Sporty Saturday Spotlight 12-04-09

This Saturday the sporty spotlight shines bright on wakeboarder, surfer, skateboarder, and kiteboarder, Claire Lutz.  Check out Claire’s interview below where she shares her fave athletes, great advice, amazing action shots, and much, much more.

Name: Claire Lutz

Age: 22

Sport(s): Kiteboarding, wakeboarding, surfing, skateboarding

Hometown: St. Joseph, MI

Currently living in Cape Hatteras, NC

College: Western Michigan University studying marketing and public relations.

Dreams:

To work in the kiteboarding industry in marketing, and hopefully as a pro kiter so that I can travel the world.

What’s your fave sport?

Kiteboarding

How many years have you been playing your fave sport?

I started one year ago.

What was your fave sporty moment or memory?

My favorite memory was finally learning my first unhooked trick, the Raley.

What was the biggest lesson you’ve learned from playing your sport?

To be confident but not over confident. And to share the love of the sport. No one likes selfish people who want all the spotlight for themselves..

What lessons have you learned about work ethic from your sport?

You must work very hard!! It’s important to have a good attitude on and off the water, and always try your very best.

What have you learned about teamwork?

It’s important to support each other, your teammates should always have your back!

How do you balance school and sports?

I spend 6 months of the year on school and the other 6 months focusing on kiteboarding only. When I’m in school I work on snowboarding.

Who’s your fave athlete, both male and female?

Female would be Lisa Anderson, who is a legendary Pro surfer. She has been very inspirational to all women because of her hard work and determination. She  proved to everyone women can do anything.

Male would be Jason Slezak, who is a Pro Kiteboarder. He has been in the industry since the beginning, winning hearts with his great attitude towards life and others, along with being a caring supportive friend.

What’s the girliest thing you like to do? (Pretty Tough signature question)

I’m a fan of painting my nails. It makes me feel more girlie to have hot pink nails, versus chipped dirty nails from being in the water ☺

Thanks, Claire!! And thanks for sharing your fabulous pics! Wow. Kiteboarding looks fun and amazing. Best of luck with your career. :)

Do you or someone you know want to be spotlighted? Shoot an email to Keri Mikulski at kerimikulski(at)gmail(dot)com.

Happy Saturday!

Sporty Saturday Spotlight 11-21-09

This Saturday the sporty spotlight shines bright on wakeboarder and snowboarder, Lucille Rogoff.  Check out Lucille’s interview below where she shares how she went from feeling scared to snowboard to making money doing it, her fave athletes, and much, much more.

Name: Lucille Rogoff

Age: 40

Sport(s): Snowboard, Wakeboard, Wake skate, wake surf, and trying to learn to barefoot

Hometown: Monroe, NY

High School/College/Grad School: Monroe-Woodbury High/Ramapo College of NJ/ University of Phoenix

Sponsors: Freestyle Watch Co, SMX Optics, Fuel, SixSixOne, SockGuy, SnowGirls, Tooks Int’l, Kinesys, GoPro, Member of the Monster Army

What’s your fave sport?

I love all sports and would have a hard time choosing just one, but I make money snowboarding, and I compete as well, so its probably my most lucrative sport.

How many years have you been playing your fave sport?

Funny thing is I have actually only been doing all my sports for going on 4 years, this will be my 4^th season snowboarding, and I am in my 4^th season wake boarding,less for all the other water sports.

What was your fave sporty moment or memory?

It took me forever to want to learn to snowboard so my favorite memory is when I was finally able to ride all over the mountain with my friends.

What was the biggest lesson you’ve learned from playing your sport?

Respect gets Respect, not that I didn’t know that before but to see how frequently in lessons it is stressed that.

List some awards or accolades you’ve received.

Ranked 2^nd in Central Vermont and 7^th nationally for Slalom and Giant Slalom.

Who’s your fave athlete, both male and female?

Hannah Teter/Dallas Friday are my favorite female athletes and Rusty Malinoski/Danny Kass are my favorite male athletes.

What’s the girliest thing you like to do? (Pretty Tough signature question)

I am tomboy at heart, but I love to put on a dress and look like a girl whenever possible, and nothing beats a good manicure/pedicure to go with that.

Do you or someone you know want to be spotlighted? Shoot an email to Keri Mikulski at kerimikulski(at)gmail(dot)com.

Happy Saturday! :)

Teen wins women’s Wakeboard World Cup in upset victory

We’ve written about teen wakeboarder Raimi Merritt many times as she’s been pulling out surprising wins ever since turning pro at the age of fourteen.

In another stunning upset victory, 16-year-old Merritt beat out the world’s top women riders to win gold at the IWSF Wakeboard World Cup Championships in Liuzhou, China last weekend. The competitors for the prestigious, invitation-only event included X Games and World Champion Dallas Friday (USA), former World Champion Amber Wing (AUS), Queen of Wake Pro Tour Champion Nicola Butler (GBR), and Asia/Australasia Champion Chen LiLi (CHN).

