The Wakeboard Club at Georgia State is a little known competitive sports group that has been around in some form on campus for at least ten years. It began as a water skiing club, but evolved to focus primarily on wakeboarding in the last few years. Each semester, there are an average of about 30 members that vary drastically in experience and skill level, though all are encouraged to compete. Some of the goals of the club are to promote interest in the relatively new sport, compete regionally and nationally, and to develop leadership skills in its members.
Spreading interest about wakeboarding is a particularly strong goal of the group because of how new the sport is. It began in the late 1980s as a hybrid between water skiing and surfing, and involves doing tricks in competitions similar to competing in other extreme sports like skateboarding or BMX biking. Wakeboarding is done by riding a board pulled by a boat; a wakeboarder uses the wake created by the boat as a riding surface, which can be treated as a ramp for doing tricks.
The Wakeboarding Club at Georgia State was not always as stable as it is today. Jenna Hamel, president of the club and a sponsored wakeboarder, spoke to the Signal about the struggles the club has endured. When she first joined the Wakeboard Club at Georgia State, it had only five members. Soon after, it dropped to three and required a complete restructuring to keep its status as a student organization and its charter through Student Activities. As part of the restructuring, Hamel became president as a freshman during her first year in the club and played a major role in making it what it is today. Though she was already an experienced wakeboarder, she did not have a lot of experience driving the boat or being responsible for leading an organization.
“I was already really passionate about it, but I didn’t know the functions of the boat, I didn’t know about maintenance. It helps you learn really quickly when you’re responsible for something,” she said of her sudden leadership experience. As for the restructuring itself, it required a lot of personal motivation and meeting the university’s expectations.
“We had to fix the constitution, add by-laws, add a certification process for driving the boat… and really do a lot of recruiting. A lot,” she said.
The dedication and passion put into the restructuring has allowed the Wakeboarding Club to develop into a thriving, successful student organization. As a group, the members have met all goals set by the university, both financially and in competitions. It is a group full of passionate and successful people, who obviously care a lot for the club and for each other.
Something the club members have been fighting for years is how the university perceives them. Though what they do is obviously a lot of fun, Hamel stresses that they take what they do seriously, and being a member requires a lot of responsibility for yourself and others.
“It’s definitely been a struggle,” she said of her interaction with the university. “It’s not just a sports club. It’s not like going out playing. You’re in charge of a $50,000 boat and other people’s lives. When they’re behind the boat or even sitting in the front of the boat, if you’re not paying attention and you’re driving, you could kill someone.”
Members need to practice, and competition is a must. Part of the requirements for the group as a whole is to compete regionally a specified amount each season. This past season, the requirement was “10 in 5,” 10 members competing in 5 different competitions, which ended up being relatively difficult because of the economy and how small the wakeboarding industry is.
“Boating is definitely a luxury, and there weren’t a lot of competitions.” One member had to go to Washington to find a competition. It paid off, because the Wakeboard club at Georgia State qualified for Nationals, which will take place in Texas this April.
Since the city of Atlanta is not exactly rural, practices are held 45 minutes away on Lake Allatoona. During the season, members go out in groups of 4 to 8, always with a certified driver. Though these trips are meant to be practice for competitions, the members have so much fun and feel so passionately about their sport that they don’t seem to consider practice a chore or a hardship.
Members describe wakeboarding as a lifestyle, and a team experience. Many enjoy it so much that they build their summer schedules around the sport, and have developed close friendships through wakeboarding.
“It’s just different,” said Hamel about her friendships within the sport. “Because you love something together…. [You get] something from it that you wouldn’t get with a regular friend.”
The Wakeboarding Club is always looking for new members, and now is the perfect time to join, since the season is only about a month away. Before joining, a new member goes out on the boat to see what it’s like and to meet some of the group, who are very welcoming to newcomers. The one requirement of prospective members is that they have to go out on the water during their first trip. If they don’t have any experience, the members will teach them how to get up, and insist that once you are on the water, you have an instant passion for it. To see if wakeboarding is for you, contact Jenna Hamel at jennahamel27@yahoo.com.
Wakeboard Club developing into a thriving student group
Published: Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Updated: Wednesday, February 17, 2010
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The Wakeboard Club at Georgia State has had its share of struggles over the course of its ten year history, but has grown significantly since its inception, and continues to practice and compete regionally. Here, members of the team can be seen posing and wakeboarding where they practice at Lake Allatoona.
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