WW: Unlike some of the other pros, you're not on salary or anything so you've got to pay your own way to get to these tournaments. How do you do that?
EZ: I don't know. It seems like I've always just lucked out. Like a tournament will be coming up and I'll think, "Yeah, I'm not going to be able to make it to this one. I don't have the funds and it's not gonna work out." Then some happy little surprise will just present itself. I don't know. I work hard to try and make it happen and a lot of times things just go my way, so it works out.
A few times giving lessons has helped me make the cash I needed to get to tour stops, which was great. And giving lessons is really rewarding to me, not just financially. I love helping out people of all different levels. I think the most fun is when people are just starting out and can't jump wake to wake, and we go out for a lesson and by the end of the day they're jumping wake to wake and trying 180's and are so stoked. They always say "This must be so boring for you to be out here with us because you're doing all this other stuff...this must be so dull." I think it's totally not because I remember what it was like to be struggling to get wake to wake, and how excited you feel when you finally get it. It is the best feeling in the world and I share that feeling with them when I'm out there.
I can remember when I was first learning and everyone that I rode with were all at the same level. None of us knew what was going on. We'd go out there, try stuff, crash and be like, "Well, that looked really close. Uhh...try again." I'd like to think that I'm saving people from going through a bunch of unnecessary crashes and unnecessary pain. It's so much easier when you have somebody there that can tell you all you have to do is this or this and then the progression comes so fast. The person gets so stoked and pushes to do even more, so I like being a part of that. That's really cool.
WW: How do you explain the fact that I wasn't able to do a 360 when you were in the boat last summer (laughter)?
EZ: I'm going to say that's choppy water, totally choppy water (laughter). San Vicente is not a good place to learn unless you're in the slalom area.
WW: How motivated are you to do tournaments this year?
EZ: Well, I'm definitely wanting to win back some of the money that I've dished out to the Pro Tour. And I'm trying to learn a bunch of new stuff this spring, but it's not with the end goal of just kicking ass in a tournament. It's more like, I'm going to work my ass off because I want to learn some new things. If I never land a Pete Rose in competition, yet I could just do it, that will equal success to me. If I did land it in competition, oh my gosh, that would be even better, but that's not my sole goal.
WW: You lost some time in 2000 due to a sprained foot. How long were you out?
EZ: Ugh, the dreaded sprained foot. It was a very severe sprain. I can't tell you how bad it hurt. That happened in early May and I couldn't get my foot into a binding for five weeks! After that, I could kind of ride for short periods of time, but it kept hurting for another two months. It wasn't until the month before Worlds that I felt good again, even though occasionally it will still hurt. There's a bunch of scar tissue in there that I can feel when I squeeze the arch of my foot. It's pretty gross. So anyhow, it really had me out of my normal riding pattern for over 3 months right in the middle of the summer. What a drag.
WW: What did you do while you were hurt?
EZ: While I was hurt? I guess the biggest thing I did while I was hurt was that Playboy shoot.
WW: Playboy (feigned shock and much laughter)? What was that all about?
EZ: I quite honestly probably would not have done that shoot if I had been able to be out wakeboarding, but I was just kind of stir crazy and kept getting contacted by these people and I guess I just thought if I can't be riding and I can't be doing something else maybe I could...
WW: ...help promote the sport (laughter)?
EZ: Maybe I should just do this. I don't have anything else going on (laughter).
WW: So how did it all come about?
EZ: Actually, I think how it all came to be is pretty funny. On wakeboarder.com there's this discussion board and somebody had posted a message that said, "Looking for hot chick wakeboarders" or something cheesy like that. Anyhow, my friend Ed saw the message and noticed that the return email address was from playboy.com. Of course, this raises his suspicions, thinking that it's some punk kid trying to get in touch and weasel his way in with girl wakeboarders or something. So he writes back asking if this is for real. A woman at Playboy writes back saying, "Yes, this is for real. We're doing a special edition, so if you know of anybody, give them my email address."
