Vintage Wakeboard and related cool stuff

In doing a big clean up, I found some really cool vintage wakeboarding stuff that I thought I'd share.

I have my original Hyperlite Pro model wakeboard. This was the first compression molded board that helped launch wakeboarding's popularity back in the mid 90's. I still also have the original purple adjustable bungee footplates, two 2 1/2" fins, one 3 1/2" fin, and the Assembly Instructions sheet ("Never Exceed 18 mile per hour").
And what makes this find really cool is that the board is autographed by some of the pioneers of the sport. I got this signed during a Wakeboard Pro Tour event in Hartford, CT in the mid 90's. The autographs are Scott Byerly, Darin Shapiro, Eric "Gator" Lutgert, Eric "Flip It" Perez, Dean "Clean" Lavelle, Zane Schwenk, Tony Klarich, Andrea Gayton (the first woman of wakeboarding), Jeff Heer, and Geno Yauchler (Hydrofoil/Airchair champion - check him out on YouTube).

And check out what I found along with some Hyperlite banners and stickers...I found copies of the July 7, 1996 "Wakeboard Attack Sheet"s from the Hartford Connecticut Tour. These sheets needed to be filled out in advance by the riders telling the judges what 5 tricks were to be done in each of 2 passes and in what order as well as the point value for each trick. It also lists the "Wild Card" trick for the end of the second pass. I have Attack sheets filled out by Parks Bonifay, Shaun Murray, Zane Schwenk, Andy Lazarus, David Reinhart, Cobe Mikacich, Mike Weddington, Thomas Horrell, Scott Byerly, and Dean Lavelle. All the tricks were inverts of some kind...not one spin move in the bunch! Almost every rider did a Raley or a Krypt...if not multiple ones.

I also found my back issues of Wakeboarding Magazine which includes almost every issue from 1995 through 2004. Just looking at the covers over the years tells a story of the sport's evolution.

Nice stash. I remember in 1992 I mounted my HO 97 slalomn boots to them purple plates and Hyperlite loved the idea. Have, had used the same board without the signage. Phasers

Nice find. The Attack sheets are especially cool.

That's sick. I have the same board in my garage. Mine is pretty faded though. Funny thing with mine is there is a line I had drawn across the nose and a dot marked in front of the front binding. Right after I got the board (Brand New) I was going to cut the nose off and put a new insert in to make it a twin tip with a centered stance. I never got around to do it and a few years later Wake Tech released the Fight 69. Kinda funny.

Wow man, that is awesome! hit me up if u ever want to sell !!

you should give us a few runs from some of the pros back in the day. I'm curious what they were throwing.

I've started trying to figure out what I want to do with these things ..keep or sell any or all of them. If I had someplace at my house to dedicate to be a mini wakeboarding museum, it'd be sweet to mount/display all this stuff! Then again, since I'm in the market for a couple of wakeboard racks, the cash wouldn't hurt. Being one of a kind items, I wonder if I'd kick myself one day for selling. I guess I should consider offers. Maybe one of them would make the decision easy for me. (Phil...I'll contact you off the forum)

Sure Travis. I listed the riders in the original post. Give me a couple that you're interested in and I'll post their runs.

what was horrell's run? because you said everyone did a raley, but i wouldnt think thomas would have done one

does the rope length on one of those sheets say 55 feet?

I love how Murray's rope length has a ? and Byerly's is blank!

The rope lengths and boat speeds are certainly interesting and entertaining. Many lengths are in the 50's. Having to enter the rope length was probably for the boat helpers, but if you had your own rope that was the exact size you wanted, the length didn't matter. Those folks would write "all" or "out"....or even "?" or leave it blank.

Also I believe these were the days of the extended pylon and volunteers piling in the boat for ballast. "Those were the days my friends".

As for the raley and Horrell, I did not say everyone did a raley and he was one of the few that did not.}