Wakeboarding and Wakesurfing Pics
 

Went out wakeboarding and wakesurfing over the weekend, but didn't get good wakeboarding pics (these are from the previous weekend I think) and don't like any of the wakesurfing pics where I don't have a darn rope in my hand. However, here's some of them anyway ... This is on Lake Gaston, where I live in North Carolina, a short bit down the lake from my house.

Wakeboarding

http://blackeyewake.com/photos/Dom/t...ng01-thumb.jpg http://blackeyewake.com/photos/Dom/t...ng06-thumb.jpg

http://blackeyewake.com/photos/Dom/t...ng04-thumb.jpg http://blackeyewake.com/photos/Dom/t...ng09-thumb.jpg


Wakesurfing

http://blackeyewake.com/photos/Dom/t...ng02-thumb.jpg http://blackeyewake.com/photos/Dom/t...ng05-thumb.jpg

http://blackeyewake.com/photos/Dom/t...ng08-thumb.jpg http://blackeyewake.com/photos/Dom/t...ng09-thumb.jpg

More here:

http://www.blackeyewake.com

most xcllnt.

Nice nice!

Very cool! I wish my boat put off that kind of wake, good pics!

Dom, you should come and visit me, they have a big wake board competition just 3 miles from where I live

Ballast, man! Do you have a V-Drive? The "little" wake is my knock-around Chaparral boat, and the "bigger" wake is my Centurion wake boat. I also ride behind my Epic 23V sometimes, but with the 8.1L engine, it gets expensive. Yes, before you say it, Mark, I collect boats like I collect cars ... LOL. The Chaparral is a 5.7L V8, the Centurion is a V-Drive, and the Epic is a 8.1L (just .3 less than my Viper, which cracks me up). Big difference is the Epic holds 4,000 - 6,000 pounds of ballast water, and the Centurion needs fat sacs to make its ass sit down low enough. Been using Launch Pad sacs.

If you're anywhere near here anytime soon, I can pull you on 'em and see what you can do with a big wake. ;)

Liquid Force is one of my sponsors, so I ride their Witness 140 ... what do you ride? It makes a HUGE difference.

Also, you can put an aftermarket tower on a non-wake boat ... and that makes a BIG difference, too. I can hook you up with $1,000 off of a nice one, which makes it around $1,200, I think.

Very nice. I live about two miles from the reigning World Champion .. was just hanging out with him today actually. Not a bad way to learn some new stuff, LOL.

I just found out they cancelled boardstock, they had it every year
Lake Shasta has 365 miles of shoreline

Sheesh, that sucks. BROstock is the big one ... they moved it to another lake this year. Liquid Force runs it.

Lake Gaston only has 350 miles of shoreline .. you beat us by 15 miles, LOL!

Just added a few more pics of some of our other riders:

Anthony

http://www.blackeyewake.com/photos/A...ng04-thumb.jpg http://www.blackeyewake.com/photos/A...ng05-thumb.jpg
http://www.blackeyewake.com/photos/A...ng06-thumb.jpg http://www.blackeyewake.com/photos/A...ng08-thumb.jpg


Abby

http://www.blackeyewake.com/photos/A...ng06-thumb.jpg http://www.blackeyewake.com/photos/A...ng07-thumb.jpg
http://www.blackeyewake.com/photos/A...ng09-thumb.jpg http://www.blackeyewake.com/photos/A...ng11-thumb.jpg


I wish we had some pics of my jumps ... but I usually handle the photography, LOL.

Nice shots :thumbsup

A loooong time ago my friends and I used to wakes surf using our real surfboards which are not really built to handle that kind of stress. One of my friends was super good at it and could jump the whole wake but would eventually snap the boards in two. Nobody wanted to let him use their board :)

So he got the idea to build a board that was strong enough to withstand the abuse he was dishing out. He finally came out with his first prototype which was a polyurethane shell that was injected with foam and had twin fins on the bottom.

He brought it out on the boat next time and we all tried it. Worked really well and was very versatile. You could stand up or knee board or use it to launch off to barefoot. He was a monster on it and rode like nobody else.

His next step was to get where he could mass produce them and sell them. At that same time he took some pictures I took of him to SPRAY magazine to show off his new product. Once he had did that the entire industry took notice and EVERYONE scrambled to put out their own product. The giant companies were no match for my friend and they were able to run with his idea.

His board was the first of it's kind and he called it the " Wakemaster ". That was soon followed by another company's board called the " Skurfer " and so on. From there the board evolved with foot straps, and became shorter and today they are really just trick skis but the evolution of modern wakeboarding started with my friend's quest to build a better board and it took off from there. I made a post about it here before with some of the pictures but I can't find it now.

Wow, that's really an incredible story! It sucks to be ripped off by better-funded companies, etc, but that's the reality of not protecting your ideas, unfortunately. Everyone will exploit whatever they can to make a buck.

We're all Liquid Force now, but back in the day we rode O'Brien, Hyperlite, and others.

He had actually applied for a patent but the others got around it by making slight alterations to his design. His biggest mistake was going to the magazine before he had a big enough head start. The magazine wouldn't do an editorial article on him unless he purchased advertising in the magazine which he eventually did.

He walked in and told the magazine what he was up to and then they told everyone else and the race was on. He had no business experience and was in his early twenties so he was way out of his element. He really needed a good business partner and he should've been the front man / team rider.

They just had some big wakeboard event here in Orlando last weekend. Maybe even the world championships but I'm not sure. I have pictures and video of my friend from that time and I've always thought about going to that wakeboard event and tell the TV producers the story about how wakeboarding came to be and be able to back it up with all my documentation.

