History of Wakeboarding

Does anyone know Anything about the history of wakeboarding. please if you have any
-books
-websites
-videos
Anything please let me know

Just call Liquid Force & ask to speak with either Jimmy Redmond or Tony Finn. Yeah that should work.

yeah that oughta do the trick. Someone should make a movie.

and i should just ask them straight up

Do they have an email i could ask them through

from the Liquid Force website:

Twenty years ago, when we made the first production wakeboard, I remember that I was a little bummed because the plastic board didn’t rip as well as the hand shaped prototype. Ten years later when we started Liquid Force, one of our goals was to get so dialed in with concepts, innovative shapes and materials, that the production stuff would ride better
than the protos.

more from the LF website:

Twenty years ago,
we started making boards
for one simple reason...
to have more fun. It all
started with looking for
something to do while standing sideways behind a boat. First, everyone was a skater, and a surfer. It seemed a natural extension to surf behind a boat when it was flat. Then came the desire to get air and stay connected to your board. So with a little imagination, countless hours in the shaping room, and a pair of footstraps, we were flying wake to wake and having the most fun we’ve ever had behind a boat. But this was just the beginning - a new sport was about to be born. With vision and passion, our play became our work and then our life. The boards began to evolve as our skills improved and the sport grew. The first directional shapes came from surfing. Skating and snowboarding were the influences behind the first twin tip. From that point forward, creative wakeboarders have been the major source of inspiration for the new shapes that we have today. Our passion that sparked the birth of wakeboarding needed an outlet for our creativity, vision, and stoke. Liquid Force was founded ten years ago to finally realize our dream – to make the best boards and bindings

Double concave within a Spiral V. Creates lift, pop, unreal cushioning for landings, and is unbelievably easy to roll on edge. Like nothing you’ve ever ridden.
Quad Canted Fins… Faster and looser, yet more in control than any other fin setup.
Soft in the center, sharp at the tip and tail. Unbelievably forgiving when neutral… locks in and accelerates when weight shifts to tail.
The Wide Ride of the Fish will redefine how the world thinks a wakeboard should look and feel.
possible while having the most fun –continuing to make our work our play, and our lives our fun. Now the sport has come full circle. We’re skating and surfing behind boats on new types of boards. Our bindings feel like a comfortable skate shoe or snowboard boot. And our latest board innovation, the FISH, comes from the melding of creative wakeboarding and surfing. I’ve never been more stoked than now with what we’ve created for FUN.

any books or videos?

"Retrospect." Go get the video.

Are they the ones that made the skurfer?

Finn made the Skurfer, Redmond made the Redline. They used to compete against each other. Finns were cheaper (& better marketed a Finn Trademark)& Redmonds designs were better. They hooked up & the rest as they say is recent history.

ok thanks i will

I would actually recommend doing some internet research and to keep an open mind. The term "wakeboard" and such boards (minus the straps, but the first skurfers didn't have straps anyway), have been around since the 60's at least (if not longer). I would keep in mind that the LF story is just one version of "wakeboarding's history" and probably has its own special slant, much like hyperlite saying that their rep came up with the name "wakeboarding."

Tony finn did not invent the wakeboard. However, he was the first to invest his time into it by promoting it and travelling across the country and later, around the world. In my opinion, that is one super important aspect to the success of any art/sport, whether it be jake burton traveling around and showing people how to snowboard, or jason messer trucking around to show people what a wakeskate was.

So for that, tony deserves a lot of credit. And of course, jimmy is a shaping genius.

And like everyone else said, get the movie retrospect. I can't say a bad thing about it. I would also recommend the gravity sucks/high wake drifter/ wake the beast dvd combo and the hit it/mayday/ spray dvd combo. Those are some of the most influential vids in wakeboarding (and a few of the earliest).

Finally, I believe jimmy's board was called the sano and his company was called "redline designs."

