Summertime at Lake of the Ozarks means watersports, and for two local boys, it’s competition season.
Brody Spriggs, 15, and Connor Gatlin, 9, are a wakeboarding duo at Lake of the Ozarks. With competition season in full swing, the two are preparing for the WWA Nautique National Championships in August.
Since they met two years ago, the two have competed in several competitions together, including the World Championships last year in September. With recent successes in the 2022 season, they hope to return for a second time.
The boys’ friendship all began with a day at Big Surf Waterpark when Brody’s friend introduced him to Amy and Connor Gatlin, a mother and son who were new to the wakeboarding world.
“I started to see other people doing it, and I was like ‘Oh, I want to try that,’” Connor said.
Brody has been wakeboarding since he was six and attended an air show where Wake Effects had boards on display. After a week of asking his parents for one, he finally got his first wakeboard. Ever since then, he has been on the water competing.
After their brief meeting at Big Surf, Brody ran into Connor wakeboarding in a somewhat unexpected place: right outside his house. It turns out the two boys lived across the cove from one another without even knowing it. When Brody saw Connor on the water, he would stand on his dock and offer tips and tricks to the younger boy.
“(Brody) motivates Connor and he’s good at pushing him,” Amy said. “It’s fun to see them grow and develop, and even their confidence growing."
The hardest part is the mental game, Brody said. There’s no room for error at competitions, as competitors are unable to practice when they arrive. There’s only two passes to get it right.
“The only thing you can guarantee in a competition is your own life jacket, rope and board,” Brody said.
Brody and Connor compete in roughly eight to ten competitions per season, both coached under Kirby Liesmann at Kirby’s School of Wake. Both boys thank Kirby for the mentoring and leadership as well as their sponsors Wake Effects and Stateamind respectively. But most of all, they’re excited to continue building their wakeboarding careers.
“It (has) felt pretty good just knowing that all the work I put in has kind of paid off and what Connor has put in is starting to pay off,” Brody said. “I think we kind of deserve it just knowing how much practice we put in.”
The boys are looking forward to competing more this year. When asked how long he wants to keep wakeboarding, Connor only needed one word: forever.
