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Core.
I recently purchased a bayside home in MD. One of the primary goals of this transaction was to ensure that I can wakeboard as much as possible. Buying a waterfront home is a lifelong dream-come-true for me. It literally took years of planning and saving to accomplish. To make the dream a reality, I made major life changes. I quit a secure job with good advancement prospects and took a job that allowed me to telecommute more so I could move to rural MD. I sold a house in the Shenandoah Valley that I loved. I moved my fabulous wife (She rides too) and 3-month-old child to a new and unfamiliar place where we have no friends or relatives.
My friends all think I’m nuts. One of my old surf buddies said “Dude, that’s pretty Hard Core”
The term “Core” got me thinking. What’s Core?
Will I ever go pro? No. Will I ever own a sixty-five-thousand-dollar wakeboard boat, probably not.
Am I Core……… hmmmmm, I gues I don’t know
I had to examine the word and what I feel it really means.
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I don’t often post here. I’m just a. mildly addicted lurker. I’m grateful to all the regulars who make this a useful and entertaining board and I have special love for those who apply talent, time and money to make videos and then selflessly place them here for our amusement. But man, I get tired of listening to privileged young people talk about how “Core” they are. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a hater. If the unknowable cosmic forces that paint destiny across our little planet decide that you are to be born into a home of wealth and privilege, who am I to argue. I’m just saying that, by definition, only a deserving few can be core and if you are riding the board your mom bought you behind your stepdads Wakesetter it probably aint you.
It all boils down to this: To be core you have to make sacrifices.
Pro riders are core because they make sacrifices. They put major hours into their riding. They put off college, careers, families. They work through injuries. They lose and come back again and again until they win
So, am I core? Alas I had to come to the conclusion that I’m not and that’s OK.
In fact it’s great! I’m not core because wakeboarding is not the most important thing in my life. That’s right, you heard me. There are more important things in life then Wakeboarding. My wife, my child and paying my mortgage to name a few. So I reorganized my life a little so I can ride. It really isn’t a big a deal. There isn’t really any sacrifice in it. I’m just aggressively pursuing a hobby I love.
So in that spirit I decided to come up with a new category; a broader category that includes everybody else in Wakeboarding. I call this new group Fringe. You know who you are. That’s right. I’m Fringe and I’m proud.
You might be fringe too if.
You don’t live in Orlando or on the Delta
Your last name is not Bonifay
You have a mortgage
You’re not riding behind a boat that cost over 50 grand.
No one pays you to put stickers on your board.
Your mom bought your board
Someone calls you Mommy or Daddy
(Insert your own)
It’s all right Fringers. There is no core without us. We are what they are the core of. We are the FRINGE baby. Stand up and be proud!
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