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WATERSKI MagazineSix months ago, I would have told you that the August edition of From the Dock would contain a triumphant description of the events leading up to my first successful wakeboard flip. It's been somewhat of a goal of mine ever since I watched Eric Perez and Dean Lavelle perform their first inverted maneuvers in the early '90s – back when the equipment was called a “ski board,” and it had a pointed nose and strap-style bindings. Dean taught me how to jump the wakes, Eric showed me how to cut and carve, but flipping was a whole 'nother thing. Only a handful of guys could perform that trick.
A couple of years later, during our annual Boat Tests, I watched a young show skier named P.J. Marks attempt his first upside-down move on one of the new double-ended wakeboards. After several dozen punishing face-plants and some slam-dunk almost-made-its, P.J. finally put all the elements together and rode away from a perfect back roll. Everyone in the boat cheered, and the ecstatic look of success on his face more than made up for all the learning pains.
In the years since, P.J. has gone on to become the owner of the highly successful Wakeboard Camp in Clermont, Florida, and boarding has become an increasingly popular part of my ski group's regular water-sports mix. Usually, after everyone's had their slalom runs, and before the kids get into the tubes and toys, we'll break out a wakeboard and work on our wake-to-wake jumps.
A couple of summers ago, the first tower-equipped wakeboard boat showed up on our lake. Before long, the younger riders were pulling off all kinds of flipping, spinning and twisting moves that I can't identify, all of which made a simple back roll look tame by comparison.
Meanwhile, I still hadn't made that simple back roll.
On my 39th birthday, I jotted down a list of things to accomplish before turning 40. Item number three on that list was, “Land an invert on a wakeboard.”