(Message edited by electricsnow on March 16, 2005)

WBM had a great issue a couple of years ago highlighting their 10 year anniversary. In that issue there was an excellent timeline that broke down the equipment, happenings, and other events that shaped wakeboarding into what it is today. There is also a great article on the old Wake Tech team, and I don't need to explain what they did for wakeboarding.

Hey Bro ,what do ya want to know,been there from day 1

WELLL EXCUUUSSE MEE!

note to self: check all fact with esnow before posting...okay break!

straight up, suckka....

can you go put the thread on wb in check electricsnow, thanks....


rammer, although a good issue it was very skewed and missed alot

-RUSSIAN

(Message edited by cmawsr on March 17, 2005)

Call Scmaltz, he was in the DIRTY DOZEN along with Nelson and such. They are 2 people that would supply some of the TRUE stories about the last 10 years plus!

Russian, I pretty much let that one be after reading scbrip's post. I don't know how it could get any better than that.

skibored, greg nelson wasn't a member of the dirty dozen. Josh smith, however, is considered to be a member...but from what I hear, it's a retarded moniker anyway, because there are people who contributed just a much to early wakeboarding, but aren't included in this "exclusive group."

Snow, one day I'm gonna figure out the mystery of how you know so damn much, and only at age 24? Either you're really Heather Lee and not actually 24, or you must be family with somebody who's been around since day one and you happen to have a photographic memory. BTW, what the hell are you doing up at 2:30am?

electricsnow you better check your facts first, thats all I have to say... If indeed he was NOT included on this "fabled" list then he should have been. I am older than you, I have ridden longer, I have been rooted in the sport longer than it has been "fashion". So either way, whoever is EXACTLY right is irrelevant, what is important is that Nelly is still a vet of the industry and a very valid source for the historical accounts of wakeboarding. And yes you COULD mention Josh Smith, Byerly, Pat McIlheny (sp?), Bill McCaffray, Eric Perez, Shapiro, Kovak and a few others as well. Schmaltz INDEED was an accurate siting as I forementioned in my PM. I am glad you are so into the sport that I love, just make sure and be careful on who you choose to pick your battles with in the future. I'm a lover not a fighter.

The history of Wakeboarding goes back a number of years. It is really a derivative of many sports intertwined into what it is today.

For decades, surfing has been a favorite sport of beach dwellers. And in that time, historians recall surfers being towed with a ski rope behind a boat and, sometimes even from the shoreline by a truck. From this, shorter boards started being used. And in 1985, a San Diego surfer named Tony Finn developed the Skurfer -- a hybrid of a water ski and a surfboard. It looked like a little surfboard, and was pulled by a boat while the rider performed surf-style carving moves on the wake. This riding style evokes visions of snowboarding and skateboarding with a bit of water skiing. Riders stood anywhere on these boards since there were no straps or bindings. Still today people can be seen 'surfing' behind a boat.

However in the summer of 1985 the first major devlopment pccured, footstraps were drilled onto these boards. What makes this interesting is that this innovation came from two different people at the same time who had no idea what each other was doing. Finn added the straps to his Skurfer, while Jimmy Redmon in Austin, Texas, added straps to his Redline design water ski board, which was a smaller version of a surfboard causing raves in Texas. The significance of footstraps can't be overestimated in the evolution of wakeboarding. Footstraps allowed for big air taking the sport to something more than surfing. Much more like snowboarding and water skiing. It was more dynamic and free-flowing.

Through the rest of the decade, Tony Finn promoted, popularized and marketed the Skurfer, and the sport of skiboarding was born. But even as the first Skurfer championships were televised by ESPN in 1990, the sport was struggling. Lack of innovation and technology were holding it back. Only experienced or very strong riders could do deepwater starts on the Skurfer. Skurfers were narrow, very buoyant and required excessive energy to get them up and planing on the surface of the water. The Redline design boards were lightweight and performance oriented, but lacked the durability needed for the constant poundings in the sport. Although these things limited the growth of skiboarding, the stage was set for a new exciting water sport.

