college wakeboarding

a friend of mine was telling me how some schools in florida have wakeboarding teams, does anyone have any info for me? i gotta start fillin out college applications and that would be sweet to wakeboard in college

There are schools with wakeboard teams throughout the United States. I know Kansas has just spun off a wakeboard club from their ski team and we at K-State are in the process. Just ask the school if they have a registered wakeboard club. You can also look at www.ncwsa.com for a full list of ski teams, and most of those sites will lead you to the school's wakeboard club. At the current time, I do not know of an up to date listing of wakeboard clubs on the internet, as the sport is just beginning to grow at the college level.

A bunch in FL. Surprisingly though UCF (in Orlando) does not have a team. I was in the process of starting a wakeboard club at UCF, but I am an engineering major and just don't have the time to run a club well. It's a fairly simple process to start a club at my university though.

Check out this website:
http://www.thewwa.com/college_main.htm

6 of the 9 are Florida schools.

I know Jackson University in Jacksonville has a wakeboard club too.

This is not the full list of schools with clubs, only the ones that attended the WWA Championships. I know Illinois and Wisconsin have teams.

Chris, my brother is Pre-Med and runs the K-State Ski Team!

Speaking of that, does anyone know anything about a wakeboard team from California State University, Sacramento?

The ncwsa website says that there is one, but the link to it doesn't work. I had heard from elsewhere that there was one, but I have been unable to contact anyone about it.

I tried looking at the CSU-Sacramento website where they list all the campus clubs, and it doesn't make any mention of it.

My son will be starting school there next Fall, and if they have a club we would like to get in contact with them this summer.

Rod

Sac State Ski/Wakeboard Team
http://www.csusaquaticcenter.com/html/csus_ski_team.html

Sac State's team is a lot of fun. We've run into them at Nationals the last 3 years.

(Message edited by kstateskier on February 25, 2004)

hm how about at CSU Chico? or Cal Poly? will be going to either one of those next year (hopefully Poly)

I go to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. We have our own wakeboard club and I'm a member. check our site www.wakeupcp.com . Also ASU has a team, they got their S--t together and are sponsored by Supra. B K good luck getting in, I'll be a senior next next year so hit me.

Chico St has a team as well.

I didn't mean that those 9 were the only ones. But there are a few active FL clubs.

Nick: Your brother is a better man than I
I would be a little aprehensive to take on a club on my own, but if I could find another person that was very serious about the club and interested in dealing with the BS that comes along with being in charge of it and not just riding then I would probably go for it. ORlando is like the wakeboard capital of the world...I'm sure there must be some people who like to ride that go to UCF.

I hear you Christopher, you are always doing something wrong when you are in charge. No matter how good of job you do, someone will complain.

Here is Chico, http://www.csuchico.edu/waterski/.

It's the water ski team site, but they will know who to get in contact with that wakeboards.

We are in the process of starting a club at Auburn University, so far all has gone well, but our school makes it very difficult to get a water sport club togather.

Nick, are you currently a member of CSUS wakeboard team? Can you tell me about it?

I would appreciate any information

Thanks
Rod

Rod, I attend Kansas State, but I have met a lot of people from Chico at tournaments. They are a good group, but I don't know much about their club in general. I can tell you about collegiate watersports, but I don't have any particular info on that team.

watch out, chico's team is a waterski team that holds out against wakeboarding, but me and a bud are goin to start a wakeboard/wakeskate team in 2005, i'ts going to be sick, and well worth the wait, cuase we got a lot of hook ups

Like Rod said, if anyone has any info on a team at CSUS that would be great. I will be going to a JC near home for the first two years of college so i will have lotsa access to my boat, but when i leave after that i absolutely will not go to a college with out a wakeboard team, and if CSUS has one that would be awesome cause I would not have to go far from home.

Nick, what grounds do you have to say they hold out on wakeboarding? In their boat rotation they reference which boats have towers, which would tell me they allow wakeboarding, as towers are useless to us skiers. I think a lot of the college teams get a bad rap on wakeboarding because it is not an integral part, it's not that we don't like wakeboards, the fact is we would love to have them on our team but they need to pull their weight. I've never even been able to get a wakeboarder to start taking responsibility to grow the wakeboarding side of our team. College waterskiing is a large and strong sport, so many of these teams are training hard core and have a lot of responsibility and not a lot of time to help wakeboarders. I'm sure they would be open to helping you get something started, as Marcus Brown at Chico is one of the top skiers in the world and is always looking to progress the sport from what I have seen. I do congratulate you for taking the time to look into starting a club. College wakeboarding needs a lot more people like you.

