One man’s leisure is another man’s passion.
But members of the LSU wakeboarding team have found an ideal mixture of leisure and passion. With only two meets in the fall and two more in the spring, the squad has plenty of time to practice.
The members pack a few ice chests into their boats and head out to the LSU Lakes or the Port Allen Lock about three times a week where they take turns wakeboarding until the sun goes down. The practices are organized through the team’s Facebook page and are not mandatory.
Many of the wakeboarders said their college experiences are unlike any other.
“There’s not many people that can say they’re taking a test one minute then out on a boat the next,” said Nick Vaccari, construction management sophomore and junior professional wakeboarder.
Prompting from his father and a background in extreme sports from skateboarding led Vaccari, a Covington native, to pick up wakeboarding at age 11.
To become a professional wakeboarder, people must put themselves on the market to attract sponsors. Though Vaccari was a junior professional at the start of the year, he said he plans to bide his time and hone his skills before taking his talents to the professional level.
“I don’t think I’m ready for it yet,” Vaccari said. “I need to put it all together.”
However, Vaccari made quite the splash at the Louisiana Collegiate Wakeboarding Tour’s first meet at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on Sept. 22. He didn’t originally intend on participating in the meet because he went fishing in Venice, La., that morning.
But on the way home, Vaccari realized he could make it in time to compete in the open division, and he called a friend to register him in the competition. Vaccari arrived with just five minutes to spare and managed to win the open competition.
“I rode all right compared to everyone else and just happened to squeeze out on top,” Vaccari said. “For me, I didn’t ride that well.”
Competitors are graded in several categories, including style, big air, spins and inverts, and they receive a certain number of points per trick that are then totaled up at the end of their run.
Overall, LSU came out second to Louisiana Monroe. Vaccari attributed the loss to LSU bringing fewer riders than ULM.
After the competition, the wakeboarders did what they usually do: they engaged in revelry. The team usually storms the local bar in full force, and its members have a strong reputation for being proficient in merry-making.
“We camp out Friday night, and then we have a bar rented out for us Saturday night,” said Garrett Kopsco, electrical engineering junior. “We bring the party.”
Kopsco and his twin brother Daniel joined the team in their freshman year when they started attending wakeboarding meets. The two have a special connection to the team, as their older brother Ryan founded the club four years ago.
The wakeboarding team’s membership is mostly male, but a few females do compete. However, the women who do attend wakeboarding practice often take advantage of the opportunity to bask in the sun, which led to the club being jokingly dubbed “the LSU wakeboarding and tanning team.”
Being a part of the wakeboarding club is not cheap. When the club holds practice, those who attend split the cost of gas and beverages.
A quick peak at a wakeboarding website reveals that wakeboards usually fall in the $200 to $500 price range, and specially designed wakeboarding boats can cost about $60,000.
No matter how expensive wakeboarding is, the culture of beer, babes and boards keeps the team alive.
“We come out here because we like it,” Vaccari said. “I do it for the love of the sport.”
A wakeboard sits on racks on a boat on October 12, 2012.