He then tells me about it, and we joke around for a couple of days about the whole thing. He's jokingly trying to convince me to get in touch with them and I'm laughing at the whole idea.
Well, then, apparently, some random person on the Internet saw that same message and sent the lady at Playboy an email saying something like, "I don't know her personally, but you should check out Evelyn Zerr. She is a pro wakeboarder and you should see some pictures of her on this website."
So the lady at Playboy looks at these pictures and then emails the webmaster and says, "Do you know this girl? If you do, give her my phone number." So the webmaster happens to know my friend Ed, and knows that he can get in touch with me, so he forwards the message to Ed.
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Ed now thinks this is the most hysterical thing ever and tells me, "Okay, now they're looking for you!" I, of course, think this is all part of the big joke that has been going on for the last couple of days between us. I was like, "Yeah right dude, you're real funny." He says, "No, I'm serious. They're looking for you." He kept encouraging me to check it out. I still really didn't put much thought towards it.
Well, after a couple days of Ed keeping it on the forefront of the conversation, I decide I'm going to give them a call and at least see what it's about. I called them and they tell me they're doing a special edition on girls in sports and are looking for women who do extreme sports and are professionals in their particular sport and asked if I would be interested. I told her that it really wasn't my thing and that I wasn't really cut out to be a Playboy model. She assured me that all these women were professional athletes, not models, and that the fact that they are athletes was what they were really concentrating on and blah, blah, blah. She pretty much just told me everything that I needed to hear to make it sound like a good deal. I told her that I'd think about it and get back with her.
Probably a week goes by and I kind of thought about it, but not too seriously. Then she calls me back and was like, "Hey, we haven't heard back from you and we'd really like to have you in our magazine." I told her that I don't have anything against nude photographs. I think they can be very beautiful, but if I were to do something like this it would have to be something on a more artistic level. Like where there's strategic placement of an arm or leg, so it may be that you're nude, but you don't necessarily see anything, because I'm not interested in showing off all my goods.
She said, "Yes, whatever is comfortable for you. We recognize that these ladies we're using for this are not models, they're athletes, so it's totally your call as to how it's gonna be." Anyway, she asked me to send her some pictures and they called me back and were like, "We want you to be in this thing. We're on a deadline. We have it all put together, but we want to get you in it, so let's set up a time to do it."
I got flown to Dallas and did the shoot. The shoot wasn't the best experience in the world. I realized then that all these things about how I would be in control and how I would be the one deciding how I would look in this thing was all a bunch of B.S. to get me to do it. During the whole day of the shoot they were trying to get me to show more than I was willing to. I stuck to my guns and was like, "Look, I'm not gonna do this and if that's what y'all want, you got the wrong girl. I told everybody I talked to at Playboy from the get go what I am and am not willing to do. If y'all need something else then you'll need to find somebody else."
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After the whole shoot went down I felt upset and naive for having believed what they told me. I guess there was no reason to think they would lie to me, but maybe I should have been a bit more realistic about it and got some things in writing. I contacted them and told them how I wasn't happy how they switched things around once I was actually there to do the shoot. They went from being super nice to really not nice, saying, "It is an honor for you to be in our magazine. Thousands of girls sent in their pictures to do this and you should feel lucky to be in it. I was like, "Well, I didn't come to you. You all came to me. I didn't ask to be in this thing. You asked me to be in it and I decided to do it based on what you told me, which was all complete B.S. because it's obvious that's not the way you meant for it to go down." It came down to the fact that I was pretty much SOL. "We got the pictures now and we're gonna do what we want with them."
