Urban Playground

Not all that long ago we wrote a post regarding cable wakeboarding and how it is going to be a big part of wakeboarding for the future, how it will make the sport much more accessible to the masses, though even as i wrote that article and well before, which i did touch on, is the growing trend for urban wakeboarding. The Urban sector is the new underground facet of the sport, once filled by cable, though as the division between cable and boat closes, the urban scene which is closer aligned to cable continues to see greater and greater support thanks in part to the growing edits and accessibility to small bodies of water and winches. This is the great truth, without innovation things pale into insignificance, this is why patents only last for 10 years if you don;t re innovate everyone can have a crack at it. Urban wakeboarding is the next big part in the innovation chain of what we can do, lend your gaze back to when cable was just coming up, and every other sport was looking in, i heard it all 'where's the style', it looks boring', 'theres no innovation, everything looks the same', how is that a grab, he let go to pass the handle'. Guess what snowboarding and skateboarding, you try and get across a body of water bigger than a few feet without some support, the urban scene in snowboarding now relies heavily on being towed into features in some manner, so essentially we were ahead of the curve. Alright let's not stick it to them to hard, cause this was part of a driving force to the development of our urban scene and boy is it picking up momentum, with easy accessibility to reasonably suitable bodies of water, some wood, and a few supplies to build yourself a winch which you can do for anywhere between $500-$800 depending on who you know, we know have a growing underground of wakeboarders who don't need to find a boat, or head to a cable park. These guys are going out and finding urban features to tackle, building there own kickers out of anything and everything, the best way to make it stand out, go bigger, make it more stylish and give the masses a reason to look. Let's use an example that surfaced only a few days ago in the form of an edit of Cody Hesse, i can already hear it now, who?, this kid has been killing it and when the godfather of wakeboarding, Scott Byerly is out announcing it, it's time to listen up but here we have the next generation wakeboarder. Cody Hesse is one of the up and comers only 19 out of the US, but along with the likes of this next generation he sticks as far away from boats as possible, is it indie? i guess we can call them the indie guys of the wakeboard industry. As much as he rips i can imagine a slab of craft beer, tie dye t-shirts, the works, but thats what it's all about with the urban scene. Gone are the days of a picturesque back drop for the boat to roll past, now it's a real life photoshop process and these guys are ready to do whatever it takes to make themselves known and are well on the right path with the world being their playground, town lakes are now the new jib spot, b.y.o kicker or rail. This search for the next way to innovate ways to wakeboard by the next generation, has led to wakeboard development moving at it's fastest pace since wakeboardings inception. Moving further away from the norm, shows diversity and style in the face of the wakeboard industry and the magazines, providing a platform for these riders to showcase themselves and what they can do to the wakeboard world. It may be indie now but unlike the style trends that were considered indie, this trend looks like it's here to stay and is silently creating a beast, that in the not to distant future is likely to take the wakeboard world by storm, bigger than anything that we have seen previously, and when it happens it may not change only the way we look at wakeboarding but as well as the way we look at competition. Written by Jesse Chiminello