Oh, and Rod, in my post I meant I knew people from Sac, sorry just had Chico on the brain at that moment. Both have good structured ski teams, so I would guess they are at least moving in the direction of an organized wakeboard club.

Our ski club here at Auburn University really dosn't want us to be a part of there club that is why we are starting our own club, completly seprate from the ski club. I think that this will be a lot better for our relationship between the ski club and us, considering that they are two different sports. Here the skiers do hold a grudge against us wakeboarders

nick h, i understand your point, but wakeboarding and wakeskating is is no relation to waterskiing, they dont have the proper boats in the waterski club, and they dont have much respect for wakeboarding and wakeskating when i tried out last fall. the only reason they have wakeboarders on there team if becuase those people can waterski as well. wakeboarding and wakeskating need to go there own way, and be a seperate thing from waterskiing, and they have, and will continue to expand. look at the INT, you see more wakeskaters than waterskiiers in the comps (ast least from the CALI perspective), all im tryin to say is that it's important to keep the two sports seperate, becuase they are very different.

unc wilmington has a wakeboard club too

nick m, keep info posted on the site about the club if you get it going, im interested in being a part of something like that if i do end up going to chico

Nick m, in Kansas, the 2nd largest INT State, there are more waterskier than wakeboarders most of the time. I understand your point, but to most outsiders, skiing and wakeboarding are related.

Nick M. i totaly agree that wakeboarding needs to be seperate form sking
Wakeboarding is growing rapidly and has been for years and now that we are wanting to do things like organize clubs, the skiers just get bitter that we are taking members from there club

Rob, I don't think that is a correct statement. I think ski teams will lose relatively few people as wakeboard clubs grow. If I see anything come out of it it is the fact that people will be on both the ski team and the wakeboard club. The Ski Teams give a lot of people a competitive environment in college, while I see the wakeboard clubs as more laid back, just there to have a good time and meet people with the same passion.

I'm good at turning wakeboarders into jumpers as well!

Many Ski teams have been around a long time. Ski teams could be a huge asset to get a new wakeboard club/team off the ground. I was looking into starting a club at the University of Central Florida and the president of the waterski club/team was a huge help to me. She offered to help get us in contact with her sponsors and gave me a history of past watersports ventures, etc.

Wakeboarding needs to go in its own direction, but I think any wakeboard team should try to have a good relationship with any pre-existing waterski teams. They are in the same boat (pun inteded..haha that was terrible).

Maybe skiing seems more like a regular sport because it's confined to jumping and going around bouyeys in a short time. Wakeboarding is much less structured so maybe it gets taking less seriously.

Is it hard for Universities to see the diff between a ski and wakeboard team? Like would they consider them one in the same? Pull the "Why should we give you wakeboarders money?...we just gave the skiiers some, share with them...you are both on the water" sorta deal?

The problem wakeboard clubs run into at some schools is if you don't compete, the school won't give you money. We get a good chunk for the ski team as we are on the road 7-10 weekends a year, but the clubs that don't compete get jack.

Like Christopher said, at least check with the ski team. Some are open to helping, others aren't. I know we would love to have some wakeboarder contact us and we'd help them get started here.

And I do think schools have a hard time differentiating between wake/ski. They see them both as towed sports and not different at all.

I read somewhere that there was going to be a college wakeboard event the last weekend in March in Panama City, FL. Anybody got any info on the location?

sorry nick, i think you are way off of your rocker. for instance, im in a snowboarding club here at Chico, one of the biggest and most successful clubs at school, and it has nothing to do with comps at all, some people do comps, but not through the school. we just have a good time, meeting peopl to ride with, having huge parties, goin to tahoe all the time, and going on big trips. this is what im talking about when i say i want a wakeboarding club for just wakeboarding and wakeskating. im not talking about doing a bunch of comps, or getting school money, im talking about doing for the sport. look around man (outside of kansas), wakeboarding and wakeskating are way way different, look at the video's, the attidute, the atmophere, everything. have you been to a pro wakeboarding/wakeskating comp? it's nothing like a waterski comp. i'ts a completely different atmopshere. sorry man, but all im saying is that the issue is not about what poeple think, it's about doing something positive for the sport (wakeboarding/wakeskating), and i dont think a skiteam is in the right direction

I think it would be a little harder to have a wakeboard/skate club as you describe Nick. It would be relatively easy to get a bunch of people to chill on a mountain and have a good time. When you need boats that cost tens of thousands of dollars it complicates things a lot.

