Tarah Mikacich Interview From Wake World

Although she's gone from one famous watersports name (Benzel) to another (Mikacich), Tarah Mikacich has been quietly making a name for herself. Once you've been introduced to her bubbly personality and experienced her drive to progress in all she does, it's no surpise that she's successful in just about any undertaking. Even in the off-season we had to catch the busy Tarah between projects so you could find out more about her.

WW: Would it be impolite to start out by asking your age?
TM: Hahaha, I just turned 29, but the good news is that I still have to show my ID to sit in the exit row of an airplane!
 
WW: Did you marry Cobe Mikacich so that you will be forever young, relatively speaking?
TM: Wow, going right after the age gap! Well, Cobe is definitely a big kid. He always has fun ideas! And since I’ll never catch up with him birthday-wise, I just try to keep up with his fast pace and learn from some of his experiences.
 
WW: You currently reside in Orlando, Florida, but is that where you’re from originally?
TM: Basically. I grew up in Groveland (which is about 40 minutes from Orlando), but no one really knows where that is.
 
WW: How did you end up in wakeboarding?
TM: I had been water skiing at a high level for most of my life, but I got to a point where I needed to change things up. I just felt that it didn’t suit me anymore. I asked Cobe to take me wakeboarding because I’d never done it before and I thought it would be a fun change of pace. It was! Fortunately, I got great industry support from the beginning.
 
WW: How long have you been wakeboarding professionally?
TM: Well, I did my first pro contests in 2007. I blew out my knee at the end of that summer and had a very hard time coming back for a few years. I think I finally rode a full season in 2010 or 2011.
 
WW: You seem like you’re a super busy person. What occupies all your time?
TM: Cobe! Hahaha, but for real, Cobe has A LOT of projects!
 
WW: I hear that your wakeboard school is going to be expanding and moving to a new location. Can you tell me about that?
TM: Yes! We are opening Freedom Wake Park in the heart of Orlando! If you’re familiar with Orlando, our new location is about a mile from Performance Ski & Surf. It’s very exciting to have a private lake (with boat & rails) and be close to everything else that people want to do in Orlando!
 
WW: What’s your favorite part of teaching people how to wakeboard?
TM: It’s really fun for me when I can explain to someone the way that I understand a trick to work, and then all of a sudden they “get it” – they make a really good change and I can tell they’re feeling exactly what I described.
 
WW: How important is wakeboarding on the Pro Tour to you?
TM: It’s a great part of the sport for sure. But for me, it’s not where I feel I make the biggest impact. It’s a good way to be in the scene though.
 
WW: What’s the most important part about being a pro wakeboarder?
TM: I think that loving what you do has got to be the most important thing. Sometimes people get too caught up with little things and they forget to be grateful that they get to wakeboard and spend their days on the water.


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Tags: Malibu Boats |

Girls Ride the Wake Recap from WakeWorld.com

Malibu Boats (@MalibuBoats) was just checking out this write-up on WakeWorld.com about the 2011 Girls Ride the Wake event. Posted by Evelyn Nelson.

Ingredients:
* 6 Malibu Boats
* 1 Pulldozer Winch
* 385 gallons of gas
* 4 Indo Board Balance Trainers
* 2 HO Explorer SUPs
* 99 cans of Go Girl Energy Drink
* 47 Wake-loving chicks
* A generous helping of killer free product from:
o Hyperlite
o Liquid Force
o CWB
o The Liquid Playground
o Bern Helmets
o Reef Sandals
o Ruckus Boarding Apparel

* Heaps of support from:
o Boat Country of Escalon, CA
o NorCal Hyperlite
o WakeWorld.com
o CIE wakeboarding
o West Coast Camps

Mix all ingredients for 48 hours with plenty of sunshine, smiles and great conditions and... voila, you just got a taste of Girls Ride The Wake 2011.

Check out the GRTW Gallery on WakeWorld.com to see all of the photos from the event.

