Happy Holidays from VT Wake!
This year I wanted to start a new tradition. Families send out Christmas Cards and businesses sound out Annual Reports, so I feel like VT Wake should have some sort of newsletter to keep alumni, family, friends, and sponsors up-to-date and in-the-loop with what is going on with the VT Wakeboard Club.
2011 was another great year full of lots of wakeboarding, trips, and good times. We kicked off the season with a big move and purchased a new (to us) club boat in North Carolina. Because of the recession, we found ourselves boat-less. We had a few potential options but in the end decided that purchasing a boat with the money our club had saved over the past few years would be best in the long run, giving us independence and the possibility of getting a good amount of our money back down the road when we resell it (versus making payments and being left with nothing). The boat we found was a 1990 Supra Sunsport. We chose this boat specifically because it is notorious for having one of the best hulls for making a good wake and being one of the more spacious boats for our price range. We used the Supra several times in the spring at Claytor and did a few weekend trips to Smith Mtn. Lake, riding behind the Schrein’s Supra 24 SSV.
This summer we did some work on the club Supra, which definitely had some issues, being an old boat. We battled through some mechanical problems that kept it off the water into the start of the Fall Semester, but thankfully we were able to keep riding behind Jeff Goldblum’s boat at Claytor and my family’s boat as well as the Schrein’s boat at Smith Mtn. Lake. We did lots of trips to SML while the club boat was out of commission and we can’t thank the Schrein’s enough for being so generous with letting us stay at their house, providing us with food, and letting us use their boat. Luckily, we sorted out most of the problems with the club boat and got back to riding at Claytor before the end of the season. This winter I am hoping to do some more projects to the club boat that will make it even better for this spring and the future.
VT Wake had a strong year competitively. We placed 6th at Alt Games (USA Wakeboard Collegiate Nationals) and had an amazing time. The event was held in San Diego, CA and was very organized. CBS covered the event, leading to Joel Wagner and Edan Fletcher being on national TV. In the fall, we hosted Eastern Regionals at Indian Pointe Marina at Smith Mtn. Lake. We put a lot of hard work into organizing it, and it turned out great. We had a solid showing by NC State, Kentucky, Tennessee, and of course VT. Everything ran very smoothly and VT placed 1st overall. Big thanks to Indian Pointe/Tim Wray and the Schrein’s for making the event a success. We also were working with Red Bull in hosting a rail jam on campus at the Duck Pond, and would have featured the legendary Parks Bonifay at VT! Unfortunately, the school denied our efforts, but we are hoping that we can work to make something like this happen in the future.
We had some great additions to the club this year, especially with the girls. The amount of quality riders and good people in our club keeps growing. We are looking forward to the spring when we plan on attending Nationals again, possibly hosting a double up contest, and having fun a ton of fun on the lake. Stay up to date with everything we do by checking the VT wake blog, Http://vtwakeboarding.blogspot.com, or by checking our Twitter (VTwake).
Thanks for all of the support,
-Adam Van Dyke
President
