What We Do During The Hot Summer Offtime

By Jessica Lee

When it’s ninety degrees and super humid, getting on your motocross bike to ride is the last thing on your mind. Although training down here in the Florida heat can make you an overall stronger rider, we all know very well the risk involved with getting too hot. During the long summer days when it feels like an oven outside and it rains every evening, us motocross riders take a break from the whoops and switch to the wake.

Wakeboarding has become an international phenomenon in the water-sports world and is beginning to take over the racing world as many of today’s top riders wakeboard during the offseason. Wakeboarding takes both incredible upper and lower body strength, which ties right in with motocross. As you probably have realized by now, once you become a member of the extreme sports world - you get hooked, so many companies like Red Bull, Rockstar and Mastercraft Boats are sponsoring riders from both offroad and water sports because they too realize that the two fit right along together.

I am lucky enough to live on a beautiful lake in one of the World's top wakeboarding areas. During the super exhausting summer days, we all leave the bikes in the garage and head down to the boat. During the month I got a chance to head out to the Surf Expo and the 2009 Wake Worlds Tournament. The Surf Expo is just like the motorcycle industries' Dealer Show in Indy but for the water sports world. I found myself in paradise because I was surrounded by beach inspired art, the newest surfboards/wakeboards, clothing, ocean jewelry, skateboards and some very awesome people; all of which were huge fans of motocross.

The weekend after that was the Wake Worlds which was the final championship stop for the Pro Wakeboard Tour. All of the best riders were in town including Andrew Adkison, Rusty Mallinsoki, Harley Clifford and Shane Bonifay. Not competing but there to cheer on his brother was also Parks Bonifay who had his own special event put on by Red Bull to premier “Parks Bonifay, the Documentary” the weekend of the Surf Expo. These riders and more competed for the coveted “King Of Wake” title. Also competing during the weekend were a very impressive group of women competing for the “Queen Of Wake” title. It was great to see women heavily competing in wakeboarding because just like motocross it is an extreme sport mostly lead by men.

The always gutsy men did an outstanding job at showing off brand new tricks and showcasing their competitive sides but the women who competed really impressed me. I know how hard it is to try to compete in a dangerous sport full of men and how nerve racking it is to actually get out there and show what you’ve got. All of these women and girls got out there like it was natural to them. Almost every rider I talked to including Zane Schwenk said that at some point in their lives they raced motocross!

If you race motocross, I know you will love wakeboarding - if you don’t already! If you don’t have a boat, there are water sports parks all over the country that use a cable system to pull boarders or skiers around the water. I guarantee you will have fun, so check it out!

For more from Jessica Lee, make sure to check out her column at http://www.bikeland.org/motogirl/

Source: Bikeland