Herb O'Brien, a successful businessman in water skiing and owner of H.O. Sports, started tinkering with the boards at this time. He introduced the first compression-molded neutral-buoyancy wakeboard, the Hyperlite. This innovation sparked the massive growth of what today is known as wakeboarding. (The term skiboarding stuck around for a few years, but wakeboarding ultimately became the official name of this sport.) The Hyperlite's neutral buoyancy allowed the rider to submerge it for easy deepwater stars. Wakeboarding became accessible to everyone from 4 to 80 years of age.

O'Brien continued to refine the wakeboard. The board had a thin profile and would carve like a slalom ski. It also had phasers (large dimples on the bottom), which broke up water adhesion and gave the board a quicker 'loose' feel and softer landings from wake jumps. The thin shape, neutral buoyancy and phasers were features made possible by the compression-molding process. Following the lead of the H.O. Sports, other board companies started manufacturing wakeboards.

As the sport grew, the boards continued to get better. The first Hyperlites, designed and built back in 1990, had the overall shape of a surfboard with an obvious tip and tail. In 1993, Redmon researched and developed the 'twin-tip' design -- a symmetrical shape that has become today's standard in the sport. Twin-tip boards have a fin on both ends, allowing a centered stance that results in equal performance whether the wakeboarder rides in the forward or switchstance (fakie) position.

The World Wakeboard Association is the worldwide governing body of the sport. Redmon founded the WWA in 1989 and is considered the 'guru' of wakeboarding. He is responsible for developing the rules and formats to keep the integrity of the sport and the essence of wakeboarding in its present form.

The sport flourished professionally in 1992 when World Sports & Marketing, a Florida-based sports promoter and event organizer, began staging pro wakeboard events. This gave wakeboarders a chance to compete professionally and gave them exposure on ESPN and later ESPN2. The sport then got its own national publication when Wake Boarding magazine was launched in 1993 by World Publications. The Pro Wakeboard Tour continues to grow each year as does the sport's magazine.

Two new series are added in 1998 - the Vans Triple Crown of Wakeboarding and the Wakeboard World Cup. In the year 2000, professional wakeboarding dramatically alters its format adding sliders and jump ramps to the course giving it the image of a "street course" on water. As wakeboarding enters the 21st Century, the ultimate titles for any professional rider are the Pro Wakeboard Tour, the Vans Triple Crown of Wakeboarding and the Wakeboard World Cup.

Skibored, What I would suggest is actually checking out what the moniker "dirty dozen" actually refers to. I have a world of respect for greg nelson And I would never dispute most of what you've said about him. But he wasn't involved in the early contests like tony, erich, josh, eric, lance, blah blah blah. And that's where this little group is rooted (and why it's debatable, because there were a lot of guys that put their time into wakeboarding, but weren't included in that little list). And I wouldn't dispute your list of the "who's who" in wakeboarding. I have a load of respect for every single member you mentioned. But that's not even what this is about.

Also, take not that I never disputed the relevancy of erich and his knowledge of the past. He'd be one of the best people to talk to about that stuff because he's been riding since the very beginning and he's still contributing to the arts he cares so much about.

And if whoever is right is irrevelant, why bring up the dirty dozen stuff in the first place? By the way, I hate to say it, your air of superiority is sickening. "Age ain't nothing but a number."

Dr. Octagon, I'm a night owl, so it isn't odd to find me posting (or what have you) in the wee hours of the morning. And since I live in the central time zone, it was actually 4.30 am

Oh my!

Someone is taking on the wizard of wake knowledge, the not so naked chef! Not a foe I'd pick to battle, but by all means, skiboader, have at it. The rest of us will sit back and watch the battle comfortably from a distance.

As a wake historian myself, I must weigh in that Nelly was not a member of the Orginal Dirty Dozen.Josh and Schmaltz were the youngest members of that group, with older heads like Redmon,McElhinney, Perez, Brug and others being the elder statesmen.

