February 19, 2008

Don't Throw That Away! Our Top 10 Wakeboarding-Related T-Shirts (Now with More Stories!)

From my vantage point, people are endlessly talking about their board collection, their boat, their tow rig - but something so often overlooked is their collection of unmistakably awesome t-shirts.

When wakeboarding first got respectable enough to be screenprinted onto a shirt, we had only a few options. Most of the cool ones were cool by accident or became cool over time by way of entry into the vintage catgegory. Not the $60 "vintage" clothing found at Abercrombie or any of those other techno club mall stores that sell shirts that are meant to be worn with the collar popped or have women's sweatpants with things like "butt" written in an arc on the... butt. I'm talking vintage, like the shirt that was given to us when we bought our 1986 Ski Nautique 2001, in 1986 (don't skip ahead!). Soon after, Barts, Ski Limited and Overtons all had their entries into this foray with such gems as "Go Big or Go Home" or the remarkably idiotic "Big Johnson" themed shirts that featured wakeboarding, beer drinking, and being an ass.

So, over the 16 years that we've been wakeboarding, we've managed to avoid the cheese, compete in tournaments and seek out t-shirt gems that represent the sport better than a "rad frog" doing a fashion air behind a cell shaded cartoony version of a Glastron outboard. For fear of damaging them, we wear most of these threads as rarely as possible so that they'll last. And to my wife who will surely outlive me - I would like to be buried in my Denny's Marina Ski Nautique 2001 shirt. And now, on with this highly anticipated and riveting countdown!

10. PlanetNautique's Longsleeved T-Shirt
Though I pulled the CafePress store down completely from The2001.com due to product quality issues (everything was crap and I was so overcome with guilt for the few sales I made on my CafePress store that the few hundred dollars I made from the whole ordeal felt hollow), PlanetNautique seems to be on a different quality tier than I was. The items I have ordered from the PlanetNautique CafePress shop have been excellent. Though this is not a vintage shirt nor is it rare - it is classic and I like the design. This shirt gets worn a lot, as it is comfortable, displays the Correct Craft Super Air Nautique likeness, and refrains from being in any way obnoxious.

9. MasterCraft CSX Promotional T-Shirt
Handed to me by Zane Schwenk himself, this shirt (along with a few stickers, a promotional DVD and a MasterCraft backpack) remain some of my favorite items simply because they came from Zane. The shirt is a very comfortable, sweat-wicking material and I received it the day the CSX was unveiled. So the combined historical value, product quality, and celebrity impact combine to put this at #9 in the list.

8. PlanetNautique's Boats of PlanetNautique T-Shirt
Yes another PlanetNautique entry. Well - Jeff and Luke from PlanetNautique.com are smart marketers and did the right thing. They pulled at their registered user base's heart strings and put some of the more vocal members' boats on the collage seen on this t-shirt. My old 1986 Ski Nautique 2001 is on there. So to make a long story short, I own this design as the t-shit shown in the photo, a mouse pad that goes with me on every business trip, and a I also own a giant sign that says "I am a sucker for stuff with a picture of my boat on it".

7. Tantasqua Regional Water-Ski Tournament T-Shirt
This shirt makes the list because it brings back a funny memory. You see, I never actually had a chance to compete in this contest. At the time I was the manager of a wakeboard and water-ski pro-shop. I convinced my boss to let me pack more than half of my inventory into the back of one of the marina's F250's, drove to the tournament and even enlisted a friend to run the shop while I competed. I submitted my attack sheet/trick list and was disqualified from the tournament immediately due to the fact that my run contained three inverts (backroll, roll to revert, halfcab roll). Much like snowboarders weren't allowed on mountains for a period of time after the sport went more mainstream, this particular tournament didn't allow anyone to do flips on their wakeboard so they sent me, and my proshop, packing. I sold a kneeboard that day, if it is any consolation (to my boss, it was not). For my trouble I got this t-shirt. It really should be an oil rag but it has a story so I keep it around and wear it from time because it is actually quite comfy and the story is kind of fun to tell.

6. Rainbow Fins T-Shirt
This poorly fitting shirt made of 300 grit sandpaper redeems itself by being the first shirt I remember seeing that contained the likeness of a real wakeboarder-style pose, without embarrassing me (see rad wakeboarding "Barts Bullfrog" or "Go Big or Go Home" crap that is still available in the Overton's catalog and on eBay even now). The vector graphic of a wakeboarder in the midsts of an OHH or tantrum, being pulled by what looks a hell of a lot like a Sport Nautique with an extended pylon was enough to get me to order this directly from Rainbow the moment I saw it. Once it arrived and I realized it was meant to fit a 370lb semi-professional Pringles eater and not a 165lb competitive wakeboarder I was pretty disappointed. I still, occasionally swim wear this shirt and when my wife was pregnant it made for a very cute maternity/sleep shirt for her. She claims to love the shirt. As of today I declare it as now belonging to her. Enjoy, B!

