Texas Round Up III was a joint organization with the 360 Wakeboard Club and Gulf Coast Wakeboard Association that happened Saturday, July 19th. The idea behind the event was to hold a clinic with some of Austin’s most talented riders giving lessons and coaching to anyone that wanted to come out. We had a great turn out of 18 riders for lessons. The majority of the riders were beginner and intermediate with a few experienced riders looking to land that one elusive trick they have not been able to be consistent with.
Instructor Cameron Krog took control of teaching a group of girls ranging from 12- 15 in getting up along with basic turns and edging techniques. Everyone on the boat managed to get up easily and had a good time. By the end of the day they were encouraging each other to cut toe side and building up confidence to try heel side and toe side jumps. One of the ways Cameron was able to speed up the progress of the beginners so rapidly was by attaching a rope 10 feet from the back of the boat and showing the girls how to carve in and over the wake while talking them through the instructional methods. His spotter, Daniel Mailey, took over the responsibility of driving the boat at a consistent speed during this trial period
Nate Jackson from the Boarding House (www.wakeboardshop.com) brought out his Nautique and a good selection of Gator boards and House wake skates to demo. He also had a group of beginners and a few intermediate riders. Brandy Parker from Gulf Coast was on his boat to help out with coaching and to teach some of the terms familiar to most wakeboarders to these new addicts of the sport. Everyone was able to start learning heel side jumps and start working on progressive edges. Learning good mechanics and building strong fundamentals is the key to getting better in wakeboarding.
The last boat to leave the dock was Amanda Aponte’s X-10. Cody Levay was heading up coaching the intermediate riders looking to land their first inverts. Derek Pierce landed and rode away with his first Tantrum. It was great to see so many other riders pulling down their first tricks and getting better learning to edge all the way up the wake to maximize pop off the wake. Jeff Truscott was so close to landing a back roll, it was ridiculous.
There was a lot of good ridding at the Perdanales that day. I’m glad the event went off without any problems and I would like to thank everyone that showed up to make another wakeboard event successful. Hopefully the next event will be bigger and better than this one. Thanks again to GCWA and Brandy Parker for help in organizing the event. Nate at the boarding house was instrumental in providing more than enough boards for everyone to ride and a great boat to ride behind. Cameron, Amanda, Cody, and Billy for providing the boats and coaching lessons.
Brad Betts
