales, can you show up at events, can you be all over the cables talking about product, can you market on social media.

Finally in a non wakeboard specific suggestion for your age - Read Dale Carnagie's "How to win friends and influence people". Follow the guidelines to a tee and it will help you of the rest of your life. As you start getting involved in the industry those tips will help you every day.

Good luck and let us know how you are doing your path to success.
Old     (skiboarder)      Join Date: Oct 2006       10-29-2015, 8:15 AM Reply   
Josh, I was talking 12 vs 15. Pre vs Post pubescent. There are a lot of studies on the longterm effects of overuse and and injury in kids.
Old     (Billdango)      Join Date: Aug 2015       10-30-2015, 9:55 PM Reply   
I think Nick heeney from England was like 19 when he started was like number one in England and did pretty good here as well guy kills it runs a school your not to old we use to go to to marine stadium with few buck to try to hitch rides actually still do if get off work and have no one to go I picked up a kid 21 lol few trips back hitching a ride rode with us all day he was shocked all the old guys pulling inverts what area are you canyon lake is another good place to try to get hooked up with lots of young riders and tournaments for all age and levels
Old     (tripsw)      Join Date: May 2006       11-02-2015, 3:50 PM Reply   
This: ".".

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