So I didn't say anything about it to anybody because I was pissed at how it all went down. But now that it's been out, everybody's been pretty supportive about it and it's all worked out okay. I'm not ashamed of how I look in the magazine. I showed my mom and she thought I looked great and that was my biggest concern, how my mom was gonna feel about it. It turned out okay, but, looking at the rest of the magazine, it's obvious that it's not about pro athletes. It's about naked women. If I'd have known it was gonna turn out the way it did, then I wouldn't have done it because I don't think that I belong in that kind of magazine. I thought it was gonna be different, but you know, live and learn. So that's it. That's the story.
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WW: It would kind of be a cool thing to tell your grandkids about someday.
EZ: Yeah, and that's one of the reasons that I did it. First and foremost, I thought it would be really cool to be included in this group of athletic women who are professionals in their sport, but can also still be feminine and still be seen as pretty. I don't like the stereotype that if you're a woman athlete you have to look like a guy to be good at the sport, and if your good-looking then probably the only reason you're successful in your sport is because your good-looking. I think that that stereotype needs to be broken down. Then also, quite honestly, I kind of like the idea of being sixty years old and looking back on this thing and saying, "Hey, I didn't look half bad back then."
WW: Alright, lighter topic. You qualified for your first professional finals round at Worlds at the end of 2000. How was that whole experience and why do you think you did so well?
EZ: It was awesome! The day of the semifinals, Saturday, was the first time ever in a contest where I walked away thinking, "Yes, cool! That is how I can ride!" It was the first time I ever tried the whirly in a contest and, when I stuck it, I was on cloud nine. I know I could have still done better by landing the wrapped KGB, but overall, not bad. I got a little nervous on Sunday and rushed myself. I was thinking ahead about the next thing I was going to do and then made silly mistakes. But man, I was just happy to be in the finals and to have at least had one good day that weekend. I was stoked.
I must say that I owe all my success at Worlds to you, Dave (lots of laughter). Seriously, you and your family let me sit on your couch and eat all your junk food all week AND took me wakeboarding in a lake that was usually choppy and where crazy drivers plotted to run us over AND took me to the Wave House so I could barely survive drowning. From that description, it sounds like you were actually trying to foil me, but still I thank you, because apparently it was just what I needed.
Really, it's been the support of friends like you that has helped me the most with wakeboarding this year. I'm so fortunate to have made so many great friends because of this sport. Without their help, I'd never have been able to do all that I did this summer. Like Jocko (with Wake TV) taking me all around Florida in his RV in April and Cathy Williams giving me a place to stay instead of Jocko's RV for a few days. Like Buster inviting me to stay and ride at her house before Nationals. And people I met through the Wake List, too - Rick with Lift Clothing picked me up from the airport in Detroit. The Dehlinger family in Portland let me stay in their beautiful home, which was about 2 minutes away from where the tour stop was. And, of course, friends here at home in Austin like Trish, giving me a plane ticket to get back from Providence, Rhode Island so I could go to the Gravity Games. I was an alternate. That's like the coolest thing ever - essentially a backstage pass to the Gravity Games, $200 just for showing up, and you don't even have to ride. Sweet! To you and to all my friends I must shout out a huge thank you.
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WW: You had planned to finish your Worlds run with a trick you created called the Suicide Fat Rocket. What is that?
EZ: The Suicide Fat Rocket is a trick where you come in heelside and it's like your just going to do a suicide where you let go of the rope and then grab back onto it. But the Fat Rocket part of it is reaching down and grabbing both ends of the board at the same time. So come in heelside, jump up, let go of the rope, grab both ends of the board at the same time and then grab back onto the handle. It's pretty fun.
WW: After Worlds you headed to Hawaii for a long time. Tell us about that.
EZ: Many people don't know this, but I'm Hawaiian. Well, not really, but I should be. It wasn't my parents' fault that they didn't know they needed to give birth to me there. 1999 was the first year I ever went to Hawaii. I got flown over by the shop that puts on the Hawaii Pro Am, RnR Surf n Ski. It was amazing, first of all, to have someone pay to get me to Hawaii, but also because I felt so at home there from the instant I got off the plane. I was only there for 12 days, so this year I decided to take advantage of my visit and stay as long as possible. I ended up staying for a month and a half.
