Brian
Grubb
United States
·
Wakeskating
Date of birth | July 31, 1980 |
|---|---|
Birthplace | Nashua, New Hampshire, USA |
Age | 45 |
Nationality | United States |
Career start | 2003 |
Disciplines | Wakeskate |
Brian Grubb learned to water ski before he could read and write. Although he grew up in the rural countryside of New Hampshire, summers were spent with his grandparents on a lake in Indiana, where he fell in love with the water. The opportunity to come to Orlando opened up a whole new world for Grubb – particularly with the advent of wakeboarding.
Grubb admits he was at the right place at the right time. He started working at the Orlando wakeboarding pro shop and learned how to perfect his craft from the top riders in the sport. He then evolved from wakeboarding to wakeskating and soon realized his skills would transport him around the world.
Two years after Grubb was named 2001 Alliance Rider of the Year, he went pro at 23. As a rookie, he won the 2003 Wakeskate National and World Championships. As well as competing, he’s traveled around the world making some memorable videos, from the rice fields of the Philippines and the desert in Brazil to skating across Cleopatra’s Pool at the Pamukkale Hot Springs in Turkey.
An ambassador of wakeskating, Grubb hopes to build the popularity of the sport beyond that of wakeboarding. With participants not necessarily needing a boat to skate – as Grubb has exhibited with his uses of winches, SeaDoos and even a drone on Slovenia’s Sava Bohinjka River– it’s more accessible to the masses.
More than two decades after he started, he’s still addicted to the challenge of attempting new tricks and finding new adventures. Foiling has become a recent passion of Grubb’s, one he hopes to develop into a league of its own.