Wakeboarding surfaces 12th nationally

In addition to the numerous clubs and sports available to students who are interested in athletics, Georgia College now has a wakeboarding team.

The GC wakeboarding team is also currently ranked 12th in the nation, a spot they secured earlier this summer at a competition at Lake Lanier against some big-name schools such as Florida State University and the University of Georgia.

Sophomore economics and management major and President of the wakeboarding team Robby Campbell explained that the team began 10 years ago.

After coming and going over the years, it is now back with a full schedule under Campbell’s leadership.

Campbell states that there are 10 active members on the co-ed team that actually go to competitions and compete.

The team will participate in a tournament this upcoming weekend of Nov. 11-13 in Tampa, Fla.

“I am feeling very confident heading into this weekend. I am really excited to see how well our riders do. We have been working hard and getting our tricks down,” Campbell said.

The team’s practice time is very limited because the school cannot afford a boat.

They rely on friends and members with boats to offer them rides for extra practice, often on Lake Sinclair.

“Due to our school size, the wakeboarding team is relatively small compared to larger schools,” Campbell said. “It is definitely a weakness considering we are going against schools like FSU who have around 90 kids at every event. What we have that other teams don’t have are riders who love the sport. We are a part of this team because we love riding and pushing ourselves.”

Through a lot of practice, many members of the team have perfected difficult tricks such as tantrums (when a rider back flips over the wake) and raleys (when a wakeboarder is in the air and extends his body, swinging his board behind him, sometimes taking the board over his head), which are major crowd favorites.

Junior marketing major Brand Driver, the expected most valuable player going into the weekend has a lot of tricks up his sleeve for this weekend’s tournament including many difficult moves that he has been known to make look effortless.

“We are looking forward to having him out there this weekend he will be a big point earner,” Campbell said.

Another important rider this weekend is junior exercise science major Paige Carver.

She is a new addition to the team and will be the first female rider to compete for the club this year for the women’s competition.

The team has been known to do anything to get some practice time in, even in the most unconventional ways.

In one instance of their creative practice methods, Campbell described an occasion where the team moved a picnic bench out into the water and set it into the lake.

The top of the bench protruded out of the water and the team used it as as a grinding obstacle. They “just grinded a picnic bench all day just to get some kind of practice,” Campbell said.

The team hopes to move up to a spot in the nation’s top 10. It is also looking forward to competing in nationals in Las Vegas next semester.

If you are interested in joining the team visit the GCSU Wakeboarding and Ski Club Facebook page or message Robby Campbell.

Posted by Gabrielle.Carrier on Nov 10 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.