There is a difference between a club and a team. A team should be representing their university in competition. A club is a place to hang out with people of similar interests. Either one could be lots of fun. You are much much more likely to get money from a school if you are competing though (and winning) unless you have a club that has a significant chunk of the study body as members.

About the money thing...If you are going to be affiliated with the school, you should try and have them back you with some money. Wakeboarding is an expensive sport. A lot of my friends now would love to come out to OWC with me, but it's a lot of money for someone to throw down just to try and learn how to wakeboard. I don't know anyone with a boat in Orlando so that (OWC) is my only option right now. Maybe if we had a successful club we could get a boat sponsorship...the ski team did.

I love the atmosphere of wakeboarding and how laid back and chill everyone is, but I think for the sport to progress people need to do more than just hang with their buddies and ride. I think more college teams and comps will really do a lot for the sport and help it grow.

I have been graduated for a couple years now but I know that almost all of our college tournaments usually had an unofficial wakeboard competition at the tournament. The wakeboarding never counted toward team points but the winners usually got prizes. In the midwest almost nobody uses a trick ski anymore so the trick competition is almost like a wakeboard event. I agree that skiing and wakeboarding are totally different because of the type of boats required for each, but the people don't have to be different. I like to slalom, trick, jump, barefoot, and tube, but I mostly wakeboard. I think that more wakeboarders should realize that the sport isn't about your image, it's about pushing yourself at whatever you are doing on the water. Wakeboarding won't grow as a sport unless it gets more competitive at the lower levels, but skiing can be a hard sport to get into because it is very competitive.
I see a lot of people get flamed on this board for mentioning skiing or wanting a dual purpose boat. Maybe the "core" wakeboarders don't want the sport to progress because then they will have to find something else to define their image with.

matt, skiing doesnt make wakeboarding progress, i dont see how it can in anyway possible, skateboarding does more than skiier man, becuase it at least helps add style. how can waterskiing help progress wakeboarding ? or are you tryin to mainstream wakeboarding/

Nick, You just proved my point.
Wakeboarding is mainstream and why would you not want it to become more mainstream. The more popularity, the more money, the better equipment and boats. That's why 10 years ago when it wasn't mainstream wakeboarders were using skiboats, with skurf boards and sandal bindings.
I guess it's time to find some other way to be cool.

Chill Out.

Wakeboarding shouldn't have the PC police. For most people, wakeboarding is something else to do behind the boat. It takes a while for most to get really serious. If course, if you are too serious, are you really wakboarding or just being a serious athlete?

I compete in wakeboard, water ski slalom, kneeboard, and this year wakeskate and wakesurf. I have a dislike for tubers who trash the water, but I cheer on anyone who throws down behind the boat. I like the wakeboarding crowd becase they are usually chilled and easy to hang with. Sometimes, though, one guy too serious makes it lame...

Another thought - from the regulator's point of view, the entire towed watersport community is the same and we will suffer together if they decide to regulate us further. So stand together and keep the trash talk good natured.

you guys are missing my point, wakeboarding is not and should be just another water sport. snowboarding has evolved from skiing and is proudy it's own thing, hell even freestlye skiing has evolved from downhill skiiing into a completely different thing. i'ts important for our sports to evolve and be there own thing. i never appreciate someone calling snowboarding just another type of skiing, or wakeboardin/wakeskating as just another type of water sports, becuase they aren't, and shouldn't be. and matt, making boats for wakebaording needs (towers, weight ect...) is not mainstreaming, its only improving the sport. wakeboarding behind a waterski boat sucks, cause wakeboarding is just not made to be behind those boats. let the sport evolve as it is and should, and accept that wakeboarding and wakeskating are not "other" forms of skiing. and yes i enjoy other water sports like tubing, and hold nothing against skking, but they are no means, alike

One reason that there aren't many wakeboarding clubs is because wakeboarding isn't conducive to clubs.

In order to slalom ski (competitively) you need a slalom course. This requires money to buy it, a place to put it, work to install it, and all the above to maintain it. This is the foundation for a club.

