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WATERSKI MagazineTed Bevelacqua has been going big since he first threw a strap across his knees. The seven-time national kneeboard champ has built his career around going off outside the tournament scene. “I am obsessed with getting air,” he once said. So we asked him to show us the proof in his performance.
With Joey Losson driving the double-up; concrete-filled, 10-gallon buckets forcing the Malibu Response open-bow deep into the water; and an extended pylon acting as an upward pull, Teddy B. launched this fatty: a tweaked-out mule kick, almost 9 feet in the air.
While spectators love the amount of space Bevelacqua puts between his soaring board and the wake, it's the landings that create most of the oohs and ahhs. Coming down from a huge move like this, however, doesn't do much for Bevelacqua's glutes, knees or ankles. Imagine jumping from a 10-foot ladder and landing on your knees. Then do it 15 times in a row for a photo shoot.
“When I'm up in the 12- to 15-foot-high range, the landings are brutal. I don't feel too much right after the trick because there's so much adrenaline going through my body, but the soreness really creeps in the next day.”
Is it worth the stressed knees and smashed calves?
“Absolutely,” he says. “There's nothing like grabbing altitude by the throat and hanging on as long as you can.”
