Old School Funday

by Jules Haley
23 / 06 / 2010

With our sport progressing so quickly these days, its easy to forget where it all begun.  For this reason, and to honor days gone by, members of Quayside Wakeboard and Waterski had an ‘old school’ funday on the May bank holiday!  Armed with slalom skis, kneeboards and inflatable’s, they took to the water dressed in hilarious getups of the good old days.

The day kicked off with a double barefooting demo from Stew Mackie and Phil Mitchell, which an insider assured me they had been training religiously for and the event was a great start to their barefooting season! Quayside’s very own Sysyem 2.0 driver, Dan Williams, put on a shoe-skiing demo; with HUGE double s-bends off the dock!  Other highlights included terrifying three-person ringo rides, despite the fact that I genuinely thought I was going to die and screamed throughout for it to stop. Taking safety very seriously of course, members were clad with a variety of original gear including bright yellow helmets, fluero pink life jackets, and original Circle One’ two-piece wetsuits.  Top marks went to Charlotte Bryant who was sporting a totally radical barefooting wetsuit, complete with built-in life vest.

Despite being slightly removed from the ‘old school’ theme, the System 2.0 played host to a huge inflatable body suit, which proved to be unbelievable fun and hilarious to watch!  Who would have guessed that being dragged across the lake in a blow-up sumo suit and dunked face-first at each end would be such a hit!

So much fun has to have its drawbacks, and this came in the form of Stew’s small disagreement with an air-chair, and many first-timers who realized how painful barefooting really is!  Despite this, and a bit of gloomy weather, the day was a blast and it was fun all round.  Why not arrange an old-school funday at your local wakeboard club?  It’s a great way to have a laugh and appreciate what paved the way for what wakeboarding is today!