What Does The Future of Wakeboarding Look Like? | Kellan Rudnicki - Ep. 61

What does the future of cable riding look like in America? In this episode we sit down with the Director of Operations at Aktion Parks, Kellan Rudnicki. Kellan got into wakeboarding at Ski Rixen, after initially trying to learn how to kiteboard and getting told he needs to hit the cable to learn board control first. Once falling in love with the sport, Kellan restarted the wakeboard club at his college UCF, then took a job out of the industry after graduating. Eventually an opportunity arose to get back into cable park ops, and Kellan worked his way back into the world of wakeboarding. Indian lines, ideal cable speed, industry infighting, decline of extreme sports, wake moms, profitability of cable parks, europe vs america, ski resorts vs cable parks, and grassroots events. Hear all that and much more in Episode 61 of the Grab Matters Podcast! Follow Kellan: https://www.instagram.com/kellanrudnicki/ Aktion Parks: Thank you to our sponsors: Liquid Force: https://www.liquidforce.com/ 15% OFF Driftline use "grab15" at checkout: https://tinyurl.com/yvksusym $50 OFF Skiboatcovers use "grab50" at checkout: https://www.skiboatcovers.com/ Grab Matters Merch | https://www.grabmatters.com/shop Website | https://www.grabmatters.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/grabmatters/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@grabmatterspodcast Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/grabmatters Hunter Thane | https://www.instagram.com/hunterthane/ Chapters: 00:00 - 1:30 Intro 4:30 Starting at Ski Rixen 18:00 Out of industry work 19:40 Patreon Question 20:15 Aktion Parks 21:35 Closing ECP 25:00 Collegiate wakeboarding 28:20 Boat contests at OWC 32:00 Dan Jarrett guest question 36:00 Oh come on man 43:00 Why do people quit riding? 46:55 Extreme sports 52:35 LF’n Wheel of Questions 1:03:00 Offseason talk 1:06:35 Driftline “Deserves Some Love” 1:11:30 The Business of cables 1:25:00 Issues with cables 1:30:00 Park sponsors 1:37:00 The perfect cable park 1:50:00 Decline of extreme sports 1:52:30 Ski resorts vs. cable parks 2:10:10 Setup 2:14:00 The hub of wakeboarding 2:15:40 Patreon Questions 2:21:10 Grassroots events 2:31:20 Thank you’s