Maeghan attempts to get used to the weight of gold.

At the end of the 1998 season Neptune made a huge gamble by signing an as yet unknown 14 year old girl. However, that gamble paled in comparison to the one that this girl's parents took. On the strength of her Junior Women's performance at Nationals and Worlds, her parents packed up and moved from Missouri to Florida so that their daughter could spend the winter training for the 1999 Professional Wakeboard Tour. Both gambles paid off big time.

In her first year as a professional wakeboarder, Maeghan Major has certainly raised some eyebrows. She beat the seemingly unstoppable Tara Hamilton...three times. She has placed in the top six at all of the professional events that she's been to. She is ranked number three in the 1999 Pro Tour standings. And now she's managed to get her hands on the most prestigious award in the sport of wakeboarding - the X Games Gold Medal.

That in itself seems like a lot for anybody to handle. But when you consider that Maeghan is merely 15 years old it makes the feat even more amazing. Perhaps the secret to her success is that she is not distracted by things like driving a car. She doesn't feel the pressures of high school thanks to the distance learning program she participates in instead. Whatever her secret, you can bet this young wakeboarding powerhouse will continue to challenge the best wakeboarders in the world for many years to come.

Other than her talents on the water, Maeghan isn't much different than any other high school aged kid. She talks about friends, music and boys (one in particular) while her wakeboarding celebrity status seems to go unnoticed by her. She's sweet and unassuming and seems to truly enjoy wakeboarding day in and day out. She was certainly a pleasure to speak with while getting some after-tournament sets in at Bell Acqua in Sacramento.

Bringin' it around bronco style.

WW: When and where were you born?
MM: I was born in Springfield Missouri on January 3, 1984.

WW: Where do you live now?
MM: Right now, I live just outside of Orlando, FL.

WW: When did you start skiing and/or wakeboarding?
MM: I first started water-skiing when I was 5 years old but I did not really get into it until I was about 11. Then about a year later I learned to wakeboard.

WW: Whom do you train or ride with?
MM: I ride with Mike McLin, Darin Shapiro and a few other people that live in my area. I train with P.J. Marks and his crew out at the Wakeboard camp.

WW: How often do you train?
MM: Everyday. I ride at least 2-3 sets a day.

WW: What were your goals coming into this, your first year as a pro?
MM: My original goal was to place in the top 5 of the World Cup standings, but since I started to do well, my goal has gone straight to winning.

WW: You didn't make the trip to Europe to compete in the two World Cup stops in Germany and England. Why not?

"I'm too young to worry about things like that."

WW: Won't that all but eliminate your chances to win the World Cup title?
MM: Yeah, I don't think I have any chance at it now. But I have next year. It's only my first year.

WW: What are your goals for the rest of the year?
MM: As for the rest of the year my goal is to at least win another Tour or Vans stop. I would really like to win Worlds or the Vans Triple Crown series. My biggest goal is to continue having fun with whatever I do.

WW: Was an X Games gold medal on your list of goals for the season?
MM: Actually it wasn't. I didn't really foresee it. I wanted to win a few more tour stops but the X Games were not quite what I had in mind. It's pretty nice.

Maeghan dockside.

WW: Tell me about the X Games experience.
MM: It was really fun. We went up and watched the bikes and the skateboarding and all that stuff at the main venue. So it was really fun.

WW: You're now the X Games Champion. Describe what that's like.
MM: It's like my title now. People introduce me as that. It's taken over my name. They're like, "This is Maeghan, she won the X Games."

WW: While you were waiting for the X Games results, you knew you had a good chance at the gold medal. What went through your head when you found out for sure that you had won?
MM: I really didn't think I had won and then people started finding out and teasing me by not telling me but giving me the idea that I did. And then finally the ESPN lady kind of blabbed a little bit. So it was really nerve racking cuz I had a little bit of an idea, but then I was thinking, "No, that's crazy. It's the X Games." I couldn't believe it.

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