Seventeen year old David O’Caoimh, from Killiney in Dublin, who trains all year round at Lough Sillan in Co. Cavan, won the Open Men division at this year’s Irish National Wakeboarding Championships, which were just held at Eskragh Lough in Dungannon.
In a tense final, the teenager managed to beat his competitors to retain the title that he won last year at Lough Muckno in Castleblayney.
David has been wakeboarding* for seven years, having initially taken up water-skiing at the age of five and he has been on the Irish Wakeboard Team for the past five years. He would like to take this opportunity to thank his sponsors, O’Brien Wakeboards, Billabong, and Relentless Energy Drink.
If you would like to try out this thrilling sport, or water skiing, National Children’s Day will be held this Sunday, June 26 th, and any interested under 18s can try out the sport at at their local club for a modest cost. Check out irishwwf.ie for futher details.
*Wakeboarding, which is the fastest growing water sport in the world, is derived from a combination of waterskiing, snowboarding and surfing. It involves the wakeboarder being towed behind a specially designed speedboat at speeds of 20 to 25 miles per hour. The wakeboarder uses the wake of the boat to perform flips, spins and combinations of both. There are an estimated 30 million active water-skiers and wakeboarders globally.