I was 7 when I first dipped into that emerald-green Northern California water, my Mom and Dad took me and my brother to the lake where they spent their early days of dating and spent time with their friends every weekend during the summer. Now all those friends had families, and they wanted to continue their old traditions with their kids. My dad took my mom waterskiing on one of their first dates, claiming he just learned to ski, while in fact he was a locally sponsored skier. Now he is teaching his oldest son (me) how to water ski. Did I like at first? I really can’t remember, I know that I loved being behind the boat on the water, the hot summer air mixed with the refreshing water, I could be knee boarding, double skiing, or tubing… I loved it.
Fast forward to turning 9 years old and I went to my first summer waterski camp, that’s where I learned to single ski, this is where the hook was set for a lifetime in water sports. I was now the only one of the group of kids in our family group of friends that could slalom ski, that meant I got to go out on the first boat of the morning and get the glass with the adults. As a 9-year-old that was the world to me, I was with the good skiers group now, the other kids had to wait until after breakfast to go out on the boat, but not me, I got ride on the morning butter.
As a teenager I was your typical kid, playing football, baseball, going to gym, and practice every day after school for my sport, except there was one huge difference from all my other friends. I was obsessed with waterskiing (remember wakeboarding was not a thing yet, only the skuffer), so my walls had posters of famous water-skier that I would see every summer at the Marine World Pro Ski Tour, or I would meet at my local boat show. I didn’t know then, but this obsession would lead to a career in watersports, I was just like every other teenage boy that dreamt of being a pro athlete. It was my senior year in high school when my waterski group of friend and I went to a waterski camp at Lake Shasta. Little did I know that this week of my life would form me into the person that I am today.
When you go to waterski camp you ski 5-6 times a day, but they won’t let you focus on a single discipline, in the camps in the past I would trick ski, it was fun and the falls didn’t hurt, not like jumping or bare footing. At this Shasta camp I met Eric Perez, a guest coach at that camp for that summer and 2x world wakeboard champion. The Hyperlyte Pro had just been released, the first compression molded wakeboard. Seeing Eric doing flips and 360’s on his wakeboard, I knew this is what I wanted to do for my other activity for this camp. The reason why this camp changed my life was twofold, first off, I fell in love with wakeboarding, my ski never saw the water for the rest of that summer, and second, I saw the guys coaching at camp and I wanted to have that life, which I have been doing full time as profession since 2001.
So, when I am asked how water sports changed my life, I can truly say that water sports has made my life become reality from the dreams of a teenage boy staring at those posters on his wall. I spent every summer weekend with my parents at our lake cabin in Northern California, when my friends were out getting into trouble during the summer, my waterski friends and I were with my family. Those times are burned into my memory. My wife, Kylee and I ride together every day. We have the most amazing relationship because we were wakeboard friends before we became an item, we share a common love and passion. I have traveled the world competing and coaching, I’ve been an All American for SDSU, representing in my college in Collegiate All-Star Tournament. I’ve been and USA national champion, a member of Team USA, I’ve stood on the podium with an American flag on my shoulders as the National Anthem is played. I have been a World Champion, met many cool people around the globe. Made friends with people that have positively changed my life for the better….
So, when we I am asked how water sports has changed my life, all I can say, it has made it so I could live a life that I could only dream of as kid, but its way better than I ever imagined.
Chad Lowe
Centurion Wakeboarding Athlete