It was clear early on that despite
our Canadian winters, Canadians were flocking toward wakeboarding. From 1992 to
1994 the two dominant wakeboarders were American Darin Shapiro and Canadian
Jeremy Kovak, with Jeremy taking the world title in 1993.
By 1994, wakeboards started to
appear in Muskoka as well. At the time most were asymmetrical and directional
boards with simple rubber heel strap retainers, though quickly boot style
bindings began to become the norm. Ontario
began the birth place of wakeboarding in Canada and
specifically the lakes, resources and connections of Muskoka were the hotbed.
The early riders in Muskoka included names like Jake
Thomas, Aaron Prince, Sean Fleming, Todd Shell and a ball of
energy named Dave Tsuyuki. Wakeboarding was still a novelty and just splinter
activity on the water. Most people were only exposed to wakeboarding as part of
waterski shows or demonstrations before 1995. Famously, a barefoot legend by
the name of Doug Gray (Canadian Champion 1987-1989) would pin a $100 bill to the
start dock for any wakeboarder that could perform an invert during any show he
participated during the summer of 1994 and 1995. Surprisingly in 2 years and
over 50 shows, he was only down $200!
From 1995 through 1998, Wakeboard
Schools began to explode all over cottage country. In 1994, Jake Thomas and I began Mastercraft Pro Team (soon to
become Muskoka Pro Ski), soon to be followed by Phil Harding with Summer Water
Sports, Dave Brandstetter with Water Skiis Etc, and DTS Wake School with Dave
Tsuyuki and Tiff Finley. The schools began to pop up in the Kawarthas and
places like Haliburton, Midland, Barrie, and Wasaga Beach. With many of these schools
performing shows during weekends and teaching during the week, mass exposure to
the sport of wakeboarding had begun. It looked so fun and was so visually
entertaining that everyone wanted to try. We had kids, teens, moms, dads, even
3 year olds wakeboarding. Every cottager on every lake needed to have a
wakeboard. Industry suppliers like Ralph Geronimo at O’Brien struggled to keep
up with the demand for boards. Every shop and wake related brand was trying to
keep their finger on the pulse of which new upstart kid was going to be “the
next one” and who they needed to sponsor for shop affiliations. Shops needed to
have resident experts on staff just to know the connections within the wakeboard
scene. We began to have weekly auditions in the afternoons for the wakeboard
slot of our evening shows and discovered future Provincial and Canadian
Champions like Joel Adair, Chris Guard and Kyle Rattray who all began to ride in
shows and perform competitively before they were anywhere near driving age.
Shops like The Muskoka Store, Surf Paradise and Boardsports were literally
buying truckloads of boards every month just to keep up with the explosion of
wakeboarding during the mid-1990’s.
The golden age of Wakeboarding was
upon us and the rebirth of towed water sports was beginning.
It was clear early on that despite
our Canadian winters, Canadians were flocking toward wakeboarding. From 1992 to
1994 the two dominant wakeboarders were American Darin Shapiro and Canadian
Jeremy Kovak, with Jeremy taking the world title in 1993.
By 1994, wakeboards started to
appear in Muskoka as well. At the time most were asymmetrical and directional
boards with simple rubber heel strap retainers, though quickly boot style
bindings began to become the norm. 
From 1995 through 1998, Wakeboard
Schools began to explode all over cottage country. In 1994, 
