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Thursday, March 28, 2024
<p>Michael Hanna, a 22-year-old UF biochemistry senior, performs a wakeboard stunt on cables in the Orlando Watersports Complex on Sunday afternoon. UF’s Wakeboarding Club placed second in the Red Bull Rival competition over the weekend.</p>

Michael Hanna, a 22-year-old UF biochemistry senior, performs a wakeboard stunt on cables in the Orlando Watersports Complex on Sunday afternoon. UF’s Wakeboarding Club placed second in the Red Bull Rival competition over the weekend.

About 30 UF students spent Saturday night in the water. 

UF’s Wakeboarding Club placed second in the Red Bull Rival competition at the Orlando Watersports Complex behind the University of Central Florida. This is the first time Red Bull has held a collegiate wakeboard competition.

Riders from UF, UCF, Florida State University and University of South Florida competed against each other in the nighttime wakeboard contest.

The riders hit the water to perform their top tricks and light each obstacle in their team color. The team with the most obstacles lit wins.

Professional wakeboard athletes were team coaches and judges.

Dixie Smith, UF wakeboard club president and a biology senior, was UF’s only female competitor. There are roughly 80 active members in the club, she said.

 “Our riders all did amazing, and we had like 30 to 35 members from the wake club come out and cheer us on until the end,” Smith, 20, said. 

Last spring, the club placed second in USA Wakeboard Nationals.  

Michael Hanna, a team rider and UF biochemistry senior, said the Gators had the most fan support. 

“Overall, it was an awesome competition to ride in under the lights,” Hanna, 22, said, “and the caliber of riding that we witnessed last night was at an elite level, with every rider giving their all to go as big as they could with every trick they threw down.”

[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 4/6/2015 under the headline “UF wakeboarding club places second in Red Bull competition”]

Michael Hanna, a 22-year-old UF biochemistry senior, performs a wakeboard stunt on cables in the Orlando Watersports Complex on Sunday afternoon. UF’s Wakeboarding Club placed second in the Red Bull Rival competition over the weekend.

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