I thought it would be interesting to hear some stories about wake whores/mooches.
I am 35 years old and I have been into watersports since my early teens, so I have been a mooch for over 20 years. I honed my mooching skills in the early 80s while living in Crestline, Ca and attending high school at Rim of the World (Lake Arrowhead). Lake Arrowhhead is a private lake in the San Bernardino mountains that is a fairly expensive place to live, and it is a popular tourist destination. I had several friends who were PHDs (papa has dough) that I would mooch from, but sometimes even my friends had to mooch in order to get funds for the day (their parents wouldn't kick down). We devised some pretty clever ways to supplement the income. We would offer "guided tours" of the lake to families in the village; pretending to know where stars lived or history of the lake

. We would make as much as $40 per family/$100 per day. Since those days I have managed to keep finding new friends with boats, and I have been in/been behind just about every brand of tournament boat.
Fortunately this story has a happy ending! I am no longer living in a pipe dream. I am the very proud owner of an '01 Super Air Nautique

. MY FIRST BOAT!