Summertime Shreds: Wakeboarding Champs Flock to Monroe

The sporting event is open to the public and will be held July 25, 2024 - July 28, 2024 from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM at Lake Tye Park (14964 Fryelands Blvd. Monroe, WA 98272). The championships are hosted by the World Wakeboarding Association, offering a stage for top-tier watersports athletes. The 2024 Nautique Wakesurf Series, the largest wakeboarding event in the United States, includes competitors of all ages and skill levels in a format designed for competitive-based fun for the whole family. The results from the Nautique WWA Nationals will also determine who will represent the United States at the WWA Wakeboard World Championships. Both events are free to the public. Grab a blanket, pick up some food from the restaurants paralleling Fryelands Blvd., and snag a spot in the grass and watch competitors from all over the country give it their all. Follow their website for updates: https://www.thewwa.com/event/n....

The professional and semi-professional athletes arrive at the water's edge. They are uniformly fit, most are tanned and their hair is sun bleached. They come from about 30 countries around the world, brought here by their passion for watersports. Listen and you’ll hear them conversing in Japanese, Italian, and Spanish.

These riders take turns plying their craft by shredding the waves on Lake Tye in Monroe. A 42-acre manmade lake. Harnessed to a speeding boat, they navigate the water's surface on a specialized board, performing an array of daring maneuvers. The best wakeboarders in the world -- literally -- carve through waves, executing sharp turns with precision and grace. As the boat accelerates, participants launch themselves into the air, soaring above the water. They twist and spin with agility and control. Athletes defy gravity with flips and spins, splashing in the crystalline water and summer sun.

Is it dancing? Is it gymnastics? Is it a choreographed tension between the elements, motorized technology and human anatomy? Is it grit and brawn? Yes to all of the above.

Whether gliding across smooth waters or conquering waves, wakeboarding is an adrenaline-fueled adventure that captivates both participants and onlookers with its dynamic and mesmerizing action.

Athletes have arrived here in Monroe, Washington because Lake Tye is the perfect body of water for wakeboarding: a controlled environment with minimal wind and virtually no choppy water. Moreover, it’s an oblong, manmade lake conveniently surrounded by grassy slopes, a park, restaurants, and a walking trail. This place is perfect for a watersports event. Comfortable surroundings and functionality are key features of the venue, to say nothing of the sparkling waters and rolling green hills surrounding Lake Tye.

Monroe is valuable to these athletes for its proximity to Snoqualmie, the epicenter of PNW wakeboarding culture. There’s a strong wakeboarding community in these parts. Ninety-nine percent of the boards and equipment that these athletes ride and use at this event was made near Seattle.

Wakeboarding and its related water activities are relatively young sports. Some of the original creators of wakeboarding, including the president of the WWA, are still around and have become legends within the community.

It’s an ever-evolving sport, creating spinoffs and subcategories as it progresses, including activities like foiling, mono skiing, kiteboarding, and “skurfing.” Athletes pioneer and master new tricks like the toeside edge, heelside edge, the ride switch and 180 spin.

Each generation of wakeboarding athletes invents and experiments with new techniques and approaches. It’s very much an activity in flux; it’s a sport defined by innovation, not tradition. That’s part of the excitement. You can experience history in the making.

And history, in this case, looks like aerial flips and aquatic shredding.

In many ways, the story of wakeboarding closely mirrors the story of Shannon Starling, president of the WWA. Not at all surprising, given that Shannon and three of his friends founded the Association in 1989.

They started their competition with a practical problem: who was going to buy the Coors Light?

“Honestly, we started as an organization to compete for bragging rights. We were highly competitive. The question was who’s the loser? That’s who was going to buy us beer!”

Starling says the trio of proto-wakeboarders literally drafted the rule book for the event the night before. It was unbelievably short, clocking in at one page. The rule book took into account the unknown danger of this event. It was the wild west.

“We had a kind of a joke,” said Starling. “If you have a compound fracture, you automatically win. Unless you die... in which case, we’ll send the trophy to your parents.” Yikes!

Yet, wakeboarding turned out to be a viable and marketable sport, and it soon attracted folks from across the nation. Young athletes congregated to grassroots events, arriving from anywhere that offered a body of water: Knoxville, Austin, Malibu, and Florida.

“Now, flash-forward. We’ve got friends all over the world,” said Starling. Indeed, a look at the WWA global rankings show top-tier athletes from Spain, Portugal, the UK, Australia, Japan, and Argentina among other countries.

This who’s going to buy the beer?, wild west, anything-goes-ethos comprised the culture of early wakeboarding, according to Starling. Wakeboarders of the 1990s formed communal relationships, often living in houses, traveling, and eating together. According to Starling there were the occasional rivalries, but mostly the community was and is known for a sense of camaraderie on and off the water. It’s not uncommon to see groups of athletes speaking different languages while goofing around a fire, eating tacos after a day of wakeboarding. It’s clear that there’s a true international network of close-knit athletes, bound into a subculture by their mutual love for this sport.

There seems to be something about wakeboarding that hooks folks. It’s an all-or-nothing type of endeavor: passion over pastime. For example, take the story of Corrie Wilson.

Today she’s the Executive Director of the WWA, but she began her journey as an athlete beginning at the age of twelve. One day, Wilson’s folks brought home a wakeboard from a flea market. Wilson was immediately infatuated. She practiced. And she practiced more. She was soon known internationally by her name, in what was then a male-dominated sport.

Besides ranking in the top five wakeboarders in the world, she was idolized by many for her unique style, which was largely informed by snowboarding-style jumps and flips.

Today, Wilson is very humble given her athletic prowess, so it may come as a surprise that she’s featured in “The Voyage,” one of the most-watched feature-length videos about a group of wakeboarders who travel down the Mississippi.

Wakeboarding has come a long way since the 1990s, but the formality and organization of the competition don’t detract from the thrill of summertime shreds. Wilson and Starling will tell you: the adrenaline rush is simply part of this sport.

So, what can folks expect this year at the 2024 Nautique WWA Wakeboard & Wakesurf National Championships? First of all it’s a free festival, which is remarkable for a professional championship. It’s also a series of events that lets you get close to the action.

Savor yummy grub from local food hubs, score giveaways, and gather signatures from professional athletes.

The event will culminate on Saturday and Sunday when the international pros will take to the waters of Lake Tye to vie for the title of champion.

Are you planning a stay? You’re in luck. Monroe, Washington is a lovely place to explore.

Apart from nearby accommodations you can enjoy a day of window shopping in historic downtown Monroe. Explore the beauty of the Pacific Northwest at any of the dozens of hiking trails that wind through the foothills nearby peaks. After a weekend in Monroe, you’ll see why this mighty town is known as the gateway to the Cascades.

In short, if you visit the Nautique WWA Wakeboard Championships in Monroe, you’ll enjoy a full weekend of splashing, savory treats and general summer-sports camaraderie. You’ll experience top athletes as they flip, carve, and shred their way to international fame.

Everyone walks away from this event feeling like a champ.