That being said, Nelly has had a monumental impact on the sport of wakeboarding both through his riding and his association with some of the finest cimetographers of their time, Artie and Jerry at Fall Line Films. He was also one of the most vocal advocates of stylized riding more akin to other elements of the boardsports movement like skating and snowboarding. This was keenly influential at a time when some athletes from the 3-event skiing genre were crossing over to wakeboarding and bringing a lot of styleless flipping and flopping with them. Nelly, along with Josh, Schmaltz and virtually the entire Wake Tech team (assembled by Finn and Rich Gorforth-who may be skiboarder4life- I almost recognize some Goforth cynacism in there!)fought the good fight to make wakeboarding look more flowing and less like a sport you do as fast as you can between a start and stop bouy.

Anyway, there's now speculation floating that the not so naked Chef is Heather Lee (another influential player in wakeboarding) and skiboarder is Rich Goforth, and each is dropping science under a viel of anonymity! It seems like old times!

Whoever you guys are, you do bring solid knowledge to the table. Try to keep each other out of the cross hairs and keep educating those of us in here with a thirst for wake knowledge.

Wada tah!

JB

Good stuff. You just knew that things would turn ugly with a title "History of Wakeboarding." You guys/girls all seem to be on top of it.

Speaking of Heather Lee, as a longtime WB Mag reader I feel that I was strung along for years with the promise of pics of Ms. Lee. Perhaps "Snow" could oblige.

There is some good information on this thread. I have been waiting to add to this thread. Yes there is a huge difference between skurfers and wakeboards, mainly in material and building process from what I understand, but I don’t understand half of what I am told.

So I have a friend that in their spare bedroom underneath the bed, is several of the original hyperlite pro models (one even has the graphics taped on to the top of the board, before the graphics were put on). They also have the original straps which were tied together with string. In their storage unit is the original board and the hand drafts that were made on the plane either going to Kauai or coming home from Kauai, I don't remember. One of the first boards had graphics on them dedicated to be ready for them to ride...??-ready. If you ask most of the pros or long time wakeboarding industry people, they will tell you the history of wakeboarding is in this apartment, almost like the wakeboarding museum.

I am terrible with dates, so I am trying to remember what they told me, but from memory, the first wakeboard was rode August 1990 (they told me the exact day and time {11:3..am}, but I don't remember).

Unfortunately I have been telling my friend that they need to get everything together and sell a book with pictures and stories, but they haven’t done it and I don’t know that they will anytime soon. If I can get some pictures of the boards I will post on here.

On the top of http://www.hyperlite.com/ is a link to the a timeline for you.

haha, nice post jeff!

And sorry brian, I don't have a pic of heather lee. For what it's worth, erich schmaltz said that she had one picture in the magazine, so you might want to start looking. And brian, at one time did you submit a photo of yourself to the mag with a homemade extended pylon?

bsflower the "??-ready" thing, maybe it's "shred ready". And with all due respect, I'd keep an open mind with that hyperlite timeline as well, because everyone has their own story to tell...

But if you can get some pics of those boards, post them!

yeah, cause we all know hyperlite came up with the sliced bread, too.

if anyone has a question about the history of wakeboarding, electricsnow is the one to ask!

hi electricsnow!

Skibored, What I would suggest is actually checking out what the moniker "dirty dozen" actually refers to. Electricsnow you ruled me with that verbology... Kudos on that!

I wouldn't dispute your list of the "who's who" in wakeboarding. I have a load of respect for every single member you mentioned. But that's not even what this is about. Who else will be able to properly supply the factual knowledge that would fulfill the PM's original question??

Also, take not that I never disputed the relevancy of erich and his knowledge of the past.
-take not that I ever said you disputed that point of relevancy...

By the way, I hate to say it, your air of superiority is sickening. "Age ain't nothing but a number."
-I have only inferior air in my superiority. I am sorry you took it that way, it was a feeble attempt to point out the basis on my opinion. I am sorry.

