Wakeboarders take talent, tricks out of the spotlight

It started out as a plan for a mountain-biking event that would descend into an underground salt mine, but ended up with the people at Red Bull discovering underground caverns near Bonne Terre, Mo.

That discovery culminates today with top wakeboarders like Shaun Murray and Parks Bonifay competing in the Red Bull Depth Charge event near Bonne Terre, Mo.

Jordan Williams of Red Bull event marketing said the original idea for the Bonne Terre mine was for a free-dive, breath-holding event, but the lake turned out to be too shallow for the free-dive event. That's when wakeboarding became a good alternative.

"This is definitely one of the more intriguing venues, logistically speaking," Williams said.

After showing several of the riders the mine, Williams said they were amazed at the possibilities the mine presented.

This will be the first extreme sports-type event held in the Bonne Terre underground mine, and because of the limited access of the mine, spectators will not be permitted. The Depth Charge event will, however, be televised on TNN in November.

For top wakeboarders like Murray, 26, a leader in the sport since turning pro nearly eight years ago, the opportunity to compete in such an unusual event was hard to pass up.

A three-time world champion, Murray has achieved nearly every top honor in his sport. Murray started water skiing when he was eight and started wakeboarding shortly after.

"I never planned on doing it as a living, but I certainly can't complain," Murray said.

But the pure excitement of the sport made it addictive from the start.

"As soon as I got on one I had to get one," he said.

From its beginnings as an exhibition during professional water skiing events, wakeboarding has taken over the tour. Now going into its 10th year, professional wakeboarding is no longer the opening act for water skiing, but is a main attraction.

"It's definitely taken a hold of the market," Murray said. "For the most part people are hanging up their skis."

Although wakeboarding, like its board-sport cousins, started out as a small sport, it slowly has become mainstream.

"It's just like anything else that starts out small," Murray said. "You want to keep it small, but if you want to continue to do what you love to do you have to make it mainstream."

Furthering the sport's cause is the Activision video game company, which recently finished Shaun Murray Wakeboarding. Activision is responsible for the popular Tony Hawk skating game franchise.

"When they came to me and said they wanted to do a video game with me as the title character it blew me away," Murray said. "That was not only totally cool for me, but it showed that the sport has made it."

Murray recently got to try out a demo of the game, set for a March 2003 release, and was impressed.

"I wasn't sure they could make wakeboarding cool, but they did," Murray said.

Although Murray is a veteran compared to many current wakeboarders, he said for him the sport is as enjoyable as ever, and he can't see himself retiring any time soon. "I kind of feel like I'm just getting started," he said.

jjoffray@semissourian.com

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