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WATERSKI MagazineWhen skiers talk of getting out the boards, it's assumed they're talking about wakeboards. That's not the case in the Lake Norman area near Charlotte, North Carolina. This is one place where kneeboarders don't submit to their stand-up friends.
For instance, Billy Rossini was a world-class kneeboarder in Sacramento four years ago but couldn't get a blink from the water-sports hordes along the 1,000-mile Delta. So he moved across the country. “I knew if I wanted to make something of my kneeboarding, I'd have to move here,” says Rossini, now a full-fledged Carolinian.
Of the 20 riders on Hydroslide's national team, 10 are from the Charlotte area. All three of O'Brien's pro riders live in the vicinity. “I try to look for riders in other states, but our plate is full with Charlotte guys,” says Hydroslide brand manager James Balam. “Most of the riders I'm turning down are from the same area. It's unreal.”
Yates Perry and the McDonald brothers, David and Jonathan, helped turn tobacco country into a smoking flip-out region during kneeboarding's heyday in the 1980s. They'd learn tricks from one another and take the information back to their respective lakes, where recreational riders would be willing to give up their shins to be next in line for the newest moves. While kneeboarding's high-end flame is left to flicker here and there, it's still blazing around Norman and nearby Lake Wylie.
“Doing flips is usually impressive, but not around here,” says David McDonald, the first rider to ever complete a double flip. “All these guys just keep going bigger and bigger.”
Other kneeboard kingdoms:
Keller Lake, Minnesota:
Site of occas-
ional cash-prize
tournaments.
Defiance, Ohio:
Lots of unpub-
licized talent.