Most people think it started with the " Skurfer " but it was really my friend and us out on his ski natique two years earlier trying to keep him from breaking our surfboards :)

You all are pretty good about it, never tried it but sure looks like a lot of fun.

Haha well i have an old 17" Larsen with no tower and i would love to put on an aftermarket tower if i could find one. The only time i get some good wake out of that boat is when i have 2-3 of my fat bastard buddies sitting in the back hahahaah!

If you could shoot me over some aftermarket towers I would appreciate it Dom! :thumbsup

great pics !

Cool :thumbsup

hahahaha looks fun!

Bingo. What an amazing story, though! I appreciate you sharing it. :) Some day, you'll have to make your way here to take pics of my cars and we'll do a wakeboarding shoot, hehe.


Definitely give it a shot. It's addicting!


A 17" boat can make a really good wakeboard boat with a tower and some decent ballast. Launchpad fat sacs are excellent, and I just sent you some information on the aftermarket towers. I can get you some excellent pricing (also included in the e-mail), and there's really no reason not to slap one on there -- you'll get double the cost in resale value.


You can't even imagine ... it's SO much fun. Give it a shot!

seems fun! ;)

I like this

nice pics :) I love wakeboarding

Looks like fun, we should come up and see you sometime.

looks like fun :D

The wake surfing looks tough, hell wakeboarding is tough. Great pics though man

Wakesurfing looks fun.

Would be nice to get barreled though ;)

You got it. Just ICQ me when. :)

Hehe, well, wake surfing is 1000x easier than wakeboarding, which isn't terribly tough if you learn the right way the first time.

Yeah, but I'd be scared of the boat that could make THAT much wake! :1orglaugh

WOW that looks like fun man!

Doooooooo it! It's a TON of fun. :thumbsup

You are sponsored by Liquid Force? For riding skills?

No offense, I just have a hard time believing anyone on your wakeboard team is sponsored. Just by looking at your stance and form its quite apparent you aren't throwing any huge bangers ;]

Either way though, nothing beats being out on the lake and boarding with some good people. All my roommates in college were insane riders, I was never that great, but sure had fun!

looks like fun :thumbsup

We went out wakeboarding yesterday however it was too windy and it was a disaster for me. I am just learning some of the basic heel & toe cutting moves so need the lake as flat as possible. Some of the more experienced guys stayed up for a while but not me.

I found a couple pics from back in the day :)

Here's a pic of me wake surfing on my surfboard back around 1978.

http://www.thewoop.com/public_html/p...ages/wake1.jpg

This is my friend pushing the limits and going beyond on a regular surfboard.

http://www.thewoop.com/public_html/p...ages/wake2.jpg

http://www.thewoop.com/public_html/p...ages/wake3.jpg

Here's a pic I took of his finally design that's ready for mass production.

http://www.thewoop.com/public_html/p...ages/wake4.jpg

The full page ad in Water Ski magazine I shot for him

http://www.thewoop.com/public_html/p...ages/wake5.jpg

Wakeboarding blew up and evolved from there to what it is today. Here's a shot of a pro
wakeboarder jumping the fountain here in Orlando for a TV show that featured extreme stunts.

http://www.thewoop.com/public_html/p...ages/wake6.jpg

Hehe. It's not who you know, it's who you blow. BareWest Towers is our primary sponsor -- LF just supplies gear. It helps that we ride with the reigning world champion, but we pursue our own sponsors and don't name-drop to them.


Awesome. When you can go wake-to-wake, ICQ me and I can help you land your first tantrum. A lot of the inverts are easier than you might think -- especially the tantrum. You should be able to grasp it in your first day.


Totally amazing. I am just blown away by how much of a role you guys played in all of this. The scene here on Lake Gaston is huge and it's hard NOT to get involved, but you guys were pioneering new stuff, which rocks. :thumbsup

Mine as well throw in some pictures of my own, well not me but some of my buds who are kick ass riders.

Was on my schools Wakeboard/Waterski team, tournaments every weekend in August and September and were a total blast. 300+ college kids from a bunch of different Midwest schools (Mich state, Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin etc ) all camping out for the weekend. I was there more for the party then the skiing :1orglaugh. This was one of the little "lakes" the tournaments were held. Purdue dominated every tournament as their team was an actual varsity sport and had kids on scholarship just to ski.
http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/a...d%20Pics/1.jpg

http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/a...d%20Pics/5.jpg

http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/a...d%20Pics/2.jpg

http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/a...d%20Pics/3.jpg

http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/a...d%20Pics/4.jpg

yup, great pics :thumbsup

Awesome pics, Ahoy. We get spoiled having so many pro riders here that I forget how much the "show off" pics can juice ya up!

Looks like a blast!

I didn't realize they had scholarships for that sport

I'll hit you up soon.

Good deal. We have great water out here until mid-November or so. :)

Yeah, me either! These kids could absolutely rip on skis, mainly slalom and jump. I believe Wisconsin had a varsity team as well, maybe even UoMichigan too. We at Western Michigan University were just a club team, bunch of scrappy wakeboarders that were more known for our flip cup skills and being the last ones to pass out. Nothing was as fun, but at the same time shitty as hitting a ski jump at 7am with a nasty hangover!

.. back when it was about fun, not who you ride for, how many championships are under your belt, etc. Now a lot of the pros won't even get high or drink with us (with a few notable exceptions) if they have a competition on the horizon. They're like "real" athletes now .. LOL.