As the IOC gets set to make a decision in 2013 as to whether to include wakeboarding in the 2020 Olympics, Leeds Metropolitan University Wakeboarding Club, (LMUW) did their bit for the cause by organising the second of their Fresher’s events, FreshWake.
Held at Sheffield Cable Waterski, Rother Valley Country Park, Sheffield, from Saturday 6th – Sunday 7th October, the event was aimed at introducing students to wakeboarding, whilst also providing opportunities for coaching for more advanced riders, courtesy of Pro wakeboarder, Adam Walker, sponsored by Slingshot and Mystic.

 

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Leeds Met Wakeboarding Vice Captain, Tom Kimpton said, "We’re a young club and are only in our second year but we’ve got big ambitions. Sport is important to Leeds Met and the wakeboarding club was set up in 2011 to try and earn more BUCS points for the university and we want to build on that in 2012-2013.
LMUW is part of the Athletic Union (A.U.) and the most important function of the A.U. at Leeds Met is to increase participation in sport at the University. By hosting events such as FreshWake, together with our weekly riding sessions at Sheffield, we can play our part by adding to the student experience at Leeds Met.
Thanks to our sponsors ExPix, who managed to secure additional sponsorship for our Fresher’s Fair, we were able to reach over 350 students who all signed up to say that they were interested in joining the club and learning how to wakeboard. And ExPix once again stepped in for FreshWake, getting us over £4,000 worth of sponsorship from Nalu Beads, UK Paintball, Rubicon Skateboards, Flow House, Wakestock, Outdoor Look and Seed Stacked, whilst Andy Granger at Sheffield Cable and Waterski gave us an incredibly discounted price for the event.
The atmosphere was good over the weekend with everyone willing to give it a go. And it was good to see some new faces including the students who joined us from Edinburgh University. Thanks to the expert tuition from the staff at Sheffield Cable and Waterski and the coaching from Adam Walker I think everyone had an excellent weekend. And thanks too to ExPix, who not only provided excellent PR services, but also documented the whole weekend on both video and stills, giving us some fantastic footage and lasting memories.”
And who knows what seeds we’ve planted; maybe in 2020 we’ll see a Leeds Met student representing Team GB in wakeboarding!”

Saturday started with erecting tents and as soon as the temporary student village was constructed, a safety briefing was provided by Sheffield Cable, with instructions on how to ride, fall off and what to do once in the water. With a mandatory 3 laps on a knee board for anyone who hadn't ridden cable before it was quite amusing watching people 'launching' from the dock and getting used to the pull of the cable.

As the students became more accustomed to the tow, some moved onto proper wakeboards whilst the riders already used to wakeboarding tried to improve their skills on flat water and on the obstacle Sheffield have in place.

After a day's riding, arms stretched, backs aching and toes and fingers cold from the autumn weather it was time for the legendary BBQ's Sheffield always provides. Following that was a short relief time for everyone to change into the Hawaiian theme chosen for the weekend before several people were destroyed by the games for the evening.

As people were heading to their tents and cars the night sky provided some fantastic photo's. The following morning the cold mist rose from the lake providing once again some mysterious and eerie images before the sun burnt off the haze. 

The rest of the day students from both Leeds and Edinburgh hit the water trying to improve their skills. Before we dipped into the goodies bag to hand out the prizes from the sponsor who supported the event.

We'll be adding image gallery links and video to this page very soon so keep an eye on FB for the notifications!