For July '98, we thought it'd be cool to talk with one of the organizers of the upcoming, much anticipated MidWest Wake Fest, Tony Noertker. If you're planning to attend this board bash or need more info, Tony's the guy to talk with. But you better hurry - there are only a few days left before it's all over!!

WW: How long have you been boarding? Once a wakeboarder, always a wakeboarder? Or did you come from a waterski or other background.
TN: I first got into watersports just after I graduated from High School in 1987. We were recreational boaters doing slalom, kneeboarding and a little bit of bare-footing. I bought my first wakeboard 4 years ago and haven't been on a ski since. I don't think there's anything wrong with skiing, I just have so much more fun on a wakeboard that I don't want to waste my turn behind the boat on a ski.

WW: Who do you ride with?
TN: The people I board with most often are my wife Lisa, Ian Prentice, Tom Baker, Robin Amstutz and Nancy Wine. We all met last year at the local ski school on wakeboard league night. Most of us are boat owners and we take turns bringing the boat which is really cool. I really like the setup on my boat, but it's nice to go out one evening without the hassle of getting my boat.

The guys from Extreme WaterSports Center of Cincinnati have influenced my riding a lot. Spencer Smith who rides for Obrien helped me get my first backroll. Joe Budde, Dave Frasier (from Australia) and Kent (the owner) are all great to hang out and ride with.

WW: Tell us about the wakeboard scene in your neck of the woods. What's hot, what's not?
TN: Well first of all, we don't get into the ski vs wakeboard debate. The local crowd I hang out with is a mixture of all watersports. One of my day-to-day wakeboard buds Robin Amstutz likes slalom better than boarding so we give her the first pull before we fill the fat sac and destoy her slalom wake. Some of them are really good footers too which is great because I didn't know how to foot and they taught me with a boom.

We board every weekend and 2-4 days during the week. We like to go to Lake Cumberland or Norris Lake for a weekend get-a-way. When we're not at the lake, we board on a local river which isn't the cleanest, but the water is always butter. The river isn't very wide and has trees on both sides blocking the wind.

Extreme WaterSports Center is only about 15 minutes from where I work and they do league nights for wakeboarding, slalom and footing.

WW: So is there a "midwest style" that's a mutated combination of west coast and east coast??
TN: The best thing about the MidWest scene is that there's no bickering going on. Just a bunch of riders who are happy to get out and ride and have fun. We don't bash other people for what they like or don't like, we just have fun riding and push each other to do better. When I go out for a set and work on something new, everyone else wants to try it. I help them with what I know and they help me with things that they do better than me. I guess it's mostly because we're still a small community here and we stick together. When we have the local tourneys, we're all there to support our local riders. It doesn't matter if we win or lose, but if we ride to our potential.

We don't have old school/new school wars. The crowd here is very diverse in age, ability and favorite watersport. We have teens to 40 something for age groups, beginners to advanced and wakeboarding to barefooting. I really like the diversity, because that gives me a chance to do something new everytime I go out on the boat. One day we'll have Spencer Smith doing 20 inverts and helping us all with our wakeboarding and the next day we'll have a barefooting clinic. I personally stick with wakeboarding most of the time, but it's fun to watch the other sports and try them once in a while.

WW: We all know about the Midwest Wakeboard Fest (MWWF) and those planning to attend are getting pretty excited. What kinds of things will you have going on?
TN: The main theme of MidWest WakeFest is to get to know other riders in the MidWest area. The weekend starts on Thursday night and we'll be partying and riding Thursday and Friday. On Saturday we have a couple of contests (Double Up and Spin) which will award prizes. The contests are just to have an event where we can all watch a little entertainment and be competitive at the same time. We'll also have an exhibition from a few of the more advanced wakeboarders for pure entertainment. The bigger part of the attendees are recreationsl riders and don't have a long list of inverts. So the exhibition is going to be an all invert challenge for the more advanced riders. We also have an air chair exhibition by a team rider from Sky Ski.

Throughout the weekend, we'll have raffles, demos, T-shirts, partying, boarding, photo shoots, partying and partying going on. So there won't be a dull moment.

WW: What made you want to organize such an event?
TN: Well, it wasn't my idea at first. Someone on the wake list suggested a MidWest regional event and I really liked the idea so I took it a step further and held a vote for location. After everyone voted and I saw how much interest there was, I couldn't stop there so I asked for someone to help organize and Rich Hays, Darren Schneider and others helped me organize the event. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Rich took the lead on getting sponsors and he did a great job. Darren made up some killer T-shirts and helped with the sponsors and other stuff. Also, Holly Davis scouted out the lake and helped us pick the location and Natalie Dustman helped us out too.

Russ from the wake list is coming from Arizona to take some pictures for us.

WW: So you have a lot of people looking forward to the upcoming Wakeboard Fest - what gets you the most stoked about that weekend (especially since you're one of the main organizers)?
TN: From the responses we've gotten, the resort being full and all the advertising we've done we expect a crowd of about 100 riders. We have tons of stuff to give away as prizes for the contests, raffles and give aways. I have an e-mail directory with about 200 messages all related to the event and I'm only one of the organizers. Everyone has pulled together and really made this a fun event to plan.

The thing that gets me the most stoked is when I think about how big this thing has grown it's hard to believe that I helped start all of this. When I first took a vote on location, I had no idea it would ever get this big! And to think, this is just the first year of an annual event.

WW: What would you tell someone thinking about organizing an event like MWWF in their area?
TN: I would tell them to definitely go for it. The 2 things that made this a successful event for me were asking for others to help and advertising the event.

When I asked for anyone willing to help organize the event, I had to tell some of them thanks but I don't have anything for you to do right now. I had about 10 people offer their help. Rich and Darren were one of the first few and we had lots of others helping along the way.

I made up a flyer and e-mailed it to lots of people asking them to print the flyer and distribute to all the local shops. We also contacted all the mags and asked them to mention the MWWF in their next issue. Rich put together a web page. We sent frequent reminders to the wakelist which got us onto other web pages. You don't have to get wakeboarders interested in going boarding for a weekend, you just have to be sure they know when and where the event is held.

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