When I was 8 years old, my dad bought our family a boat that came with both adult and kid skis. I learned how to ski in San Diego Bay, but also all over California as our family traveled around for camping. A few years later, when I was 11, my family went on a trip to Lake Shasta where I took a slalom lesson from Mike Syderhoud. Afterwards, we rented a Skurfer from the local marina to try it out for the first time. It took me a couple of tries to get up, but I will never forget the feeling of some of my first “one-handed wake carves.” I had never experienced a feeling like that in all my 11 years of life and I knew I was immediately hooked.
The next year, my parents bought me my first Skurfer and our family moved to lakefront property Lake St. Louis. My brothers and I made the best of it—the accessibility of the water in our backyard allowed us to figure out what was and wasn’t ride-able behind the boat.
Now, after 35 years on a board, I’m proud to admit I still get that familiar, first-day-riding feeling of excitement and I’m still trying to figure out what you can and can’t ride behind a boat (check my YouTube to see what all I’ve tried!)