Wakeboarders

Regardless of how much you know about wakeboarding, one thing is clear: this sport is incredible. These athletes are truly elite—physical freaks, in the best way—and we’ve had the privilege of working with some of the world’s best wakeboarders over the years. In a tight-knit sport like wakeboarding, once you work with one pro, others soon follow, especially with Orlando being such a wakeboarding hotspot.

Josh Palma, a local legend, was one of our first pro wakeboarders. After him came Mike Dowdy, an emerging star with Red Bull. When Red Bull found out Dowdy was training with us, they wanted to know more. This led to a meet-up with Red Bull, who invited us to one of their camps “just to hang out.” After a day at the trampoline park and another on the water, Red Bull decided to bring their wakeboard camp to SPECTRUM for Functional Movement Screening (FMS). For anyone unfamiliar with Red Bull, they go all-in for their athletes, supporting them in every way possible.

With Red Bull’s buy-in, their next top wakeboarders, Dallas Friday and Steel Lafferty, came our way. Once you start working with big names like Dowdy, Friday, and Lafferty, word spreads quickly. Soon, other wakeboarders and brands started reaching out.

One of those brands was TEN-80, a water sports and apparel company deeply rooted in wakeboarding. Alongside TEN-80, we worked with their sponsored athletes, including Jeff Langley, Tarah Mikacich, and Tracey Baynham.

Then came Wake Canada, a national non-profit that supports wake sports development in Canada. Created in 2010 by wake sport enthusiasts, Wake Canada operates under the Water Ski & Wakeboard Canada (WSWC) umbrella, dedicated to growing wake sports while staying true to the board sport culture. They asked us to design a battery of performance tests for their wakeboarders, which could be used at their training sites in Canada. They also requested a comprehensive warm-up and workout routine for their athletes—a very cool project.

These days, we continue to work with wakeboarders year-round, thanks to partnerships with facilities like O-Town Watersports. Located on Lake Barton in downtown Orlando, O-Town offers everything from group sessions where beginners can learn to wakeboard or enjoy tubing, to pro-level training packages with our expert coaches.