Wakeboarding team gears up for regional collegiate competition
University News Service
September 6, 2007
The fall semester is officially in full swing, but for five Texas State University-San Marcos students, long days at the lake are far from over.
Texas State wakeboarding team athletes Bret Little, Tom Fooshee, Kassie Kaiser, Brett Hickey and Evan Washington are gearing up for the Southern Regional Collegiate Wakeboard Qualifier, Oct. 13-14 at the Texas Ski Ranch.
The extreme water sports competition will feature 29 collegiate teams from schools throughout the nation. Winners will receive an invitation to the CSTV Wakeboard Nationals.
Bret Little, a
Little, an
“I’ve been in some intense wake skating competitions this year and I don’t want to say this is an easy contest because it’s not at all, but the atmosphere will be more laid back,” Little said. “It’s just a bunch of college kids that aren’t trying to get famous; they’re just in it to have fun.”
Little said wake skating moves are largely inspired by skateboard techniques, such as barrel rolls, jumps and mid-air spins. With his skateboard, he practices many of his most challenging maneuvers on land, including the “switch-kick-flip.”
“The most difficult trick is the ‘switch-kick-flip,’ where you’re riding with your opposite foot foreword and ‘ollie,’ which is where you pop up into the air like you would on a skateboard, then switch your front foot out and down so your board does a barrel roll under your feet,” Little said.
Little also trains with his roommate and fellow teammate Tom Fooshee at the Texas Ski Ranch’s Cable Lake, as well as Lake Placid and Lake Austin.
Fooshee, a Texas State exercise and sports science senior, recently placed second at the CWC Open, and placed first at the T-mobile Extreme Playground in Germany. Fooshee, an
“I’m very excited to represent
According to Fooshee, the upcoming competition will be the
“This year,
Texas Ski Ranch Manager Blake Hess said athletes will compete for their teams individually. To impress the judges, contestants must incorporate style, creativity and a high level of difficulty.
“There’s so many different types of flips they can do,” Hess said. “The judges don’t like to see the same flips done over and over again; they want to see them mix it up.”
Hess said the popularity of wakeboarding is steadily growing--especially among
“We have a lot of clientele from