Wakeboarding needs a boat, and that is about it. Oh, sliders and ramps are nice, but they are not essential to the basic wakeboarding process. There is very little incentive for a bunch of wakeboarders to build a club house and congregate in one area.

Rod

Any one have any info of the club at San Diego State, i know they haev wakeboard classes and stuff like that but i would like to get info on the team i am pretty sure they have one.
Geoff

Hey guys,
I am the president of our waterski/wakeboard club at cal State Univ NOrthridge! Derrick FIrst of all most of the schools out here have ski teams! ( too many to list) but if you have any specific clubs/ schools out this way just let me know. I am friends with most teams. },stephen wats up i cant put your name to a face but im sure we have met cause i know vanessa and amanda and am great friends with aaron williams, but this is jack black saying holla! anyways... Rod i know for sure that csus has a great and competitive ski team as for a wakeboard only club, im not sure. If any of you guys need contact info for chico, cal poly, sac state or any other cal school, i can definitely get u in contact with someone from each respective school. keep in mind that most schools ski teams have tons of avid wakeboarders so these aren't skiing only clubs however ttaht is what the emphesis is on.!! Also i forgot who said it but as ssooon as wakeboarding teams start popping up at different schools and there are enough schools then i think most of the skiing teams will be depleted, at least most of the ones out here in Cali!!! and geoff, i can definitely get you in contact with someone from sdsu laytes travis}}

Travis,

I agree with the statement about the Cali teams being depleted if wakeboarding clubs grow, though if most of these clubs don't compete, I think a lot of people are still going to want to travel with the ski teams and meet new people from other schools.

In the Midwest and East, I think even with a growth in wakeboarding clubs, the ski teams will stay strong, I only see us losing 4-5 of 60+ people off of our team if a wakeboarding club were to grow here and those 4-5 are not key components of our competitive team.

I'm all about progression. I threw one of the first collegiate wakeboarding tournaments back in '99 and it was kind of a success. For a while we didn't allow our trickers to compete on wakeboarders, as I don't think it allows progression of either sport. I think a lot of you need to open up to skiers a little bit. I have hung out with some of the top riders in Kansas for years, and most have no problem with skiers. I think we contributed a lot more to wakeboarding than the skaters, just think about that Team Edition Bayliner if it weren't for the skiers progressing ski boats over the years.

I don't take sides, I like to do both sports and I don't have a negative view of anyone that wants to compete in either.

My view, and I don't want to offend anyone with this, is that wakeboarders and skiers got a long a lot better until the big transition of a lot of skaters into the sport. The people that were crossing over from waterskiing knew proper etiquette (powerturns, approaching to close, etc.) while the newcomers weren't really knowlegable on the etiquette and pissed a lot of people off at first. From this there was a total breakdown as boarders started thinking skiers were up tight and skiers thought boarders were out of control. And I think this all equates to the problem we are having in college right now.

Hey Travis,
I would lOve any info you can give with what ever they have at SDSU. You can email it to me or whatever. Thanks
Geoff

our wakeboard club at UF has around 40-50 active members and probably 150 more non active folks.

the club is very socially based and a lot of people party together more than they actually ride. probably 3 people slalom and about 6 of us foot and i am the only one who has ski jumped.

How do you handle getting 40-50 people time on the water?

Boat rotation, 5 days a week. Some people can't practice every week due to school work, etc. And in our case we take advantage of a private site the other 2 days a week, in which we can get everyone some sets over a weekend.

this time of the year it is really easy, since most florida kids don't brave the cold. when it is warmer though we usually have 4 days a week on the school boat and two of us have boats as well, so all the people who want to ski a lot get to ski a lot and those who want to ski occasionally can do so.

Hey Geoff I'm the VP of the WAKEBOARD CLUB at SDSU. If you or anyone else wants info on our club, hit me with an email. We are a wakeboard specific club no skiing at all!

why cant we all just get along..

i thought this was a wakeboarding thread site? i dont remember anything about waterskiing?

info about wakeboarding at chico anyone?

i just saw the waterski club with a new boat (at chico) it had a tower, but there propaganda of having to ski to be in the club is still goin on..yo bk, me and some bro's are workin on a wakeboard/wakeskate club for chico w/ a hella nice boat and some really good ass sponsors

that sounds cool nick, its looking like im going there next year so maybe we should hook up this summer or something?

sounds good BK, i got a boat and a few others who have boats and houseboats at shasta (where im from) and we ride there all summer. your welcome to get a pull when we go

ya that definitely sounds good, just let me know when you are going to be riding or whatever when its around summer cuz i cant get away for awhile

