Focal Point – Double Down

Massi, doubling down     Photo: Soden

There is something utterly exciting about the double up. Not just because of the big air and bigger consequences that come with it, but also because of the wait leading up to it as the boat begins to turn. The anticipation slowly builds as a matter of seconds seemingly turn into minutes… Watching the boat turn around, eying up the original rollers, and ultimately coming together into a giant booter can seemingly take forever. But the anticipation can be just as high in the boat. The driver making sure everything is lined up, the passengers wondering if they’re going to see something awesome or painful; or painfully awesome, the rattling of the boat as it charges over the rollers signaling the show is on. Like the hang time it gives to riders, the double up takes everything that makes wakeboarding awesome and unique and amplifies it. Wakeboarding and other towed watersports have always been different from their boardsport cousins because you can’t do them alone; you need a friend to drive/pull you. Double ups take that element to the next level. In order to hit one properly you need a driver to set you up at just the right speed and angle. When you do, the stoke factor is that much higher because you and your buddies did it together.

Fortunately for all of us and for wakeboarding as a whole, buddies have been pushing each other via the double up for over two decades. As such there is a whole segment of riding that revolves around double ups with its own jargon and energy. Double ups have nicknames as simple as “dubs” and “dups” to as comical as “Poseidon’s orgasm” (thanks, Hampson!). There are “lefts” and “rights”, triple ups and re-entries. Double ups can be opened, closed, or T’d up. Riders can get punted, booted, launched, hucklebucked, swallowed, slammed, or wadded-up thanks to the first, second, or third roller of a double up. 

Ultimately though the double up is most important because of the progression and growth it has brought and continues to bring to wakeboarding. In fact, for all intents and purposes, the double up might just be the most influential entity in the history of our sport. Imagine where wakeboarding would be without it. Yes boats and boards would have evolved and progression would still have occurred, but how stunted would that development have been? A world without Gator launching at Lake Powell, Byerly inventing new tricks, Parks dropping hammers, or Randall dropping jaws is one I don’t like imagining. While the evolution of cable parks and the creativity of winching have brought about new avenues of pursuit for different riders, there is always something to be said for laying it on the line and launching skyward.

With that, I’d like to welcome you to the double up issue. This is an idea we’ve batted around for a couple years and I’m stoked to see it come to fruition in the pages that follow. Almost every article and photo in this issue is related to the art that is turning a boat around, crossing over its own rollers, and watching a rider launch skyward as the wakes converge. We start the issue off with the biggest double up contest (and party) in wakeboarding: BROstock. 2015 marked the tenth anniversary of BROstock and both riders and party-goers made the most of it. The Framed section of this issue features photos exclusively of double ups. If you like big air, this is for you. Following that we have an article that looks at the double up from a historical perspective, with perspective from some of wakeboarding’s pioneers. There is even an instructional from Bob Soven on how to properly hit a double up, and a couple of opinion columns from the WSR king and queen, Randall Harris and Melissa Marquardt, on what double ups mean to them and their riding. Throughout the issue you will find unique pieces related to the double up and I hope you enjoy looking through it as much as we did putting it together.