No one is discounting what the Wake 9 folks have been doing to promote wakesurfing. Their energy and enthusiasm is probably second to none, and is to be commended and not condemned. The same stands true for anyone that takes the time to grow the sport.
What everyone needs to understand is:
Wakesurfing will never be more that a niche sport that caters to a small population. It is not soccer or baseball where fifty dollars worth of equipment gets you playing. It is a huge investment, if you are serious about the sport your investment is well over 60k…. Plus supporting the habit costs well over 10k a year. Ask yourself, What percentage of the North American population has wakeboats? And what small percentage of these people surf? And what small percentage of these people surf competitively? I would say the answer is 0.00001%
So… If everyone in this community wants to see this sport grow to its full potential, and see world class events it needs the help from every single boat manufacturer, board maker, rope manufacturer, life jacket sewing sponsor it can get.
I am keeping brand names out of this so please bear with me. As an example I have a competitive board that love, its awesome. The manufacturer of this board will never be able to cut a cheque to an event organizer for 100k to host the “World’s Greatest Wake surf Event” not now, not ever. It is not that they are greedy or are poor business people its just that the industry and the revenues are just too small. If there is ever going to be such a great event, odds are it will be sponsored by a wakeboard company that mass produces basic boards, or the sport becomes big enough that some form of energy drink starts to pay attention.
My message is simple, lets get this sport back to what it was, (it used to be all about the surfing) and forget the “my boats wave is better then yours” or “that board is crap” because I aspire to/ or have an affiliation with a supplier because we will need every single one of them.
Especially the boat manufacturers that sponsor events and riders.
This sport needs people like Wake 9, and it needs aggressive sponsorship from companies like Centurion. At the end of the day what it has to have is mutual respect between the advocates and the sponsors so the end result is beneficial to all. So stop bashing the King and embrace the big wave!!!
Stepping off of soap box now.
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