All in all I appreciate your passion and grammatical skills. You are an asset to this board that we all should admire. I am not a fighter, I'm only a simple man with a passion that sometimes can grow to overwhelming preportions in the wea hours of the night... I will try not to let my bat like sleeping habits affect these pages anymore! Hahahaa ELECTRICSNOW you are a scholar and a friend, thanks for the wisdom... NOW LAY OFF ME OK!!! Hahahaaa ;)



PS-Barton I am not Goforth I am just a penny4urthots, but thanks for the compliments! Your the maaannnn!!

Hi joe!

Skibored, I said this to someone else, but I was only a snot because of the whole age/experience thing. There's always something else to learn out there, so you know...if you ask the right people and you develop a good rapport, you can find out just about anything, regardless of how long you've been riding (or what have you).

It's good that there are other people out there that are psyched on the history of "the sport", so this ended up being pretty fun and informative.

And uhhh...I'll admit that I have more to learn about grammar as well

---

quote:

preportions in the wea hours of the night

---

it's "proportions" and "wee" for your information.

just messin'!

Hi electricsnow.

Yes that is Shred Ready. I will take some pictures next time I am over there. I saw them this past weekend, but didn't have my camera with me, he has about 6 of them under the bed and of course several nailed into the beams of the ceiling.

As far as the Hyperlite website link post. The original post asked for books, websites, etc... I didn't notice anyone posting the Hyperlite site for Kyle's reference. Everyone has their side of the story, and to them it is the complete truth. If you know Shred, you know that side of the story then. I just wanted to give Kyle another reference point.

This is a great thread. I am kinda surprised there aren't any books or lengthy websites on the topic.

(Message edited by tcluv85 on March 21, 2005)

because wakeboarding isn't as big as we think it is. it's still a relatively "new" sport.

"This is a great thread. I am kinda surprised there aren't any books or lengthy websites on the topic." -BSFLOWER

I agree with Joe U on the "prematurity" of the sport reason, and I also think there are too many political tides within the industry to be able to get full backing from top manufacturers collectively. For them to "condone" all of the material that may or may not be written about the history would be a tough battle to pursue. Hey we have a good start maybe we should press the issue and create some kind of accurate timeline/ family tree with cool snippets that the everyday wakeboard fan could appreciate...???!!

Who misses seein these "historical/ influencial players" in the spotlight still??
-Bruce Clem, CC Roberts, Brannon Meek, Sara Cline, Andrea Gaytan, Todd Brendel (RIP), Corey Kraut (RIP), Chase Heavener, Mike Weddington, Pat Panakos, Wahlman, Josh Smith, Rich Facciano, the list goes on and on... Please feel free to toss a few more logs on the fire of founders, we always need to be reminded of the innocence lost.....

PS---> electricsnow, your grammar is totally legit, I was actually trying toss some love your way-

johnny king, greg nelson, cobe mikacich, darin rayzor...

girls that paved the way for today's girls; tina bessinger, jaime necrason, dana preble, farrah dawson...

Joe U. I can only say 2 things.... Ditto, and can I be your friend?? Good additions - especially J King and Bessinger, Nelly I already have been ostersized for on this PM. LOL

how 'bout mcguckin'? sure, he's in today's spotlight as a wakeskater, but his name should be included in the list.

McGuckin 4 sure, and what about Sam Owens, kinda low key mag coverage but definetly aggro style. Also GLAD to see Gator back in the light a bit, and I truly miss Horrell on a wakeboard thats for sure. LOL, McCaffray on a neptune remember that, he was sick for the times...

what about some of the board companies that didn't make it.

badass (some of the best boards...EVER!)
thruster
stinger
full tilt
iconn
nbn
neptune
labal
sound (i think they gave randy harris his first signature board)

mutiny - schmaltz, horrell, J Smith, J Kendall
free motion - staker
wake tech - Byerly, Gator, CC, Harris
serum - J Smith, C Wright
rusty- ol skool schmaltz & i think harrington or Ike

