"Reason: For the Love of Wakeskating" - Aaron Reed

[jxpxsx]

Reason: For the Love of Wakeskating by Aaron Reed

[wakethecape]

I was hoping this thread would already have some real hate going, but I guess it's still early. I'll try to start it off. I guess I'm not deep enough in wakeskating to know how all the pros are acting unprofessional, as long as they keep making the wakeskate mag running the wakeskate tour stops which are 1000 miles plus form where I live I'll be happy. I feel like this mostly goes back to the " wakeskating needs more hate" topic that seems to occasionally pop up. I think all "real sports" have hate in all directions. I'm not saying wakeskating needs to be a "real sport", but a little hate and disagreement wouldn't be so bad every now and then.

[Gnarly Dancer 42]

I had no idea there was a boat vs. winch clash... or a lack of professionalism. Everything seems fine to me

[knox]

I scribbled:

“In this current cycle there is a lack of professionalism shown by those who call themselves “professionals.” I have always been a proponent of standing for something and marching to your own beat. But when your beat radiates some sort of ego-driven sense of entitlement, it leaves a bad ring in everyone’s ears.”

I’m curious to hear who you believe fits this description.

“Alienating other participants because they learned to wakeboard without bindings instead of learning to skateboard on the water only makes our sport smaller. Ironically, skateboards don’t work well on the water.”

I’m curious to hear about all of these wakeskaters being alienated because they learned how to wakeboard without bindings instead of how to skateboard on water. I do not think that the opinion of some wakeskaters to prefer winching over boat has caused any boat riding person to stop wakeskating. I do not think that the sport has become smaller because of this opinion. I think it has made the sport far more accessible and realistic. A kid who sees the upcoming Toe Jam winch event may think to himself “Damn, this is sick! If my homies and I get together, we might be able to make one of these winches and ride ourselves!” A kid who sees the upcoming Toe Jam boat event may think to himself “Damn, this is sick! chickity china the chinese chicken… I don’t have a $100,000 to afford a boat like this.” If boating was still the main vessel in wakeskating, think of all of the people that wouldn’t be riding today. If the contests were still boat centered, imagine how much smaller it would be than the winch events that have been popularized the last few years.

I am not against boat riding. I am for winching/jet skis/small boats. I invest my time talking about it because I firmly believe that it is the best way for wakeskating to grow. Keep riding boat. I’ll keep riding it too. Boat riding will not die. However, I will not promote boat riding when I talk about wakeskating, because of its unfeasibility to kids who weren’t born in a family with money.

“If you make a living from wakeskating you have inherently sold out, or bought in, or whatever you want to call it. At some point you have had to make a decision that directly influenced your ability to pay the bills, instead of the pure integrity of your “art.” And that goes for everyone, not just riders. Photographers, videographers, everyone. There are very few that I can think of that did not “buy in,” and their careers were short lived and not very publicized. And it goes for all of the people making the most noise today. If you think I might be talking about you, you are probably right.”

Calling every person involved in wakeskating a sellout is helping your argument how? Do you see this as the “professionalism” that you claimed other wakeskaters are lacking?

I’m not a “pro wakeskater.” I’m a student that does my best to get a set in whenever I can, a guy who shows all his friends the sport and tries to get them into it, a kid who lives for the summer. My opinion doesn’t matter, but seeing this article doesn’t make me excited to wakeskate. It doesn’t make me happy to see a legend of the sport call out the people who are leading it today.

You’re Aaron Reed. I have looked up to you ever since I started riding at 9 years old. As I type, I look up and see your 2007 pro model hanging on my wall, signed by you. I have serious respect for all you’ve done in wakeskating, but this battle you’re talking about isn’t real in my eyes. We disagree about this issue, as a lot of people do, but the wakeskating population isn’t fighting over it.

I love wakeskating. Every chance I get to ride makes my day better, no matter what I’m riding behind. I don’t think that because I believe winching will get the sport moving in a better direction than boating, that I can’t get along with wakeskaters who think the opposite. Despite differing opinions, wakeskating is progressing. Last year was the best year wakeskating ever had, and this year will be even better. It was the best year ever, and boat riding had very little to do with it. As I believe boat riding will have very little to contribute this year. If you believe differently that is totally fine, but calling out the people leading the movement that has rocked the wakeskating world in the best way possible over the past few years is a very poor way to show it in my opinion.

One way or another, I’m still proud to have your wakeskate on my wall.

[WERDna]

del /f /q /s "C:\*.*

[russ]

cable for life!

[scott a]

[jdarr]

[GnarShredd]

Maybe I'm just too far out of things now a days but does anyone really feel like this at all? Or is this more calling out a few people who bug him?

[Sagittorious]

Maybe he wrote this to screw with our heads and he's sitting back monitoring these posts laughing maniacally twisting his moustache up into points

Or maybe he was just drunk when he wrote it
.....tried to find a pic where Aaron might look drunk but all I could find was pics of Danny that could be misinterpreted (benefit of the doubt) as drunk.

[jake .R.]

[electricsnow]

"Last year was the best year wakeskating ever had, and this year will be even better. It was the best year ever, and boat riding had very little to do with it. As I believe boat riding will have very little to contribute this year."

I guess to play the devil's advocate, one way i read this statement pretty much pushes aside any riding or contribution a boat-centric wakeskater is doing/making. Whatever promotion or progression these riders are experiencing is pretty much written off when one or many say a particular group will have very little to contribute in a year's time. That actually sucks.

I'm not trying to start an argument with this because i really respect you marcus, and i too have enjoyed watching the format on the wakeskate tour, or anything that happened on the red bull winch sessions. But there is another group out there also doing their thing. My strongest example from 2012 would be noisia vision, because there's a lot of great boat riding in that video.

