For September '98 we feature one of the grass roots wakeboard promoters on the Northeast coast. Billy 'Billyboard' Bender has been running local wakeboard tournaments in New Jersey for the past few years. He also is founder of the Numbskull Extreme Team of the Greenwood Lake Waterski Club. Here's what he has to say:

WW: How'd you get involved with wakeboarding as a rider?
BB: I got involved with wakeboarding a few years back after seeing it televised. It just looked like something I had to try. I was able to find a Hyperlite demo day sponsored by Surf and Offshore of Pt Pleasant, NJ. From that day on, I was hooked. I found a waterski club, the Greenwood Lake Waterski Club, about an hour from where I live. There weren't many wakeboarders in the club. In fact, Mr. Jeff Schnebelen and I may have been the only two. Fortunately, Jeffrey had a boat, and we rode our Connelly Blade and Hyperlite Pro behind his little outboard whenever we could.

WW: How'd you become involved organizing the Boardfest tournaments?
BB: Our club had been running two slalom/trick tournaments each season. I suggested that we run a little wakeboard competition at the end of the tournament days, just so other people would get a chance to see this new sport. So a new division of the waterski club was created and I was elected "Chairman of da board". I think there were 3 of us in the first tournament, and maybe 5 or 6 in the second. But each time we ran a wakeboard event, the number of riders grew. Finally, it was getting to be dark before we were able to get all the wakeboarders their rides. So for the 1997 season, the wakeboard events were given their own days... and thus the birth of Boardfest.

This September 12th will be the fourth full-day tourney, creatively called Boardfest IV. We have great music, food, hopefully calm water, and a bunch of great people. In fact, I think its meeting other riders that makes the Boardfests so much fun. And there are riders traveling from 4 or 5 hours away who return each time, so something must be going right!

WW: Have you been involved with wakeboard events other than the tournaments?
BB: As much as possible. For the past 2 years, we've had Scott Harwood come up from his school in Florida to do clinics at Greenwood Lake. We've also had other pros come up to do clinics. Another event that's going to happen at the end of August is a Double-Up demo day with Greg Nelson. I worked on this with Andrew of Ski Zone and John Lettieri of DoubleUp.

WW: What's the scene like on Greenwood Lake?
BB: We've got a really friendly scene with a bunch of the greatest folks around. It's not just a wakeboard scene, but more like a weekend-long social event. There's also weekday after-work riding, mostly by those who live closer to the lake. While most of us stick strictly to the boards, there are more than a few who also ski, foot, and airchair. However, it's been really interesting seeing the number of riders grow and the number of skiiers shrink. In fact, wakeboarders are no longer the minority in our club... nor on the lake.

WW: You have an interesting name for the wakeboard division of your waterski club.
BB: A little self-promotion time for Numbskull, huh? What happened was I was trying to come up with a fun name for the wakeboard division of the club. No suggestions really floated my boat (pardon the pun) until one day I surfed across the Numbskull web site. When I saw the logo with the peeping eyeballs, I knew this was the name our club's wakeboarders had earned and deserved. So, with permission from Numbskull Interactive, the Numbskull Extreme Team of New Jersey was born. Now, all our tournament mailings have the Numbskull logo. In fact, its rare to go out on the lake and not see a Numbskull hat or sweatshirt somewhere.

WW: Where do you think the sport of wakeboarding is heading?
BB: I think that wakeboarding is starting to mature as a sport. What I mean by that is more people who aren't involved in the wakeboard/waterski scene are starting to hear about wakeboarding. I see skate and snowboard shops starting to pick up on wakeboarding, though, obviously, I don’t see the sport getting to the level of skating or snowboarding due to its requirements (boat, water access).

It seems that the business world agrees with the idea that wakeboarding is growing in popularity. Look at the boats now being designed with the goal of providing a beautiful wakeboard ramp. And all the mail-order catalogs I receive seem to have more and more wakeboard-dedicated pages each time.

On the grass roots side, I would think that the increase in the number of wakeboarders on our lake and the growing popularity of our Boardfests is probably pretty representative of what’s happening around the world. In fact, I recently got to ride with my friends, The Kuepfers, in Switzerland. They are very active in their local waterski club, and they told me that most of the new members joining the club are primarily interested in wakeboarding.

As for the professional side, I think the way the pros are pushing themselves with new and bigger tricks will help keep the sport fresh and fun (though I think they should get rid of that Seadoo wakeboard racing). I have to say, when I saw Shaun Murray do a Raley 360, my jaw dropped, and I wore out the VCR head replaying it!

I guess the way I hope wakeboarding does not head is into splintered cliques due to some nimrods who feel the need to have something to bitch about. First there was the skiier vs rider attitude. That attitude is silly since, with our watersports' limited environment, we really need to work and have fun together. Then, within our own sport, there seems to be some sort of ‘style’ debate going on. You know, thinking about it now, since I haven’t seen this debate in any local scenes, I wonder where its coming from. Perhaps some of the publications that exposed this attitude could help try and turn it around so that we can all ‘just ride’!

WW: Anyone you want to say "hi" to?
BB: Sure. As for riders, there's my usual 'sunrise' riding crew of Joey, Amy, Barbie, and Ken (the lowrider). Then there's those that hookup to ride a bit later in the morning: Laura, Ryan, Greg, Jason, and Schneb (much later). And there's the H. Boys from H. Village: JB, Ralphie, Brian, Dave, and Alison (not an H. Boy). And for anyone who I forgot to mention, just remember, "I love you man!".

There's also some people in the business that I'd like to say hi to. Craig McClean of Surf and Offshore (Team SOS) in Pt Pleasant, NJ, has been working with the Greenwood Lake Water Ski Club for years. He's helped sponsor our tournaments by providing prizes and demo-boats. He's got a great shop and always keeps us up-to-date with any equipment we need. There’s also Andrew of Ski Zone in South Bound Brook, NJ, who is our newest tournament sponsor. And last, but by no means least, John Jones of Numbskull Interactive has been a huge sponsor of our tournaments, and more than anything else, has give us a name!

If you are planning to attend the Greenwood Lake Waterski Club Boardfest IV Tourney on September 12th, it will take place on Greenwood Lake in Hewitt, NJ. For more info contact Billy at billyb@cybernex.net.

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