Date: 8/22/02

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Andrew Adkison Photo Gallery

Andrew Adkison

You've probably been scrolling through some of the results of this year's pro tournaments and noticed some unfamiliar names. That's pretty typical. However, you don't usually see them showing up in the finals or top four of events that include the world's top wakeboarders. In fact, you were probably asking your buddies who this new guy is in the X Games, of all places.

Well, you should probably get used to reading the name Andrew Adkison. Andrew joined the pro ranks this year on a whim and has taken competitive wakeboarding by storm. He didn't even realize he could compete with the best of them until someboday suggested it. Despite a late start, he's managed to become the highest ranked rookie on the Pro Tour and World Cup standings. The best part is that Andrew is just out there to have fun with it, and the rest is just falling into place.

Andrew's friend, Miles Armstrong, was able to briefly pull Andrew away from his recently-acquired rock star status and ask him a few questions to introduce this new entry to the pro wakeboarding market.

WW: Where are you from?
AA: All over. I'm claiming Panama City Beach, Florida. Been there most of my life.

WW: How did you get into wakeboarding?
AA: Well, went to the lake one day with some friends of mine and I saw this 40 year old guy do these flips behind a boat and I thought, "That's crazy, I've got to try that." The first day I tried it I couldn't get up and was frustrated with it and had pretty much gave up on it. My buddies made me go again the next day. I Got right up and have been hooked ever since. I still ride with Delbert all the time (the 40 year old guy - 2nd place Nationals 2001).

WW: How did you ever hook up with Hyperlite?
AA: I started working at a board shop in our local mall purposely to get to know more wakeboarding reps. I hinted all the time to the manager that we should carry Hyperlite. He did, so in walks the HO Rep, Gary Morrison. I wouldn't let Gary leave 'till he came out to the lake to watch me ride. I did one of my standard hour and a half sets and Gary picked me up as a rider. Gary has been like a big brother to me and really helps me out. He has a lot to do with where I am today.

WW: What made you decide to go pro?
AA: Jocko had a big influence there. He was shooting me as a featured rider for Wake TV #9. I was giving it all I had for the camera and Jocko kept egging me on to try stuff. By the end of the shoot I landed my first 313, method crow and some double grabbed off-axis spins. He had me really pumped up and told me that I had a Pro run and could compete against the best. Gary has told me many a time, as well as yourself, that I had a Pro run, so it finally just sank in and I decided to enter the Pensacola Tour Stop.

WW: How'd you do at that stop? Like I don't know. You called me every round on your cell phone like a kid on Christmas morning, but for the sake of the audience.
AA: Just to qualify was amazing. Then, when I made it to the semifinals, I really was getting excited. I finished 12 on that stop and I thought to myself, "Man, I can do this!" Some buddies of mine told me Shaun Murray was announcing the runs and he was saying, "This Andrew Adkison is throwing a gutsy run out there - a lot of handle passed mobes. He's laying it on the line." After I qualified, I felt like I had nothing to lose, so I just threw it all out there.

WW: I met you just two years ago at Louisiana Spring Fling. You had a handfull of inverts and some spins. How do you account for learning so much in so little time and you don't even have a boat?
AA: I have a boat. It is a black and white Super Air Nautique with a kicking Loud Liquid system on it!

WW: (laughs) That's my boat, although I should charge you for half my note on it. Of the 450 hours I have on it, you've probably got 200 hours behind it.
AA: I have spent a lot of highway mileage driving anywhere to go ride with people. I have spent countless days of standing on the dock with my wakeboard and gas money. I think it is also important to ride with as many different people as possible. You pick up a lot of stuff from other people. If you ride with the same old people all the time, you're not as apt to try new stuff.

WW: You calling me old?
AA: What Division do you compete in?

WW: What are the most tricks you have ever learned in one day?
AA: Recently I was doing a demo with Shaun Murray on his BYT and I did 4 new spins and 2 new inverts - so six.

WW: Speaking of Shaun, how did you hook up with the 'House of Style,' Shaun Belmont Murray and the BYT [Back Yard Tour]?
AA: I was helping Gary, the HO rep, with some hyperlite tour stops. Each year, Gary links up with a different pro Hyperlite rider to hit all the stops. This year it was Shaun. Shaun remembered me from the Pensacola stop. He knew I didn't really have any intentions of going to the Detroit stop so he asked me to go. After the Detroit stop he asked me if I would like to help him with the BYT for the rest of the summer.

