History of Wake Surfing

Wake surfing has been around since the 70's but it wasn't until the 90's before it started catching on. Not many people have heard of this sport. If I were to mention wakes surfing in a group of 20 people, 3 people out of this group might know what wake surfing is. When it first came to notice, surfers would surf on a long surf board (ocean boards) behind the boat and they called it, boat surfing. Finally companies began to build wake surfing boards which are thinner, lighter and smaller. Ocean boards were a lot heavier and thicker because with the amount of speed and pressure of an ocean wave you need a board that can compensate the big waves.

      In the olden days, surfers would use regular boats and have, what we call, a messy wave. Once technology advanced. Surfers realized to get the perfect neat wave you need to bare most of the weight to one side of the boat. If you were to bare the weight on the right side, that would be regular stance and if it were on the left side of the boat it would be goofy stance.

      Everyone at the beginning was scared and shocked. No one wanted to be that close to the boat, no one has every riding a board so close to the board. The first world wake surfing competition started in 1996 in Michin bay, in 2011 Parker, Arizona became the new home of the worlds wake surfing competition with the most competitors yet. It is one of the largest water sports competition in the world. The competition is getting greater and greater like wake surfing is getting bigger and bigger.

      There is a wonderful video on youtube that is 26 minutes long. It is a wonderful video to watch to see the differences between then and now in the wake surfing world.

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWYZf3A7aas