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Looking for Wakesetter for University of Alabama Wakesports Club


strick

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I just recently started the Wakesports Club at The University of Alabama and I'm currently trying to acquire a boat for the club. We've got 30+ eager members waiting to get out on the water and are soon to have many more. We don't have a tremendous amount of funding at the moment, so I'm reaching out to see if anybody may have a desire to help us out with this, or may have any connections that would be able to help us out. Any leads or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

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We wish you luck and heck, what school wouldn’t want a wake club?. That said there are few deals to be had out there and my recommendation is to buy all the boat your budget allows then sack it out with weight and/or cheerleaders.  There are cheap add-ons to make waves bigger plus older boats will have less electronic gremlins to trip you up, all discussed here in depth. . These motors run to 2000 hours if maintained.  2005 and up 23 LSV should do it or comparable Axis.  
No leads to offer as it’s a sellers market and unfortunately for you, the school most people will least likely feel charity for is Alabama. 😂alumni may disagree... That said check inboardsonly.com regularly and be ready to act fast when a deal comes along.

Good luck!
 

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19 hours ago, Ozmoke72 said:

We wish you luck and heck, what school wouldn’t want a wake club?. That said there are few deals to be had out there and my recommendation is to buy all the boat your budget allows then sack it out with weight and/or cheerleaders.  There are cheap add-ons to make waves bigger plus older boats will have less electronic gremlins to trip you up, all discussed here in depth. . These motors run to 2000 hours if maintained.  2005 and up 23 LSV should do it or comparable Axis.  
No leads to offer as it’s a sellers market and unfortunately for you, the school most people will least likely feel charity for is Alabama. 😂alumni may disagree... That said check inboardsonly.com regularly and be ready to act fast when a deal comes along.

Good luck!
 

Thank you! I appreciate the tips!

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Talk to your local dealer as well, they may be able to help you out, or connect you with an existing promo boat they may have in the area.  Maybe you will get lucky and the dealer may be able to help you with a trade in boat or something like that.

 

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I was on a club in college and we rented a boat from a local ski club and their driver when we wanted to go out.  I think back then we paid $20 an hour or so I believe.  Worked out well as the driver got to get in some skiing and we had access to a boat(s) due to their availability.  Something to look into/think about.  We would get receipts from the club for usage of their boats/ski jump/course and have that to show the need for funding.  We also sold gear with our logo and hosted a beer pong tourney at a college bar to help fund the team.  Lot of good times and made some great relationships through that.  Best of luck to you and the club. 

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1 hour ago, Eagleboy99 said:

Try talking to these folks: http://www.ncwsa.com/teams/

FYI, Alabama has one of the consistent top (going to Div 1 Nationals every year) waterski teams and recruits internationally. This team also practices at LymanLand, a private, purpose built 3 event lake. (Some of the University team keep their own boats here). Traditionally, the Alabama team is so good that they are participating less in the NCWSA Spring All Stars tournament and instead training for the Masters at Callaway Gardens on Memorial Day.
-------------
I was a member of the Georgia Tech Waterski and Wakeboard Club (we had two boats from 1990-2006, and bought 2 new boats in 2006) We were funded by dues + student activity fees (the club fees that students pay on top of tuition)  the secret to funding here is that you need it to make sense for your Student Government to help you fund. This means that your club needs to fundraise individually, but that it's also a numbers game; ie, if you have 50 students that pay $300/year toward this fund + ($100 dues + gas money), then $15k/year becomes a budget or Capex. 100 is better though. The club was unable to sustain 50 members though, which meant that our boats got older and neglected, and once membership falls below 25, your dues collection falls, which means your SGA budget falls, which eventually means you can't afford your slips. Tldr; It's a numbers game, 

SGAs also wants Sports Clubs to have performance; this either means open to campus events or tournament wins (this is especially true at Alabama and their national title seeking behavior in all sports). The unfortunate thing about wakeboarding and wake surfing is that the organization of tournaments never took off at the collegiate level. 

------

On buying a boat. While used will be cheaper, States (Public Schools are State entities) much prefer bids on new and have explicit qualifications for selling equipment and contract duration (In Georgia, no contract can last a year, so any loan or multi year lease is impossible). If your club members front all of the money, you may not have these buying limitations versus you will if you use Student Government money. Realistically, it is also better if you can negotiate a lease type resell program with your local dealer to avoid a decline in maintenance; (ie, you buy the boat and bring 10% of price the next year and they get you the new model year.)

I can't recommend Skiers Choice and Atlanta Marine (Moomba/ Supra) enough for their transparent pricing and willingness to work with Georgia Tech, they were able to offer an annual trade-in program like above for the short period of time we could afford it.

The issue with a used boat and maintenance for clubs is that with at best 4 year durations of leadership, you're likely eventually get students (or worse not maintain membership) that don't recruit and raise dues (reducing funds) or don't take care of the boat (skipped oil changes, ignoring covering the boat, skipped maintenance).

Edited by smileysteve
Add about buying
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22 hours ago, asnowman said:

Talk to your local dealer as well, they may be able to help you out, or connect you with an existing promo boat they may have in the area.  Maybe you will get lucky and the dealer may be able to help you with a trade in boat or something like that.

 

Great thought! They were not able to help me thus far, but I will stay in contact.

