Wakesurfing in the New York Times

The surf was up on Lake Charlotte, a 255-acre blue gem among the farm fields west of Minneapolis, and Todd Zaugg was yelling at his son to get into the water: “All right, señor, you’re on!”

Thus starts my story in last Friday’s New York Times, where I wrote about wakesurfing, a behind-the-boat sport that employs five-foot (or shorter) surfboards and specially weighted boats that create wakes that mimic an ocean wave.

But unlike its cousin sport of wakeboarding—which is an amalgam of surfing and snowboarding that uses short, binding-equipped boards—wakesurfing avoids towropes once a rider is standing, relying instead on the hydrodynamics of an artificially created wave.

Like an ocean wave, the wake generated by a boat configured for wakesurfing creates a steep face between its peak and the flat water below. It curls over as it breaks farther away from the stern.

Surfers ride in a window where the wake breaks behind the boat, cutting, slicing, smacking the lip, dipping back toward a small curling barrel, performing tricks like spins—all rope free.

Go here for the full story: http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/travel/escapes/17Adventurer.html

Or, here’s a Daily Dose blog I did on wakesurfing in June, including several pics: http://thegearjunkie.com/wakesurfing