Friday, July 13, 2007
Board brothers
Joel and Lee Wagner are each other's biggest fans -- and rivals
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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MONETA -- With its cloud cover and steady showers, Tuesday afternoon wasn't much for recreational boating at Smith Mountain Lake.
But while most boaters were waiting out the weather, brothers Joel and Lee Wagner and friend Zach Ashton couldn't wait to get on the lake.
"Look at this water," Ashton said, excited about the glassy calm conditions.
"Yeah," Lee answered. "The only bumps on it are from that duck over there."
But as soon as Lee punched the throttle of the Master Craft boat, that changed. Heavily weighted in the rear, the specially designed wakeboard boat created a monster wake.
And 17-year-old Joel was back there taming it, flying and twisting atop his wakeboard as a classic Black Sabbath tune blasted from the boat's speakers.
"Yeah!" shouted 18-year-old Lee after his brother nails a tough move. "That was awesome!"
Lee will be cheering for his brother during Saturday's annual Smith Mountain Lake Wakefest contest, too. But he doesn't want his brother to board too well.
The brothers are not only training partners, they are also rivals.
And that rivalry stepped up a notch in June when 17-year-old Joel beat his older brother for the first time.
"I rode like crap," Lee said.
Then he smiled, and gave his brother his due.
"It's about even," he said. "He's really improved."
The brothers have been wakeboarding for about seven years, since they moved to the lake from Warrenton. The family plans to move to Florida later this summer, although Lee will stay in Virginia to attend Radford University.
"We all started wakeboarding at the same time," said their father, Ed Wagner. "Of course they blew by me about 90 miles per hour."
Joel and Lee Wagner are now among the top wakeboarders at the lake. Saturday they'll compete in the Wakefest's top Outlaw division.
Lee won last year's Wakefest contest. When Joel won the Master Craft Freestyle contest in June, Lee was third.
Gary Ellis, owner of the Wake N Skate Board Shop at Bridgewater Plaza, got to know the family about five years ago, when the boys were still too young to board on their own.
"Their dad basically lived on the boat with them," Ellis said. "They were out there twice a day.
"But that's how you get good."
Ed Wagner, a builder, said he knew his boys had potential.
"I knew they'd get this good," he said. "I just didn't think it would happen this fast."
Ellis said the sibling rivalry has helped the brothers.
"One of the things that's make them so good is they had each other," Ellis said.
Tuesday's afternoon session was a good example.
Joel rode first, progressing through a series of tricks with names like Tantrum, Dum Dum, Tootsie Roll and Elephant.
He hit them all, but couldn't quite pull off a difficult trick called a Skeezer, plowing headlong into the lake.
Lee circled the boat back toward his brother.
"Dude, that was horrible," he said, shaking his head. "I've never seen you wreck like that."
"I've got a serious headache," answered a grimacing Joel.
But he shook it off and was soon riding again, doing two more five-minute sessions that ended in crashes.
Then it was Lee's turn.
After pulling off a number of tough tricks, including jumping a low-lying dock, Lee decided to try a 720 -- two complete twists. He crashed twice before nailing it.
It's hard say to which brother cheered loudest.
