Bill McCaffray – Principal
Principal
Like many a Washington Husky before him, Bill spent his college years drinking Rainier and attending protest rallies for the sole purpose of chasing sweet, subversive, hippy girls. When the weather was warm enough he would take his parents boat out on Lake Sammamish and tow many a famous name: Greg Nelson, Josh Smith, some other dudes from Spray. He actually even took members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden wakeboarding once. As the years went by and his status in wakeboarding grew, he gained a reputation as a shrewd buisnessman and cultural watchdog concerned mainly with “keeping it real”, i.e. he complained a lot about how gay wakeboarding was but didn’t do anything about it. This all changed when Wake Boarding magazine hired him as an editor. Finally, his banal and slightly asinine opinions would be heard by the masses! But WBM didn’t see eye to eye with Bill and he decided to start his own magazine where he could say whatever he wanted and no one would hassle him about it. Well, they would probably still hassle him but at least they wouldn’t be able to edit him. Oh, and somewhere during this time he met his wife Liz and she made an honest man out of him and they had a couple of kids and moved to Cardiff, California.
Bill@alliancewake.com
November 27, 2010
Dear Mr. McCaffray
My name is Brent Poppen. I had a spinal-cord injury at the age of 16. I was hurt at the cervical level 7, leaving me a quadriplegic (loss of leg function and some upper extremity loss). I am hopefully going to give you a short version on why i am writing. I was in “wakeboarding magazine” with story and picture 2002ish. The exposure sent hundreds of emails my way from individuals, families and friends about motivating them to get on the water, when before they never thought that it was possible! Some of the emails came from disabled persons, rehabs, schools etc. We were able to make a small difference in these peoples lives.
My vision is to have a continuing "blog" about disabled boarding. I know there are many people with disabilities (even more young soldiers recently) that read your magazine and dream about being on the water. They can and will be when they are exposed to the possibility and learn how to make it a reality.
I bought my x-star before I even knew I could board again. I just knew if I had the boat I would accomplish my goal or drown trying (literally)…..another whole story.
I am one of the top disabled athletes in the world…competed in 2004 Paralympics in Athens, Greece (wheelchair rugby…bronze medal) and 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, China (wheelchair tennis). This is not "Special Olympics". Many world and national titles in both sports along this journey.
Most importantly I have been on the water this whole time. Boarding is my first passion. I am currently debating just focusing on disabled boarding and bringing it to others who never thought it was possible and show them how it has changed my life, for the better!
I am currently on staff at Children's Hospital as a counselor in the rehab unit. We ran a wakeboarding/skiiing clinic this summer with our former patients and it was a huge success with everyone…changing lives.
Mr. McCaffray there is much more I could share. I hope I have interested you a little bit. I can be reached via my email: poppenbrent@gmail.com or my cell 805 801 8349. I hope we can change lives through your magazine.
Thanks for your time, Brent Poppen
October 14, 2014
How's it going man my name is Nick Padgett. My friends have a quick 2 minute video and wanted to see if it would be possible to put is on your page as an amateur hour video or something. It would help if you could tell me how to make this possible. padgettnick75@gmail.com.
Thanks, Nick
October 16, 2014
I photographed the 2014 Points Chase Event in Little Elm, Tx I have hundreds of quality photos. You can check out some highlights on my IG #communitysportnetwork. (no "s" in sports)
Call or email me 916-300-9164 Robertw@communitysportsnetwork.net
January 21, 2015
Billy,
Really proud of you brother. You have done so much for us for so many years. Hope I get to buy you a cold one at the Summit in the Snow. God bless.
Tommy Phillips
Wakeboarding Hall of Fame
July 11, 2015
Bill,
I filmed with my Inspire drone at the VIP monster Energy triple crown and all the drone footage Matt used was from my drone. Great stuff. And I have also assembled the footage into a 3 minute video and while I mention early in the video that it is "an Alliance Wake" production i feel it could be better if I was able to add your logo instead of just the words. I can be reached via cell at 510-676-5374 and you have my email. Let me know what you think.
https://youtu.be/WDinNkxFIXk
July 24, 2017
Time for a new picture!