The third installment of this ladies-only event went off at beautiful Lake McClure outside of Merced, California this past weekend and it was a huge success. Multiple sets behind awesome Malibu boats, winch and rail riding in the swimming lagoon (with plenty of awestruck onlookers), a huge raffle (everyone was WINNING!), a Sunday morning wakesurf session… too much fun to list. We had attendees from all over the West Coast, from SoCal to Seattle, and of all ages, from 9 to 49. Congrats to our Girls Ride Surprise Prize winner, Joan Campbell of Vancouver, Washington, who picked up her choice of any 2012 Hyperlite Biolite wakeboard for really showing the Girls Ride spirit.

It takes so many people to pull off an event smoothly, so a huge thanks to all of our drivers, sponsors, support crew and coaches: LF’s Shelby Kantar and Danni Petraitis, CWB’s Shawna Hoffman and Andrea Ensminger and Hyperlite’s Lindsey Sloatman, Kathryn Medina, Nataly Conner and Tori Lovelace. Without you, none of this would have been possible. Everyone have a great rest of the season and be prepared for a killer GRTW 2012!

Tags: Malibu Boats | Girls Ride Wake | Wake World | Central California | girls wakeboarding | wakeboarding | wakeboard boats | wakeboard boat | Boat Country | Hyperlite

Girls Ride the Wake Recap from WakeWorld.com

Malibu Boats (@MalibuBoats) pulled the Girls Ride the Wake (@GirlsRideWake) event in Northern California earlier this month. It was a big success! WakeWorld.com (@WakeWorld) just posted this recap. Great article! Check out the full Girls Ride the Wake article and images too.

For two years now all the girl riders in Northern California get together at a lake just outside of Sacramento called Camp Far West for an annual weekend event called Girls Ride the Wake. Even though I'm not a girl, I got the chance to sneak in for a day to check out all the festivities and I must say that Becky Carter did an amazing job putting all of it together. It was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be.

Shelby KantarJust over 50 girls from all over the west coast had a blast and got the chance to ride and learn from some of the best female wakeboarders in the game today. Names like Shelby Kantar, Raequel and Shawna Hoffman, Jenacee Jackson, Danni Petraitis, Evelyn Nelson and Andrea Tomcik Ensminger were the stars and coaches of the weekend. These female pros switched in and out of four different Malibu and Axis boats the whole weekend spreading their knowledge and even getting to show all the girls how it's done themselves.

In addition to the four boats that Malibu forked out, Pulldozer winches provided a winch for pulling the girls over some rails and random objects next to shore, which most of the time was pure entertainment as there were some serious crashes going down. Up on shore The Liquid Playground and Hyperlite wakeboards had a booth demoing boards and even selling boards to anyone who felt like having a new board in their life.

Girls Ride The Wake After day one came to an end and the sun was on its way down to China, everyone gathered around the BBQ for some good ol’ fashioned burger eating. The crew then gathered around a giant production screen to watch the new Body Glove video, Slick City, which, of course, featured the one and only Shelby Kantar. When the video was finished, it didn’t take long for everyone to scatter to their tents and get some shut eye since it had been an extremely long day in the sun and they all had to do it again the next day.

Shawna Hoffman Day two started off bright and early with all the girls ready and raring to go along the shoreline. I had the chance to hop in the boat with Shawna Hoffman and her crew for the morning session. I got to watch Shawna coach the girls and even show them how it was really done by taking her own set. However, I must say that Shawna did a great job helping out all the ladies with, not only their riding, but showing them a good time.

When it was time to head in it was pretty much time to head out as well since most of the boats were already back in and everyone was gone. Again, Becky did an awesome job and did a lot of hard work to keep the stoke going for the grass roots of women's wakeboarding by putting on this event and getting all the sponsors which included Malibu Boats, Larson Marine, Hyperlite Wakeboards, WakeWorld.com, Screen Designs, The Liquid Playground, Fifty1Fifty, Wake Fitness Bootcamps, Belter Insurance and Fast Forward Cylinder Heads. So keep your eyes and ears open around this time next year because I'm sure you will be hearing about year three of Girls Ride The Wake.

Tags: Malibu Boats | Girls Ride Wake | Wake World | Northern California | girls wakeboarding | wakeboarding | wakeboard boats | wakeboard boat | Larson Marine | Belter
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