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Wakeboarding

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History

The prototype of the wakeboard was invented by two surfers, almost simultaneously, in 1985. Jimmy Redmon of Texas and Tony Finn of San Diego both made themselves small surfboards, designed to be towed behind a boat.

Finn called his invention a "skurfer," since it was a cross between a surfboard and a water ski. The original generic name was "skiboard," but that was dropped in favor of "wakeboard" to avoid confusion with the snow skiboard.

Skiboards were limited, though, because they were buoyant. Many water skiing tricks depend on a deep-water start, which was impossible on a water skiboard.

The modern wakeboard was created in 1990 by Herb O'Brien, the owner of H. O. Sports, a water ski manufacturer. O'Brien designed a neutral-buoyance board called the Hyperlite.

Redmon, who founded the World Wakeboarding Association (WWA) in 1989, made the final improvement in 1993, when he developed the twin-tip wakeboard, now the standard.

The WWA has been conducting a professional wakeboarding tour since 1992. It conducts and sanctions both amateur and professional competition, including national and world championships.

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World Championship Medalists

Men

YearChampionSecondThird
2000Cobe Mikacich, USAWayne Mawer, AUSMatt Dance, USA
2001Wayne Mawer, AUSDaniel Watkins, AUSDan Knott, GBR
2002Darin Shapiro, USAErik Ruck, USAJosh Sanders, AUS
2003Chris Laske, USALoren Levine, USADuncan Zuur, NED
2004Phillip Soven, USADean Smith, AUSMorgan Krause, RSA

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Women

YearChampionSecondThird
2000Mero Narita, JPNMarie Botved-Studd, DENJo Robertson, AUS
2001Cathy Williams, USALouise Moore, GBRCaroline Jansson, SWE
2002Leslie Kent, USALauren Harf, USACaroline Jansson, SWE
2003Amber Wing, AUSLaura Lohrman, USAHayley Smith, AUS
2004Robi Rendo, ARGSheena Price, CANAndrea Fountain, NZL

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Other Resources

Website

World Wakeboarding Association

On This Site

Extreme Sports

X Games Champions

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This page last updated Sunday, 20-Apr-2008 10:26:52 PDT
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