Wakeboard Snowbirds

The top riders in Ontario knew that to become seriously good at their craft, they needed to train year round. In the winter of 1996/97, Dave Tsuyuki became the first of many young riders from Muskoka to head south, working the season at Benzel’s Ski School in Groveland, Florida. Dave worked at Benzel’s for a few winters along with Tiff Finley (now Tiff Tsuyuki), returning to Muskoka every summer to ride, to compete and to run their DTS Wake School from Dave’s family cottage in Bala Bay.

Dave’s successful model was quickly followed up by other riders who ironically have become the senior legends of Ontario Wakeboarding. Names like Sean Fleming, Chris Guard, Joel Adair (who ran The Projects for a few years) , and Pride’s own Neil Brown all spent time in the late 1990’s working and training at various Florida Wakeboard schools. This first generation of elite riders set the ball in motion for what became the new normal – live and work in a wake School in Ontario during the summer and train and work in a Florida wake school in the offseason.

This riding lifestyle spawned Ontario schools such as:

- DTS Wakeboard (instructors included - Dave Tsuyuki, Tiff Finley(Tsuyuki), Neil Brown, Scott Duke)

- Muskoka Pro Ski (instructors included -Joel Adair, Chris Guard, Kyle Rattray, Jamie Rowe)

- Pride of Muskoka Wake School (instructors included – Kyle Rattray and Mark Enns)

- Basecamp – (instructors included – Scott Duke, Robbie McMillin, Jono Boysen, Scott Boysen)

- Many smaller local schools in Haliburton and Kawartha also popped up to support the new rider lifestyle.

From seasoned Pro Tour riders like Ontarians Kyle Rattray and Sunni Ball to the current group of aspiring pros like Robbie McMillin and Brayden Beswick, every serious rider puts their time into Florida training in the off season.