WW: And you said what? Kidding. Wow, what do you say to that? "Hey, how would you like to spend the summer with me wakeboarding everyday?"
AA: You say, "Thank you, but no thanks. I have to work." As if. "Hey boss, can't make it in tomorrow or the rest of the summer. See ya!" I was pretty excited about it.

WW: So how was the BYT?
AA: It was an incredible learning experience. I got to meet a lot of people from all over and feed off their craving of wakeboarding. I got to ride everyday on so many different lakes. I got to watch Shaun ride everyday. I learned a lot from Shaun, like the way he interacted with people and how he handled the business side of wakeboarding. I would love to do that again.

WW: Where are you going to be training for the next year?
AA: On the water.

WW: Where at?
AA: All over.

WW: Anywhere specific?
AA: Your trying hard aren't you?

WW: Okay, okay. To be released at another time. Back to the Detroit stop. That was a big stop for you - third place for X-Games qualifications and fourth at the Tour stop. Wow, big weekend huh?
AA: I didn't even realize there were X-game quals at that stop. I thought they just charged us an extra 100 bucks for this stop. When I saw my name on the list, I was like, "Sweet, I get to practice my run for the tour stop." I kept advancing and advancing and ended up third. After that happened, I didn't even care how I did at the pro tour stop. I was still tripping on the X-game quals. I was really relaxed, didn't feel any pressure. Not to mention I just rode like four times. I ended up fourth for the tour stop.

WW: What was it like to be standing there in fourth place right beside Parks in third, Darin in second and Shaun in first?
AA: It was like, "WAKE UP," 'cause I have had that dream too many times!

WW: One more tour stop and another trip to the finals. Sweet! After competing in just 3 stops, how does it feel to be the 16th ranked pro in the world?
AA: Who me? You talking to me? Wow, I had not really thought about it. Cool!

WW: How do you pick your run?
AA: It doesn't matter what the guy does before me or after me - I've got a run in my head before I even get there. I'm really just competing against myself. If I do the run in my head and come in last place, it was a great stop. I think that's why I've done well; 'cause I don't get all worked up thinking I'm riding against such n' such in my heat. I just do my run.

WW: Nice philosophy! What mobes can you do?
AA: All of them! Nah, I can do a whirly bird, whirly 5, moby dick, Pete Rose, dum dum, 313, 313-5, or whatever that is called, KGB, crow mobe, big worm, heelside mobe and one under Pete (working on it still). I guess that's it.

WW: 313-5? Don't think I have herd of anyone even trying that?
AA: I hit the first one I tried. Just barely made it around, so the rest started looking like big off axis 5's, so I won't unleash it 'till it is clean!

WW: When are we going to see that suicide Raley of yours in competition?
AA: I'm thinking about doing it at the X Games but don't hold me to it.

WW: You have some impressive spins as well. Any new ones?
AA: I can do all the 3's, including toeside blind, most of the 5's. My wake to wake heelside and toeside 7's are pretty consistent now and I've landed a couple wake to wake 9's.

WW: Who is your biggest pimp daddy, mac daddy, model American riding partner from hell?
AA: Whose interview is this?

WW: What is your favorite format from this years pro tour and what direction would you like to see it go?
AA: The Detroit Tour stop, by far, was the best format. I like the mix of obstacles and wake, but you don't ever have time to do much. At the Detroit stop you had 5 minutes to show your stuff. Falls didn't count against you, so you could focus on just wake tricks and get all you wanted in, then start hitting the obstacles. To me, it let riders demonstrate what they were capable of doing. I'd like to see next year's format like that.

WW: Do you feel like you've arrived?
AA: Are you kidding? You know you have arrived when they have free air hockey and foos ball in the hospitality tent (Gravity Games)!

WW: You don't drink, smoke, curse and you're on an academic scholarship at Gulf Coast community college. What kind of pro role model crap is that?
AA: That's my front and I'm sticking to it. Actually, I dropped out of high school.

WW: Really?
AA: No.

WW: What tricks are you working on?
AA: 313-5, toeside back roll to blind and a whirly mobe.

WW: Sponsors?
AA: Hyperlite, Oakley, Synthetic and MasterCraft boats of Arkansas

WW: Props?
AA: Thanks to all the people that have let me take 1.5 hour sets behind their boats and to all the people that have and still are pushing me. Thanks to my sponsors. Oh, and thanks for keeping my boat at your house.

WW: Click...dial tone.

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