Despite the challenging water conditions of the Liu River and the pressure of 50,000 spectators, Merritt led each of her qualifying heats to secure the last start off of the dock in the final round. Top-seeded rider Dallas Friday performed well in the finals, scoring 60.69, but Merritt’s two passes in the finals were flawless. Her first pass included a 911, front roll, heel-side grab, a toe five, and a heel three. Her second pass featured an s-bend, toe-side back roll, tantrum, scarecrow, and wrapped KGB. The tricks earned her a score of 62.78 and the women’s Wakeboard World Cup title.

Merritt was surprised by her performance. “Getting first place was amazing,” said Merritt. “The water was really rolling and rough because of other boats and the backwash on the river. I went last in both the semis and the finals, so I had the privilege of watching the other girls ride before me. It looked pretty bad out there, but once you were actually out on the water, it was even worse. I just watched and saw what the girls did. I knew what I needed to do if I wanted to get the gold, so I went out there and tried my best and pulled it together.”

Merritt’s win in China marks her third World Cup title since turning pro two years ago. In 2008, the teenager took gold at the IWSF World Cups in Qatar and Egypt. This past year, Merritt also took second place in the World Games in Taiwan, the Wake Games in Orlando, and the WWA Wake Park World Championships in the Philippines.

Teen Nicola Butler repeats as top wakeboarder

The stars of the wakeboarding world were out at the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour weekend stop in Fort Worth, Tex.Fans packed the shores for the final rounds of the comp while riders in the Pro Men, Women and Jr. Pro Men divisions, threwdown their best runs of the contest to try to win the first Tour stop of the 2009 season.

In the Pro Women’s division, 14 elite female rippers hit the water for their Semifinals. Stars, such as four-time X Games gold medalist, Dallas Friday (Orlando, Fla.), current wakeboard world champion, Nicola Butler (Bournemouth, Eng.), and 2008 Rookie of the Year, Raimi Merritt (Lantana, Fla.) each led their heats, as expected. However, also advancing onto the six-woman Final was rookie rider, Meagan Ethell. At 12-years-old, Ethell, from Illinois, became the youngest pro female rider to advance to a Pro Tour stop Final.

Continuing her success from 2008, England’s Nicola Butler took first-place in the Pro Women’s division Finals. Butler, 17, who captured the win in Fort Worth last year,was joined on the podium by former wakeboard world champ Amber Wing and four-time X Games gold medalist Dallas Friday.

The MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour will make its next stop of the season in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., on June 19-21.

Pro Women: Finals
1. Nicola Butler                   UK          98.50
2. Amber Wing                   AUS        84.75
3. Dallas Friday                  USA        79.00
4. Raimi Merritt                 USA        72.25
5. Meagan Ethell                USA        60.50
6. Raequel Hoffman           USA        55.00

Dallas Friday wins Pro Women Wake Games

The King of Wake, the world’s premier pro wakeboarding series,  kicked off the 2009 season in Orlando, Fla. with its first event of the year, the Air Nautique Wake Games.

The four-day-long event,  held at the Orlando Watersports Complex, April 23-26,  was the first of eight stops throughout the United States on the 2009 tour.

With more than $300,000 in prize money over the eight-event season, athletes compete during the course of the year to be named the “King of Wake” – an award based on points accumulated at each stop of the series.

So is there a “Queen of Wake” you might ask? Well finally, the answer is yes. Last year marked the debut of the women’s pro series.

Sixteen year old UK standout Nicola Butler went down in history as the first rider ever to win the Queen the Wake, winning seven of the nine events in the inaugural series, including the first six contests.

This year, the Pro Women vie for points at the Wake Games towards their five-event Queen of Wake series.  Current Queen of Wake Nicola Butler plans to defend her title against some of the top female rippers on the planet but she’s got a target on her back.

After missing last year’s Wake Games due to injury, Orlando’s own Dallas Friday made a triumphant return on her hometown waters, to take the Pro Women’s Division and win this weekend’s comp. Friday, an Orlando native, was gunning for defending champ Butler, as she looked to win her first-ever Wake Games title in front of a hometown crowd.

Widely recognized as the world’s top female wakeboarder, Friday  has done a lot in her 21 years.  She has traveled the world and is a multiple X Games champion. She even has won an ESPY in 2004 for the best female action-sports athlete.

In 2006, Friday broke her left femur in at least seven places as she performed an intricate jump during the final event of the Wakeboard World Cup Series. After surgery, she developed severe breathing problems and had to be on a respirator for a week. She returned to competition in late May of 2007, and based on the weekend’s results,  it looks like she’s once again one of the tour’s top female riders.

Queen of Wake Tour Stop #1 Results

1. Dallas Friday
2. Raimi Merritt
3. Melissa Matquart
4. Nicola Butler

The Alt Games – Collegiate Action Sports

You’ve heard of the X Games, the Dew Tour and NCAA Championships. But how about The Alt Games?

