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Photo: Bryan Soderlind

The State of Surf
by Garrett Cortese

Just over a year ago we published an article called “How Wakesurfing Saved the Wake Boat Industry.” As you can imagine the title, more than anything, turned some heads. In reality though “boat surfing” has been around as long or longer than water skiing – decades before wakeboarding was even dreamt up. My own family photo albums have pictures of my dad as a scrawny 12-year-old riding a surfboard behind the family’s inboard boat at Lake Shasta in 1962. But in looking at where our sports were economically speaking between 2009-2011 and where they are now, there are more than a few statistics that show just how much wakesurfing really did contribute to the recovery and continued growth of the industry as a whole. Because of those statistics and sales, wakesurfing now has a presence within the wake sports realm unlike ever before. It is everywhere you look, and to be perfectly honest, everybody is doing it.

Some pro wakeboarders and wakeskaters might still be in a state of denial, but don’t let that fool you; they all wakesurf. Just check their Instagram accounts. Not to mention the fact that a lot of them are still getting regular paychecks from various sponsors because wakesurf sales continue to bring dollars into the industry. Why they wakesurf though is where there is question and debate. The vast majority of pro riders wakesurf simply because it’s fun and something else to do out on the water, not because it is a sport they want to master or pursue professionally. The tricky balance I’ve come across as the editor of this magazine is figuring out just where wakesurfing fits in in the realm of professional wake sports. Readers and riders of all shapes, sizes, and ages are doing it, but how much do they want to see it? A magazine’s goal should not only be to cater to readers’ desires, but to introduce them to other things that might interest them, as well. Any magazine failing to do so won’t be a magazine for much longer. To be honest I wakesurf more than I wakeboard now. But that doesn’t mean I call myself a wakesurfer. I’m in my 30’s and it hurts a lot less, plus it’s actually a lot of fun when you’re out with a group of friends riding an endless wave just a few feet from the back of the boat. Goofing off with friends and training to be a pro and attempting to bring legitimacy to a sport are two entirely different things though.

While I have my doubts and hesitations about the push for wakesurfing’s legitimacy as a professional sport, as a magazine we’ve found a good balance in content and coverage. The wakesurfing section in each issue showcases who and what the activity is all about: fun. Let’s face it, wakesurfing has opened unique doors to the rest of the wake industry: how else would we get the opportunity to ride in a boat and shoot the breeze with guys like Donovan Frankenreiter or Cory Lopez? Just look at the “Endless Wave” section in this issue on page ___ for evidence of that. When you regularly see content of Scott Byerly – the undisputed godfather of both modern wakeboarding and wakeskating – out behind his G21 wakesurfing, you know that not only is the sport fun, but it has gained some serious traction and staying power within the industry.

Look at some of the growth wakeboarding is set to experience in 2015 thanks in large part to the sales of wakesurfing products. Several boat companies, the primary beneficiaries and advocates of wakesurfing, have created their own wakeboarding contest series. Nautique has expanded its series of events, Supra has signed on as the official sponsor and towboat of the PWT, and Malibu has created the Evolution Pro Series. All of these are boat companies actively pushing wakesurfing and growing because of it, but wakeboarding is directly benefiting from it. Do I believe wakesurfing will do to wakeboarding what wakeboarding once did to water skiing? No, of course not, and nor do I want it to even come close to doing that. But I believe wakeboarding can continue to benefit from the growth wakesurfing has provided by embracing it for what it is: a fun activity all kinds of different people can enjoy.

Whether you believe wakesurfing is its own sport that should try to breakaway to establish more of its own identity (a-la wakeskating), or if a title like “professional wakesurfer” should even exist, is up to you. The debates over professional wakesurfing contests, compensation, and coverage can (and I believe should) be brought up, but what can’t be debated is what wakesurfing has done to help our sports as a whole in the last couple of years. What lies ahead in 2015, as mentioned before, is proof of that. That growth means more eyeballs are seeing what our sports are all about, and more people are getting on the water. In the end that’s what really matters, because if less and less eyeballs are seeing our sports, then our sports might not be around much longer.