In light of the Caleb Willis tragedy, I can't help but feel like the risk for Wakeboarding is much higher than I ever imagined.
How many of you have asked yourself, "What's the worst that can happen," just before trying a new trick?
I'm willing to take an occasional concussion, stitches to my face, a knock out, and a blown knee (thankfully the last two haven't happened yet). But I feel like the wakeboard risk factor just met the stakes of motocross, which I considered to be a far more dangerous sport. You can die from a hard crash, and it doesn’t have to be the result of a face-down, knock out.
I would like to learn raleys this year (I say this every year) and several other new tricks. It will be impossible not to think about these consequences.
Naive maybe...but I thought these circumstances were a little more controllable. In the past when there was a Wakeboarding fatality, there was some circumstance that allowed me to distance myself. But this kid was just doing a raley!
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