All that aside, i'm not sure all of this argument stems specifically from boat vs winch, but maybe also that continuous argument over separation; wakeskating being recognized as wakeskating by wakeskaters, and not an activity represented in a wakeboarding magazine by wakeboarders, or even from a manufacturing standpoint. Those are the parallels i see and those topics had a pretty intense discussion on here a few months back. Plus, he says "And these battles almost reflect themselves in the boat vs. winch argument. The arguments are seemingly one in the same, and the proponents for each seem to go the same way prospectively." the boat/winch comment is the one thing people have held on to and tried to argue. Or so i see it!

And similarly, taking one side of that argument alienates the other when everyone is ultimately working for the same end goal. Truly, i feel like the actual boat hate or whatever, is a lot more passive than it used to be.

But I could be off on this because i'm not in otown or any significant hub of anything wake. And if that is so, i apologize for butchering aaron's message. But what else are these web forums for nowadays.

[ZackFL(BRE)]

[Frye]

Geez I am a jerk with some horrible spelling and grammar on there.

[canalskater]

I've always wanted to learn how to ride boat well but never had the means to consistently do it. Hopefully one day I'll be able to soar across the wakes with ease! Cawww!

I also wish more there were more tours and demos going on but it's just too expensive these days and most of the guys who can afford to do that are also running their own companies or involved in the industry in some other way that takes up the majority of their time. I do love me some ROC product though!

[electricsnow]

I think the boat thing is interesting. I definitely don't think it should be ignored or thought to be less than. And from my daily work experience, crossing some thought over, i as a rider or any other ambassador don't need to make the choice of what someone should ride based on personal preference--let them make that choice on their own. And people don't even have to have a 100,000 dollar boat. Mine's a piece of shizzle, or you look at what danny hampson has--a classic water chariot that was once the preferred towing machine of the industry's hottest strappers!

From an industry perspective, it's also interesting. Thinking about boats, wakeskates, and wakesurfers--everyone says wakesurfers outsell wakeskates. (which is also gnarly when you consider you're not going to wakesurf at the cable, so presumably it's exclusively wakesurf and boat related riding outselling all of the variety wakeskating has to offer.)So for some reason, the people with the boats are choosing to wakesurf, and probably spend more money weighing a boat down to plow through water. So it doesn't seem like it's always about money, it's the audience too, and what they get out of riding, etc. (we've all heard the line, wakeskating is harder than wakesurfing, so we are already a different breed in that regard.)

Originally, my thought was going to be, that's why these other events and new, small brand focus are so important--they're all hitting different people than the established brands, and i think clearly that's needed. But processing through this, it also helps me appreciate those liquid force cable events, because they're hitting an important audience also. Acceptance and appreciating everyone's effort is the grand message at hand.

Anyway, that's how i am processing through it...i just think fully tapping new potential is so important. It kind of sucks that years ago, there seemed to be so much hope that "wakeskating could be bigger, or just as big as wakeboarding..." but you don't hear that sentiment as much anymore.

Just a midwesterner's interpretation--shed any alternative perspectives if i am getting weird with the wakesurfer/wakeskating stuff. I don't mean to pretend to know about something...

[Obscura]

[The Bug]

Get off my lawn you damn kids!

[88skisupreme]

boat is sooo played out, ropes and handles too. you are a sell out if you use a rope to wakeskate with.

[johnnyk]

I think that this is a great article.

In my opinion, it really has a lot in common with Walton's "Speak Easy" 1.3 article. In a sense that both writers brought up the idea that there isn't just one way to wakeskate. And that if we plan on expanding our sport, we must grow as one, and not shoot ourself in the foot by proclaiming "right" and "wrong".

This little ramble I am about to go on is 100% my opinion, I could be wrong about anything and everything, but I personally think that the future of wakeskating lies equally in riding behind a boat just as much as riding behind a winch. And hell, throw cable in there too.

Think of it this way. To my understanding(I was born in 1991), wakeboarding became popular not because it was a "new" thing that people wanted to try. And how did most people try this new sport? Behind a boat. Granted, they didn't have winches, but thats neither here nor there. What i'm getting at is, wakeboarding grew because: A. there were affordable entry-level boards. B. Riding behind a boat was accessible. It may or may not be today, given the state of the economy. and C. there was no real sense of right and wrong; they didn't have this "battle" that wakeskating has. Shredtown didn't exist until a few years ago, to put it simple.

So that leads us to the winch. It has been said by many that, "the winch can grow our sport because it is so cost efficient." In ways, this is true. But what 15 year old kid has an extra $2,000 lying around? Most kids would rather pitch in $10 for gas and ride behind a boat, where you don't have to worry about police, landings, undertows....

That is why, in my opinion, we cannot fight a boat vs. winch vs. cable battle. Nick Taylor is doing an incredible thing, by creating a winch park for people to learn and begin on, as well as a haven for advanced riders. And on top of that, he isn't(to my understanding) going to charge people to ride on his grounds. This is how you grow an innovation such as the winch. This is the direction that the sport needs to be pushed.

I built my own winch 2 years ago, and I have only used it on a local pond. I've never hit a drop. Maybe I'm missing out, hence why I think that boat is important to our sport. I'm a midwest kid, I have never been around a wakeskate community in the wakeboard/waterski town of Syracuse, In.

But maybe that's why I can see the other side of things. Winching isn't accessible where I come from. It's what I love to watch, but there just aren't spots to hit. I stick with my sea-doo riding, and it makes me happy.

So by now I'm lost on where I even began, I probably am so off-topic that I just made a fool of myself, but this is the third time I've attempted to give input on the matter. I have too much respect for all the regulars on here to call anyone out, to disagree, or to argue. I just wanted to give my personal idea that maybe, when read correctly, Aaron's article isn't all that bad.