I voted other. I'll keep it short, but the act of standing sidewayz while riding a board behind a boat has been around well before any of those guys, and it was also called wakeboarding (among other things). People will debate if it's "real" wakeboarding, but like skating and snowboarding, wakeboarding has evolved from something super primitive to equipment that's much more advanced and it allows the riders to bring out the best when it comes to what they have to work with. I credit jimmy and tony hugely when it comes to actually popularizing wakeboarding...like taking a chance on it, designing boards, traveling to promote it and losing money along the way. Despite the weird history with hyperlite, herb did commit to that compression molded wakeboard and whatever else I'm not listing because I'm tired and ornery (doh)! I don't know a ton about tom carter, but he was a part of thruster "waterski boards", and they started up somewhere around 87 or 88. They made some really REALLY interesting boards back in the day...unique core materials, PBT tops and bottoms, reshapable rails, etch. Very cool stuff. i have a schmaltz american spirit (the model he rode in "spray"), but I'd dig anything thruster that was even older than that one. But yeah, that's my story.
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