I woke up early that Saturday morning. I packed a bag of clothes (mostly board shorts) and threw it in the car. Next I went in the garage and got my new wakeboard. A 2011 liquid force witness grind. I had only rode the board once and I was so stoked to go to my uncle’s house and ride all weekend. My uncle had just gotten a brand new wakeboarding boat. After my dad and I got all loaded up we hit the road. It was a long 45 minute drive to Lake Brantley because I was so excited. I had just recently started getting real into wakeboarding and his house was the perfect place to progress my skills.

When I arrived at the lake house I was excited to see that my cousin mark was home from college. He had also brought a few of his friends. After I got done unpacking all of my stuff my uncle and I hit the water. He told me I was up first and I eagerly laced up my boots and hopped in the water. My first run I was boosting some huge grabs jumping from wake to wake. I was having tons of fun but it was time for me to break out some harder tricks. My uncle was driving perfect double ups. A double up is when an outside wave connects with your wake causing a huge ramp. So I hit the double up and threw down the biggest front flip of my life. Unfortunately I could not hold on to the handle and I fell pretty hard. As my uncle came back around to pick me up he told me that it would be much easier to try and do a back flip. Sense he usually knows what he is talking about I figured I would take his advice and try the back flip. As I got up I thought to myself “is this a good idea?” I decided if I wanted to get any better I would have to try it. So I hit the wake and went for the flip. I completely let go of the handle and focused on the flip. To much surprise I landed it perfectly. So now I just had to hold on to the rope. Unfortunately my next attempt was not as good. When I did the flip I was focusing on holding on to the rope and did not complete the spin. I fell on my face from about eight feet in the air, which did not feel good. So I kicked off my board and jumped in the boat.

It was now my cousins turn to face-plant. He was not nearly as good as me but he was ten times more stupid and tried tricks he knew he could not land. On his first pass he tried a simple one-eighty and fell extremely hard. He caught his toe side edge and slammed right on his face. He was done and it was now my turn to take one final run before the sun went down.

At first I was just doing big airs. But then I knew it was time to try the flip. I approached the wake edging hard on my heel edge. I got good pop off the wake and started my rotation. I was half way around and I had spotted my landing. All I had to do now was hold on to the handle and absorb the impact. As I hit the water I bent my knees to absorb the impact and landed my first ever back flip on a wakeboard. This is why I believe that with hard work and persistence you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.