CBS Sports and CBS College Sports Network created The Alt Games (formerly known as the Collegiate Nationals) to provide a stage for competitors in action sports to compete and represent their colleges (and presumably to make a few bucks).

The 2009 Alt Games’ line-up is highlighted by last year’s roster of championships, which includes snowboarding, wakeboarding, flowboarding, freeskiing and beach volleyball.

The snow portion of the comp took place April 9th, at Colorado’s Copper Mountain. Events included men’s and women’s snowboarding and freesking.

Kelsey Huelsman admits one of the biggest factors she enrolled at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, was so she could ski a lot. After winning the Alt Games slopestyle ski championships yesterday, it appears to be paying off for the third-year graphic design major.

Snowboarder Michelle Zeller, a junior at the University of Colorado in Boulder, absolutely stomped her second slopestyle run at the Alt Games collegiate snowboard championships to earn her first-place prize. Zeller, who is studying international affairs and Japanese, hopes to head to New Zealand this summer for a few more comps. Zeller’s CU-Boulder classmate Kendra Tombolato also made the Buffaloes proud with a second-place finish in this year’s competition.

The Alt Games continue April 17-19 in Southern California with beach volleyball, flowboarding, and wakeboarding.

For the wakeboarding comp, each of the 16 competing schools is expected to bring seven riders to compete at Hidden Anchorage Bay Cove on Mission Bay. Individual titles in respective events will also be at stake. The University of Florida is the defending team champion.

In addition, the Alt Games will feature the second annual Competitive Eating Championship, showcasing the nation’s top collegiate competitive eaters, as well as a music festival.

More than 500 competitors from 45 different colleges and universities nationwide are expected to compete at the 2009 Alt Games, which will ultimately crown 11 national men’s and women’s champions in both individual and team events.

Coverage of the Alt Games kicks off with a special one-hour program airing on CBS Sports on Saturday, May 16 (2 p.m. EDT). The show will launch two weeks of Olympic style and sports specific programming on CBS College Sports Network, beginning on Sunday, May 17.

Youngest of Pro Women Wakeboarders wins World Cup Championship

November 26,2008 – Last year, we profiled 14-year-old wakeboarder Raimi Merritt just after she participated in her first pro tournament and snagged second place behind Dallas Friday – the most decorated female in wakeboarding’s history. 

Now fifteen, the rookie pro just capped off the 2008 tournament season with a stunning victory at the IWSF Wakeboard World Cup Championships in Doha, Qatar, beating out Friday for the top spot on the podium and the $8,000 prize.

“I just wanted to go there and get into the top three,” said Merritt, of Orlando, Florida and the youngest of the women’s pro riders. “I didn’t know what the conditions would be, so I just tried to be confident, and I managed to do well.”

In addition to her win in Qatar, Merritt also took first at the IWSF World Cup in Egypt in August and finished third at the IWSF World Cup in Singapore in October, rallying after her board broke in half in the final heat.

Merritt’s first year as a pro rider has proved challenging. “A lot of the girls were stepping it up this year, and I wasn’t riding as consistently in the beginning. But it pushed me to try harder, and towards the end of the year, I started doing better.” said Merritt.

Merritt finished out the year with a fifth-place ranking in the Queen of Wake standings and was named Monavie’s “Rookie of the Year” by the World Wakeboard Association. To prepare for the 2009 season, she will be training with her coach, Mike Ferraro, and trying to perfect more tricks. Her goals are to stay strong and healthy and try to place in the top three in every tournament in 2009.

Merritt is the youngest daughter of former World Champion and professional barefoot water skier Steve Merritt. Originally from Lantana, Florida, she began competing at the age of 11 and won a WWA National Championship in her first season. In 2007, she captured all of the major girls’ division titles.

Like surfing, this sport is being taken over by a new generation of girls!

Dallas Friday wins in Doha at last World Cup Stop of 2007 Season

The International Water Ski Federation (IWSF) just completed the 21st successful Stop of the current Waterski and Wakeboard World Cup series. To date, cash prizes in excess of US $2,000,000 have been paid to the athletes. The venue for this World Cup Stop, the Diplomatic Club on the Arabian Gulf in Doha in Qatar, was the perfect location for the final chapter of the season. Read more

Raimi Merritt Wakeboard Profile

Teen wakeboarder Raimi Merritt finished second only to Dallas Friday in the first pro tournament of her career. Meet this remarkable girl and find out what makes her Pretty Tough.

How did you get started wakeboarding? What age?
My dad was a professional barefoot water skier and had a ski school where he taught water skiing. He would take us out on weekends as a family to go water skiing. I was four when he first tried to teach me how to ski, but it never quite clicked for me. I was nine when my dad helped me try wakeboarding for the first time. I thought it was a lot easier and a lot more fun.

Read more