Today’s professional wakeboarder is more “fashion conscious” than ever. Right? I mean, the collective standard for riding used to be board shorts, a vest, and maybe a heater top. A rider would only cover their vest to wear a bib in a contest. Ten years later we see pros riding in t-shirts, button downs, windbreakers, hoodies, and even pants (FYI: only Shane Bonifay is allowed to do this). One can speculate on this trend for hours, but one thing remains constant: the need for flotation.
Just because vests these days are covered up by bright green flannels and logo T-shirts doesn’t mean they’ve gone by the wayside. The big wakes and progressive riding of the contemporary era make the life jacket more important than ever before. The bigger we go, the harder we fall.
