WW: What's your name, age and where are you from?
LC: Lindsay Leigh Carpenter. I'm 19 years old and from Clio, Michigan (in the 'middle of the mitten') and go to school in Alma at Alma College, a small, private liberal arts school.

WW: Sounds cold. How long is your season?
LC: Michigan is freezing. It's been zero degrees for a few days now. It's really amazing, I can walk on water (frozen lakes)! I started riding two weeks before last Memorial Day, but probably mid-April you could start and then go until mid-October. Not a real extensive season, but we ride hard when we ride, so that's all that counts!

WW: When did you start wakeboarding?
LC: I first rode a wakeboard in the summer of '96 with my cousin's boyfriend who owned a board shop. I learned how to ski when I was probably four or so and I love anything on the water, so the option to ride on a wakeboard, which I had seen on the X-Games, was way too cool! But I didn't do too well. Then, summer of '98 I tried again, but didn't know what I was doing and failed miserably. May of '99 rolled around and I just started riding with my friends at the lake and loved it. My brother and I went in on a board together and we've been riding since then.

WW: What's the wakeboarding scene like out there?
LC: That's weird to say, "out there" to me because I think everyone else is "out" somewhere else. Sorry, totally off the topic. Wakeboarding is growing a lot. I am not even aware of a lot of the stuff going on, but I know that it's growing a lot because at the beginning of this past summer we were the only people wakeboarding on the lake, the only group with extended pylons, etc. And by the end of the summer there were at least two other boats of people wakeboarding and I had found so many other people who wakeboarded, just talking to them.

WW: What do you do when you can't wakeboard?
LC: When I'm not wakeboarding I play golf. I have played for my entire life, but have played competitively for about eight years now. I played in high school and made all-conference four years straight and our team finished second in the state for all four years I played. I made Honorable Mention all-State my senior year and now I play golf in college too, where I've made first-team all-MIAA for two years in a row.

Other than that, I love to read and write - poetry, stories, and the like. And you'll probably think I'm totally granny-ish but I love to crochet. I'm working on two blankets right now and made my entire extended family (about 20 people) mittens for Christmas.

Oh yeah, and I just learned how to snowboard a few weeks ago. I took a lesson with a really hot Australian guy - Thanks Dylan. I was hurting the next week, but I had such a great time that I didn't even care. Someone told me it was kind of like wakeboarding. I don't fall like that when I'm behind the boat trying to get above the wake.

WW: What are you studying in school?
LC: I'm studying a vast majority of things. I think I want to major in Communications with Business and Sociology minors. Or maybe major in English and then go to grad school to do something I really want to do, although I'm not sure what that is. I have a tendency to study hot guys, but that's typical. What I really want to be when I grow up is a 'surfer girl'. Just doing whatever I want whenever I want. But I need money to do that so who knows what I'm really going to do.

WW: Who do you ride with?
LC: Jeremy and Katie Sienkiewicz and Scott and Mark Elliott who all taught me how to wakeboard and got me super stoked on the sport as a whole. Morgan and Taylor Paige, who are my amateur starting-out counterparts and will hit the water at 7 AM just to get the glass. Kathleen, my spring break traveling buddy. I haven't ever ridden with her, but we're going to Scott Harwood's together. I can't wait. And of course my little bro, Trevor, who hangs with the big dogs and impresses us all with his 'get up-get going' attitude. He's 11, by the way!

WW: What tricks are you working on?
LC: OK, since I'm not very good, I'm working on everything. I can honestly say that I was the first girl on my lake to attempt a flip. However, that does not mean that I landed anything of the sort. I'm going to Scott Harwood's at the end of February/beginning of March to ride and learn how to do some tricks and be able to show up all my pals that I ride with (laughs). I just really want to get my basics down and make sure that the way I'm doing things is the right way and just learn the fundamentals of the sport. I'll have to keep you updated on my trick arsenal after I go see Scott.

WW: What are your favorite aspects of wakeboarding?
LC: I love the fact that I can hang out with my friends in the boat all day and watch each other eat it and laugh or cheer when they land sweet tricks, listen to some sweet tunes and just have the time of my life every day. I love the fact that from the Wake List I've met a lot of people, which sounds really corny, meeting people online, but the Wake List is just so awesome. I wrote one thing, my total opinion, and Greg Wait and Krown came through with a free board!

I love the fact that Kathleen and I met one day in Creative Writing because she said she'd been wakeboarding all weekend and I couldn't believe there was someone here at school who wakeboards, especially a girl! We started making plans for a wakeboard/spring break trip the day we met! Wakeboarding is a lifestyle and I love it for that!

WW: Who would you like to thank?
LC: This might be lengthy. My mom and dad for financing our first wakeboard, I love you guys! My brother, Trevor, just because he's awesome. My Grandma and Grandpa (with the yellow boat) because they let me just go to the lake and stay with them whenever I want to and let me have the time of my life. You guys have given me the best friends of my life and heaven on earth. You are my bonus. Jeremy, Katie, Mark, Scott, Morgan, Taylor...maybe even Jonathan. My "Clear Lake Boys," I love you - Buddy. I am missing you far better than I ever loved you. I'm sorry for that. Kathleen for keeping me stoked and becoming one of my best friends. And of course, all of the wakeboarders out there, from the pro tour to the grass roots, thank you for making the sport what it is because I love wakeboarding! And of course Dave at WakeWorld!

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