When I was 15 years old and my dad took me to buy my first ever wakeboard I remember being so excited! I’d already ridden a whole season on an old “skurf” board and loved every minute of it. However as the board as about as tall as I was and it had those sandal straps which can be very hard to jump with so we (or my great dad) decided it was time for an upgrade.
I was in heaven. How many cool pictures there was of guys and girls doing the sickest things on their wakeboards. The shop smelled like wetsuits and the one board looked cooler then the next. Kjell, the man woking in the shop (who later became a good friend of mine) laughed at my demands that the board could not be pink because I wasn’t one of those “girly girls” and it could not be too long or too short. It had to look cool and it had to help me flip and do all the amazing things the people on the boxes and in the magazines did. After a lot of indecisiveness I finally walked out of the shop with a Hyperlite Premier (it had a big deer on it!) under my arm and a huge smile on my face.
I rode this board every day hoping that one day I would be like the girls and the guys on the boxes. One day I could do all those big tricks and maybe, possibly one day I could get my boards for free too. Maybe one day I could be on those boxes, just like those badass girls Melissa and Amber?
When I was 15 I swore I would never wear short shorts, or anything pink or heels or dresses. I would become a rockstar, move to LA or alternatively move to outer space and date Luke Skywalker. Now, things didn’t turn out quite like I planned it too, they turned out even better!