* Hey remember Mike Rogers??? Da' Man straight OG

(Message edited by Penny4urthots on March 22, 2005)

parks used to ride for free motion as well.
serum - i used to ride for serum!
iconn - kovak (does he belong in the list?) and his girlfriend britt larson, and shannon best
didn't sonja scheffler ride for full tilt?
nirve - jaime necrason
rusty - hunter brown (?)
insane boards
core - kurt narmore(sp?)(rip)

rusty-H brown (ty for the corr)
Sonja Scheffler- CWB
Kovak-i could give a crap LOL
nirve, core-2 good add ons

i think sonja was with full tilt before she joined cwb.

http://www.mckeesurf.com/brucemckee/skurf.htm

Shoot, I can't remember sonja ever riding for fulltilt. Yeah, I don't think she did. First she was with hyperlite and then she went to cwb. So I guess to my knowledge, she didn't ride with them. And this is old news, but sonja Is in gravity sucks for the bikini contest. Apparantly she fell on her ass (not during the contest).

How about we give a shout-out to cc roberts? The man with ripping style...every once in awhile, I wonder what he's up to.

Ohhh, and "big ups" to marshall harrington and grant gettens--two influential aussies that were ahead of their time in both riding and board design. what? what? hee hee...

And speaking of andrea, I have this waterski magazine and they have a team pic of the UCF waterski team. I looked at it and I was like "Andrea!" I knew she skiied, but I didn't know she went to UCF. And then the famed Travis Moye used to be a three eventer for the University of Alabama.

(I forgot to put this stuff in my other post):You're right bsflower, the hype timeline is one version of the story, which is what someone needed. I completely forgot where this topic came from and I'm all about "the right" story, or as right as it can be. And again, if you can get pics, they'd be cool to see! Did your friend help shape the boards? What was his "in" with HO (if you can say)?

And I also agree with both you and joe, there really isn't a market for a wakesboarding book yet. I guess give it another decade or someting. When you think about it, I guess wakeboarding's "progressive" history started with tony finn, which only gives us about 20 years. And I know that there were different forms of wakeboarding/freeboarding going on before that, but...

As joe said, it's all smaller than we think. It's kind of hard for me to grasp, because I know it's small, but I don't know HOW small. Especially considering that over the years, I'm meeting more and more people that know what wakeboarding is. And wakeskating is even smaller than wakeboarding right now, it's all crazy.

From my understanding my friend worked closely with Herb and Eric drafting, shaping and testing the boards. I am not really sure about the 'in' part, unless just living on Lake Sammamish, WA got the 'in' factor. I will ask next time I see them though.

as for boards companies you guys for got the first Honeycomb company was Surflight. They were the first to bring honeycomb to wakeboarding. If any of you rember the light wakeboard craze some boards were coming out 4.5 lbs.

This is a lovely thread...

I'll throw this up for E-Snow. Wish it was mine.

JOSH! I know who has that board, and he sent me pics of it (I'll admit, I bugged him for them!! Yeah, I freaking wish it was mine too. Do you know james?

Thanks for the info bsflower!

Squid, I was looking through one of my mags a few weeks ago and charlie patterson used to ride for surflite!

Snow, we sent him boards to him and we were working with Russle Gay, and also Rogers but nothing was ever set in stone. The Company was very small alot of the old guys had the boards down in FL in the begging then. HL found out took the idea and the rest was history.

I remember riding a honeycomb and carbon fiber Exocet back in the day. I think I was on that, then got the Dean Lavelle pro model from HL way back when.

Squid, I take it you used to work for surflite?

i had one of those surflite boards. i tried jumping up and down on it on the ground trying to break it. that sucker was indestructible!

Joe do you still have that board. Ya that was designed by me it had graphite stringers. I have one but my partner passes away and a good friend that helped us is looking for one.

my friend has it.

if he ever wants to get rid of it let me know.

SHE is just hangin' on to it, along w/ a few other things. when i moved to seattle, i couldn't take a lot of my things. so she's been hangin' on to them since!

i'm not sure if the board's still there, to be honest with you. she may have thrown it out or sold it.

find out for me.

let's not foget JB. & BlueT.you need to check out this book
"Extreme Wakeboarding" you will find it in the kids section or on my site www.nobulljustmoose.com
first page a shot of the Moose