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9 hours ago, ajf4242 said:

I was on a club in college and we rented a boat from a local ski club and their driver when we wanted to go out.  I think back then we paid $20 an hour or so I believe.  Worked out well as the driver got to get in some skiing and we had access to a boat(s) due to their availability.  Something to look into/think about.  We would get receipts from the club for usage of their boats/ski jump/course and have that to show the need for funding.  We also sold gear with our logo and hosted a beer pong tourney at a college bar to help fund the team.  Lot of good times and made some great relationships through that.  Best of luck to you and the club. 

That's a great thought! I'll look into that. We're also currently looking into fundraising ideas so that's definitely something we could think about. Thanks!

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7 hours ago, smileysteve said:

FYI, Alabama has one of the consistent top (going to Div 1 Nationals every year) waterski teams and recruits internationally. This team also practices at LymanLand, a private, purpose built 3 event lake. (Some of the University team keep their own boats here). Traditionally, the Alabama team is so good that they are participating less in the NCWSA Spring All Stars tournament and instead training for the Masters at Callaway Gardens on Memorial Day.
-------------
I was a member of the Georgia Tech Waterski and Wakeboard Club (we had two boats from 1990-2006, and bought 2 new boats in 2006) We were funded by dues + student activity fees (the club fees that students pay on top of tuition)  the secret to funding here is that you need it to make sense for your Student Government to help you fund. This means that your club needs to fundraise individually, but that it's also a numbers game; ie, if you have 50 students that pay $300/year toward this fund + ($100 dues + gas money), then $15k/year becomes a budget or Capex. 100 is better though. The club was unable to sustain 50 members though, which meant that our boats got older and neglected, and once membership falls below 25, your dues collection falls, which means your SGA budget falls, which eventually means you can't afford your slips. Tldr; It's a numbers game, 

SGAs also wants Sports Clubs to have performance; this either means open to campus events or tournament wins (this is especially true at Alabama and their national title seeking behavior in all sports). The unfortunate thing about wakeboarding and wake surfing is that the organization of tournaments never took off at the collegiate level. 

------

On buying a boat. While used will be cheaper, States (Public Schools are State entities) much prefer bids on new and have explicit qualifications for selling equipment and contract duration (In Georgia, no contract can last a year, so any loan or multi year lease is impossible). If your club members front all of the money, you may not have these buying limitations versus you will if you use Student Government money. Realistically, it is also better if you can negotiate a lease type resell program with your local dealer to avoid a decline in maintenance; (ie, you buy the boat and bring 10% of price the next year and they get you the new model year.)

I can't recommend Skiers Choice and Atlanta Marine (Moomba/ Supra) enough for their transparent pricing and willingness to work with Georgia Tech, they were able to offer an annual trade-in program like above for the short period of time we could afford it.

The issue with a used boat and maintenance for clubs is that with at best 4 year durations of leadership, you're likely eventually get students (or worse not maintain membership) that don't recruit and raise dues (reducing funds) or don't take care of the boat (skipped oil changes, ignoring covering the boat, skipped maintenance).

Thank you so much for your time and thought! These are all great things to take into account. I'll see what I can do with everything you've provided. I'll be sure to update if we make it work!

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On 3/24/2021 at 11:57 AM, smileysteve said:

FYI, Alabama has one of the consistent top (going to Div 1 Nationals every year) waterski teams and recruits internationally. This team also practices at LymanLand, a private, purpose built 3 event lake. (Some of the University team keep their own boats here). Traditionally, the Alabama team is so good that they are participating less in the NCWSA Spring All Stars tournament and instead training for the Masters at Callaway Gardens on Memorial Day.
-------------
I was a member of the Georgia Tech Waterski and Wakeboard Club (we had two boats from 1990-2006, and bought 2 new boats in 2006) We were funded by dues + student activity fees (the club fees that students pay on top of tuition)  the secret to funding here is that you need it to make sense for your Student Government to help you fund. This means that your club needs to fundraise individually, but that it's also a numbers game; ie, if you have 50 students that pay $300/year toward this fund + ($100 dues + gas money), then $15k/year becomes a budget or Capex. 100 is better though. The club was unable to sustain 50 members though, which meant that our boats got older and neglected, and once membership falls below 25, your dues collection falls, which means your SGA budget falls, which eventually means you can't afford your slips. Tldr; It's a numbers game, 

SGAs also wants Sports Clubs to have performance; this either means open to campus events or tournament wins (this is especially true at Alabama and their national title seeking behavior in all sports). The unfortunate thing about wakeboarding and wake surfing is that the organization of tournaments never took off at the collegiate level. 

------

On buying a boat. While used will be cheaper, States (Public Schools are State entities) much prefer bids on new and have explicit qualifications for selling equipment and contract duration (In Georgia, no contract can last a year, so any loan or multi year lease is impossible). If your club members front all of the money, you may not have these buying limitations versus you will if you use Student Government money. Realistically, it is also better if you can negotiate a lease type resell program with your local dealer to avoid a decline in maintenance; (ie, you buy the boat and bring 10% of price the next year and they get you the new model year.)

I can't recommend Skiers Choice and Atlanta Marine (Moomba/ Supra) enough for their transparent pricing and willingness to work with Georgia Tech, they were able to offer an annual trade-in program like above for the short period of time we could afford it.

The issue with a used boat and maintenance for clubs is that with at best 4 year durations of leadership, you're likely eventually get students (or worse not maintain membership) that don't recruit and raise dues (reducing funds) or don't take care of the boat (skipped oil changes, ignoring covering the boat, skipped maintenance).

Also, Travis Moye, who runs the Boarding School in Orlando, is an Alabama grad and a former 3 event skier there.... He is a Mastercraft guy, but you might want to reach out to him and see if he might be able to help. 

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