5. 1998 INT Amateur Tour T-Shirt
Another one with memories and baggage. Imagine inviting your family and girlfriend to a tournament, and absolutely failing in every aspect in front of them, and a crowd of onlookers. While I didn't take last in this contest, I did have my ass handed to me by the likes of Mike Mclin, and Ben Greenwood. Yes, the Ben Greenwood and the Mike Mclin. It was almost immediately following this abysmal showing when I witnessed an early Malibu Wakesetter have almost its entire transom torn off while pulling Ben Greenwood through a shallow part of the lake. The boat sat idle as the damage was assessed, and Mr Greenwood stood, with his bindings on, still holding the rope, in about 10 inches of water. It was not until 2005 that I changed my mind about Malibu after that. I disliked the wake on that direct drive Wakesetter and seeing a wedge virtually total the boat due to an errant run in with a log was a horrible, horrible advertisement. Now my second favorite boat available happens to be a Malibu so things sure do change!

4. 1997 Hyperlite Tour T-Shirt
Now we're getting to the nitty gritty - the final countdown if you will. Jason Weber and Eric Davis from Hyperlite were on hand to deliver a clinic and then judge a Pro/AM tournament that by some miracle I won. At that tournament and expo, I was introduced to the magic that is the original X-Star/direct drive Prostar 205. After this tournament, my name and the name of my #1 riding buddy who took second, both appeared in Wakeboarding Magazine. Thus this t-shirt breaks the top 5 and nears the top 3!

3. Wake Tech Byerly
Throughout my college years I ran the wakeboard and waterski pro shop at a large marina in Massachusetts. Between fielding phone calls from ...ehhh, frugal... owners of 1972 Evinrude 25HP outboards seeking the best deal on a $.75 (cents, not a typo) float pin for their carburetor, which involved about 20 min worth of work and a microfiche projector (wish I was kidding), I was thinking of ways to bring people into the shop, keeping them there, and selling enough stuff to convince my boss Russ to up my budget and let me order more goods for the the shop. At that time Wake Tech was still around and both Erik Lutgert and Scott Byerly were heavily promoting the Flight 69, and we were a dealer. In our second year of carrying Wake Tech, Scott Byerly was awarded a pro-model, and I was awarded the privilege of ordering 3 of them along with 2 t-shirts with his name across the back. Which I promptly applied my employee discount toward. Is the shirt comfortable? God no. Is it awesome? I think the photo speaks for itself. As a side note, I wore my Byerly shirt to a clinic with Scott Byerly and have never felt like a bigger dork in my life. That aside, this is my third favorite wakeboarding related shirt, and has been worn in the presence (embarrassingly, albeit) of The Byerly himself.

2. 80's Era Ski Nautique Promotional
When I was 9 years old, and my little brother of just 7, we were faced with a difficult decision. My Dad was in Orlando, FL for business and we had a day to do one of two things: visit the old Correct Craft factory on Orange Boulevard or go visit Mickey Mouse & Pals at Disney World. Being Warner Brothers' fans, the choice was easy. Easy for me anyway, but with a little bit of negotiating (atomic wedgies, punches, swirlys, random threats) my brother decided that the Correct Craft factory tour was the correct option. During that tour, we received lots of keepers from the good people at the factory, most of which I would love to have retained - among them a fiberglass cutout from a bilge hole that had just been drilled out on a 1985 Ski Nautique, which blew my mind. The one relic that remains, and the shirt at the number 2 slot is this amazingly kept shirt that actually still fits, not that I would ever wear it in the vicinity of such things as cranberry juice, dust, or air.

1. Denny's Marine Ski Nautique 2001
Having decided that it was time to sell the 1973 Correct Craft Mustang, my Dad visited the Correct Craft dealership local to my hometown, Denny's Marine. He fell in love with a 1985 red & blue Ski Nautique 2001, but it wasn't quite right for him, aesthetically. We then visited the late Bob Warner of New England Correct Craft, now owned and operated by his son and friend of The Wakeboard Report Craig Warner, and picked out the boat of my Dad's dreams - a red, ivory and maroon 1986. The boat was still sold through Denny's Marine, but marked the second boat we had purchased from the Warners, and in 2011 when I buy my 2008 230, it will mark the third. Craig, I hope you're reading and making sure to sell an all white 230 this year so that I can pick it up on the used market in a few years. Thank goodness the folks at Denny's Marine were not heavy designers, as this shirt could have been flashy, it could have undergone design revisions that introduced such 80's design themes as tie-dye, but for the most part Correct Craft has always been about timeless, lasting design and this shirt shares these characteristics with the boat that served my family for nearly 20 years with not a single major problem. The only problem with this shirt? I barely wear it.

Slow news day. OK? Perhaps. But we're making the best of this with this article which has been in draft mode for some time. So being in the doldrums between the Boat Show season and the early signs of the 2008 wakeboarding season, we hope you enjoyed this featurette as we showed, and ranked, and explained the shirts & other items of clothing that we basically consider to be priceless and even more importantly - ours and reasonably unique!

Posted by erik