NC man makes name for himself as a wakeboard champ


ASHEBORO, N.C.
The Associated Press
Greg Hodgin's wife gave him a wakeboard for his birthday eight years ago, both as a novelty and as an alternative form of water fun that might be kinder to his aching knees.

Four years after getting the wakeboard, Hodgin was the North Carolina amateur champ in his competitive category and finished sixth in national competition.

Today, he's a four-time state champion and returned home from national competition in Louisiana in October with his biggest trophy to date: Hodgin won a national championship in the masters division _ for wakeboarders over 30 _ in the INT League, also known as "the Little League of Watersports."

The first year he competed on the national level, Hodgin was the only one in his division who performed flips, also called inverts; this year, half the field did flips. In two other appearances in the nationals, he finished fourth one year, fifth another.

"I've gotten better," he said, "but so has everybody else."

At 46, Hodgin could compete in the division for those 40 and older, but he doesn't. "It's not as competitive," he said. "It'd be too easy."

He's even eyeing a move into the advanced division, one of the groups based on skills, not age, where he would compete with "young punks" and a few older guys. To do so, he'll need to ramp up the difficulty of his moves, or tricks, on the wakeboard, such as doing 540s (a trick in which rider and board turn 1 1/2 revolutions in the air) instead of 360s (a full rotation).

In the sport, competitors ride wakeboards _ that look like short surfboards with bindings for the feet _ pulled behind boats, like skiers. They do tricks like touching the water, or grabbing the board, or doing spins and flips and combinations of them all.

When the warmer temperatures of April roll around, Hodgin heads for a nearby lake to practice. During the summer, he's usually on the water four times a week. Every fall, he stretches the wakeboarding season for as long as he can.

"Whenever we've got a day that's over 70, we'll be looking at whether we can go or not," he said in a recent interview. "This is a great state. I was wakeboarding yesterday _ and I've got friends that are snowboarding today. To think that I could one day wakeboard and the next day be on the slopes is pretty cool."

Hodgin wakeboarded on Belews Lake in mid-November. There's a Duke Energy power plant on the lake and the operation keeps the water heated, Hodgin said. The lake temperature was about 73.8 degrees that day, he said. The water would have been about 10 degrees cooler on Tuckertown Reservoir, his preferred waterboarding venue.

He likes Tuckertown, nestled between High Rock and Badin lakes, because it's a favorite for those who fish. Therefore, the water is more calm, smoother _ at least until Hodgin and his wakeboarding buddies show up.

"The fishermen love us," he joked.

Hodgin added that he and his companions try to respect people seeking solitude and good fishing by riding in a small area and by not playing loud music while they ride.

Not long ago, when water-skiing was still king, wakeboarders were an aberration on waterways. Now, Hodgin said, it's rare to see someone on skis.

Hodgin did his share of skateboarding when he was young, then got hooked on water-skiing when he was 13, visiting an uncle who lived at Lake Tillery. As an adult, he later switched to kneeboarding _ kneeling on a board being pulled by a boat. He got pretty good at that, able to do flips and spins, but the constant pounding on his knees took a toll.

Enter wakeboarding, which may be easier on the knees, but which brings its share of bumps and bruises _ and more. His most serious injury so far was a ruptured eardrum, an injury sustained two weeks before his first national competition when he was practicing a 360-degree roll, but only rotated about 350 degrees, slamming the side of his head into the water.

He's also suffered his share of pulled muscles, sprained knees and ankles, but keeps on boarding. A nagging shoulder injury keeps him from pushing too hard, but little can keep him off the water for long.

In 2003, 3 percent of Hodgin's left lung was removed in February after he had a bout with pneumonia; in April, he underwent arthroscopic hip surgery to repair damage from years of playing hockey on inline skates. When the competitive wakeboarding season arrived that June, Hodgin's wife would not let him enter the first competition. He entered the rest though, missing out on a state championship that year.

"'Cause it's fun,'" he said of why he keeps wakeboarding, despite the physical nicks and dings. "It's just a nice challenge."

Both of Hodgin's daughters, Jennifer and Julie, water-skied at 22 months, getting pulled around in the front yard on training skis before taking to the water. They started wakeboarding when they were 6.

This year, Julie, 12, a seventh-grader at South Asheboro Middle School, snagged the state wakeboarding championship in her coed division, called the junior entro, and placed 14th in the nation. Jennifer, who is 17, owns a state championship in kneeboarding from years past; the Asheboro High School senior wants to try competitive slalom skiing, but a shoulder injury kept her from competing this season.

Two years ago, Hodgin opened a shop called goboardgo in space at his paint contracting business on Henley County Road; in September, he moved the shop, which sells boards and accessories for skateboarding, wakeboarding, surfboarding and snowboarding, to Randolph Mall.

In addition to himself and daughter Julie, his shop sponsors a few riders in INT League competition, including 14-year-old Cameron Richardson of Roxboro, who won the expert division in the Louisiana competition; Emylee Wright, who's 15, of Lake Wylie, who finished third in the women's intermediate division; 20-year-old Shena Smart of Randleman, a goboardgo employee, who is the reigning North Carolina champ in the women's novice division; and Benjamin Trogdon, 13, of Asheboro, the 2007 state junior novice champ who finished fifth in his division in Louisiana.

On weekends in season, Hodgin gives wakeboarding lessons. His oldest student has been 55, his youngest, 6.

"I think I probably get as much out of it as the kids, or whoever," he said. "If I can be a positive role model for these kids, they've got that memory and it's a good memory for me."

More than half the time, students can stand up on a wakeboard and ride the first time they try. Girls generally learn faster than boys, Hodgin said, probably because they listen _ and because they do not try to use brute strength to ride.

"Getting up (on the wakeboard) and learning is probably a little bit easier than skiing and then there's no limit to what you can learn," he said.

Next year, the national competition is scheduled for Arizona.

If Hodgin has his way, he'll be there, representing the Tar Heel state, enjoying a family vacation, and practicing the credo found stenciled all around his board shop:

Ride It. Live It. Love It.

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Information from: The Courier-Tribune