It was an incredible trip. The contest was a lot of fun, with the team challenge and all, especially since I lucked out and got on the team with Shapiro and Nelson. It didn't matter how bad I rode, those two won it for our team. The first two weeks that I was there I got to stay in the most beautiful oceanfront mansion. Seriously, it was Miami Vice mafia style. All white marble, like 10 bedrooms, pool, hot tub, tennis courts… and I wasn't alone there. Greg Nelson, Scott Byerly and his family, Brannon Meek, Matt Maloy, Darin Shapiro and his fiancé, Gerry Nunn and his wife, Ryan Siebring, Ronn Seidenglanz from Sidewayz and his family. You'd think that with that many wakeboarders in a gleaming white mansion the place would be thrashed by the time we all left, but it came away only slightly scathed, the worst of it being a shattered mailbox.
But once all the mainlanders left, I got to spend some quality time with my island friends who I'd met there the year before. I spent the next month at my friends Sallie and Dave's house on the North Shore, just living the island life. Not only did my fabulous friends let me stay at their house, they let me drive their car down to the beach so I could lay in the sand and watch the surfers at Pipe, they gave me surfboards to go try to ride and they took me wakeboarding. I really must take this opportunity to thank them again. Sallie and Dave, you guys are the bomb.
WW: What else have you been up to this winter?
EZ: Well, thank goodness Hawaii took up most of the winter. I went to a couple of boat shows when I got back from the islands. I just got home from a little snowboarding trip, which was fun since the last time I snowboarded was over 3 years ago. The cold took a little getting used to. I'm a Texas girl so obviously I'm not around snow very often, but after a couple of runs down the hill, I started to remember what fun it is to be on a snowboard. I tried the half pipe (ouch, hard compressed ice sucks!) and went over the big snow ramps. That was the best, going over the jumps, because it really did remind me of going over a kicker on a wakeboard.
WW: Just before Worlds you did a TV shoot for Planet X TV, how did that go?
EZ: I think it went really well. It was definitely really fun. The people from Planet X TV were great. My favorite part of it was when they used electrical tape to strap a camera to the end of my board. I've seen different camera angles in wakeboarding, like on the handle, or on the rider himself, from the boat, from another boat, from a helicopter, but I don't think I've ever seen one that's actually from the perspective of the board so that is cool. Although it made it a little bit difficult because that electrical tape on the bottom of the board kept getting caught in the water and would completely bring my board to a standstill. But I was able to tear off a couple of inverts so it should be some pretty good footage.
WW: Tell me about the girls you ride with on the tour?
EZ: Unfortunately, I don't get a chance to know a lot of them very well just because I only see them at the tournaments. Being in Texas, there is only one other girl, Lauren Loe, and she lives outside of Dallas. But from the little bit that I have interacted with them, they all seem really great. They're all quite a bit younger than me so that...uhh (laughing)...that gives me a little bit of a complex, but they're all great.
I got to spend a little time with Cathy Williams at the beginning of the season and she was great, as well as a little closer to my age. We related a lot, talking about all the young rippers who are on tour putting our old asses to shame.
I've gotten to spend a lot of time with Leslie Kent and Buster Lutgert and they're cool, down-to-earth girls. I got to ride with them before Nationals out at Buster's lake and it was great. It's so cool to get to ride with girls who are really pushing it. Buster with her Whirlybird and she's also landing a Moby Dick. Leslie with her 540 and she was trying Pete Roses while I was there and, apparently, now she has stuck them, so that's so killer.
As far as some of the other girls, I've briefly had a chance to speak to Maeghan and Emily and they all are very nice. Dallas is just a little bottle of energy. She's just crazy insane, just killing it this year, so it's exciting to see how someone with her gymnastics background could so easily bring that out in her wakeboarding.
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