The MSU Wakeboard Club is looking to make waves in their second year of existence by recruiting new members and holding events.
Club president Sam McLean created the club last year with a friend who works at a local boat dealership.
MSU Wakeboard Club looks to recruit new members
“We kind of collaborated our ideas and found people who wakeboard on campus,” McLean said.
He said they got around 20 active members from promoting their club, and have about 40 members all together.
McLean said they’re hosting an event May 16 at Pontiac Lake in Waterford, where about 10 college teams will be competing.
The club received third place in their first competition last fall, McLean said.
Actuarial science sophomore Andrew Fialka joined the club last year, but he said he’s been wakeboarding since he could walk.
“Growing up on a lake, I was just kind of always doing it,” Fialka said.
He met Mclean while he was out with the water-ski team. He said he saw McLean's board while he was skiing the course and he told him he could do flips and tricks.
“I yelled him my number and got his number, and then met up the next week,” Fialka said.
Fialka said there’s a wide range of talent on the team. He used to be a wakeboarding instructor, along with another member, so they teach members who are new to wakeboarding.
“Time on the water is the best time you could possibly have, and it’s just a lot of fun, a great way to meet people,” Fialka said.
Advertising junior Ali Kazanowski said she became interested in wakeboarding through her cousins and friends who do it.
She’s been wakeboarding for a few years on Union Lake and said she hopes to meet new people in the club.
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Kinesiology junior Matt Lanzi said he is big into water activities, such as kayaking, and has been wakeboarding a few times around Michigan.
“It’s fast, it’s fun. … It’s definitely different,” Lanzi said of wakeboarding.
McLean describes wakeboarding as snowboarding behind a boat.
“When the boat goes, it shoots a wake each way, and that’s kind of like a ramp, so you jump the wake and you get air on it,” McLean said.
McLean said the club is most active in the fall, and they usually go out until the river freezes. He added their competition season is at the end of the spring and the beginning of the fall, but right now the club as focusing on growing and getting members.
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