So there’s this wakeboarder out there who goes by the name Melissa Marquardt who is 28 years old and from a southern California city called Canyon Lake. She grew up on the lake and spent her time skiing and boating; doing all the things kids like to do when growing up in warm weather climates.  Oh yeah, Melissa just so happens to be the 2011 Alliance Wakeboard Magazine’s Female Rider of the Year.

When she was just twelve years old she was introduced to wakeboarding by her brothers and spent day-after-day riding on the Canyon Lake.  At age thirteen she received her first wakeboard compliments of Liquid Force and was placed on the Liquid Force team.  Melissa Marquardt did a few local contests around Canyon Lake and other local hot spots and then started entering pro contests at age fifteen.  When I was fifteen I was working at a grocery store in the summer, going to the mall and learning how to drive, Melissa, however, won her first Pro contest in Oahu, Hawaii – not a bad place to win a contest.  This pushed her to continue practicing and competing.  Still holding residence in SoCal offered her the opportunity to keep at her passion all year long.  Even when the temps dropped a little too low, Melissa Marquardt hit up the gym, went to boat shows and more so she could hone her craft.

Melissa Marquardt is sponsored by Liquid Force, Monster Energy, Skullcandy and more.  She is quick to show her enthusiasm with working with Liquid Force sharing her ideas and getting to know the product.  She isn’t shy about ensuring they are top-of-the-line and innovative.  She blogs, Tweets and posts pics of all her adventures around the world and while I sit indoors in the middle of a snowy day, I can’t help be jealous of her when she posts sunsets from San Diego.

Aside from wakeboarding, she loves her poodle.  It looks like Melissa Marquardt has no qualms about throwing a pair of shades on the pup and posing him next to (or wearing) the products she has from the companies that sponsor her.  There’s nothing wrong with a poodle downing a can of Monster or jamming out on light blue headphones, right?

Wakeboarding isn’t the only sport in her heart.  She’s an avid snowboarder and skateboarder too.  If there’s a board involved, Melissa seems to want a part of it.  Except maybe waterboarding.

Marquardt will offer rides to visitors on Canyon Lake and teach anyone interested the sport she loves and lives. Her passion for wakeboarding is as hardcore as her desire to take home the top prizes – her career highlights reads like a laundry list of Spring Break destinations.  She’s dedicated her life to the sport she loves and that sport is the physically, emotionally and mentally exhausting, lest we forget awesome, sport of Wakeboarding and that’s why she is 2011 Alliance Wakeboard Magazine’s Female Rider of the Year.

The snow is falling, it’s frigid out there and ice is covering the lake.  You can’t make it down to Florida or Southern California to work on your wakeboarding skills so you’re just going to lose half of what you spent the summer trying to improve.  Well, not necessarily.  Here are a few tips to keep yourself on par with your wakeboarding abilities for when the summer sun shines back upon the cool blue lake.

Pick up a NEW hobby!

First off, wakeboarding has some similarities with some other sports.  In fact, you probably like these other sports and probably are already participating in them.  Snowboarding?  If you’re living near a hill, a mountain or resort then hitting up these destinations and getting some time on your board is a perfect substitute.  Work on your balance and board control, if you spend time in the parks or the halfpipe work your tricks and visualize yourself on the water. Board grabs and riding switch will help improve your overall wakeboarding skills.  Maybe you aren’t close to snow or the snow this year hasn’t been falling, maybe you don’t live within a hundred miles of a ski slope?  What about a skateboard?  It’s a more cost-friendly purchase and the chances of being near a skate park (inside or outside) are better than the odds of being near a chairlift.  Same concept with snowboarding, hone the skills and ride with the water in mind.  Things like board control, grabs and riding switch are also great ways to improve.