SORRY IT TOOOOOK SOOO LONG !!!
HOPE THIS HELPS ALL AND ANY RESPECTIVE PARTIES

2004 Western Region Waterski Contact List
Name School Position E-mail Phone Cell
Gaile Heieck Regional National Director gheick@edcenter.egusd.k12.ca.us (916) 685-9537
Craig Batchelor WWU Alumni Regional Chairman craigotfbatchelor@hotmail.com (360) 739-089
Bobby Grilli Chico Northwest Conference Chairman skigrilli@aol.com (530) 343-2049 (925) 250-5707
Kelsey Vasbinder ASU Southwest Conference Chairman kvb_h2oskidevil@yahoo.com (602) 206-9075
Tara Bonney USD Conference Treasurer wskikbonn@aol.com (425) 765-2777
Christy Getzlaff UCSD Conference Secretary watrgirl@verizon.net (858) 442-3273
Eric Richardson USC Webmaster e@ericrichardson.com (213) 447-0736
Jimmy Townsend ASU Captain townski@hotmail.com (6 (602) 421-7374

Vanessa Fine Cal Poly President vfine@calpoly.edu (805) 215-9754
Eric Hubbs Cal Poly Treasurer ehubbs@calpoly.edu (916) 952-0734
Amanda Willson Cal Poly Fundraising awillson@calpoly.edu (510) 219-0956

Elisa Bettencourt Chico Captain chicochk21@aol.com (530) 343-6869 (510) 219-0561
Taylor Smith Chico tsmith40@mail.csuchico.edu (530) 893-3812 (530) 524-8359

Ryan Anderson CSULB President csulbwaterskiandwakeboardteam@yahoo.com (714) 402-4530
Davis Hopper CSULB Co-President uscraiser46@yahoo.com (909) 214-1957
Cheryl Young CSULB Co-President s0crgrl@aol.com (909) 606-7992 (909) 210-6079
Sean MacDonald CSULB Co-President sean_macdonald777@hotmail.com (916) 747-7932

Brian Dulgar CSUS Coach btdulgar@csus.edu (916) 278-2842
Cindi Dulgar CSUS Advisor cindi@csus.edu (916) 278-1112

Brian Dulgar Sac Coach btdulgar@csus.edu (916) 278-2842
Cindi Dulgar Sac Advisor cindi@csus.edu (916) 278-1112
Zach Otting Sac Captain zskis31@yahoo.com (925) 784-7586
Kelly Bryan Sac Captain kellylbryan@sbcglobal.net (916) 870-9493

Corey Donohoe SDSU President ski_sdsu@hotmail.com (650) 218-5792
Chris Bearss SDSU Captain csbearss@msn.com (619) 855-7324

Aaron Reisinger UCD Captain amreisinger@ucdavis.edu (530) 219-0983
Mike Appy UCD President mhappy@ucdavis.edu (530) 747-0233

Noah Canvasser UCLA President ncanvass@ucla.edu (310) 443-7601 (310) 908-2194

Matt Bettencourt UCSB Captain ucsbwaterskiteam@hotmail.com (805) 685-8058 (408) 621-4873
mattbettencourt@hotmail.com
Greg Powel UCSB Co-Captain gpowel@umail.ucsb.edu (206) 972-6608
Stephen Deem UCSB Treasurer deem@umail.ucsb.edu (805) 685-8058

Bill Schneiderwind UCSD Vice Chair NCWSA (retired) & UCSD Coach bschneid@ucsd.edu (619) 249-5631
Lindsay Baxter UCSD Captain lbaxter@ucsd.edu (805) 455-5904
Christy Getzlaff UCSD watrgirl@verizon.net (858) 442-3273

Eric Richardson USC President e@ericrichardson.com (213) 447-0736

Jon Markwardt USD Captain jm3@sandiego.edu (619) 788-7988
Gretcher Wenner USD Future V.P. gwenner-07@sandiego.edu (320) 761-5555
Billy Gilmartin USD Future Captain gilmartin-07@sandiego.edu (650) 773-5144
Jessa Carson USD Future President jcarson-07@sandiego.edu (619) 840-8109

Josh Quinn WWU President qjosh@hotmail.com (360) 303-2021
Andrea Jamieson WWU Captain andrearijamieson@hotmail.com (581) 360-5292