Raimi Merritt - Wakeboarding Champion

By Elisabeth Deffner

Florida native Raimi Merritt loves being in the water. So do her two older sisters, her younger brother, and both her parents—especially her dad, Steve, a former world and national champion water-skier. Like her siblings, Raimi learned to water-ski practically as soon as she could walk—and she was ready for a new challenge.

So when her father suggested Raimi give wakeboarding a try, she agreed.

“I tried it and I liked it, so I just started doing that,” says Raimi, 13.

Wakeboarding is an extreme sport that combines waterskiing with snowboarding and surfing techniques. Raimi started wakeboarding when she was 10—and she started competing almost immediately. “I like to beat everybody,” she says with a giggle.

And that includes her elder sister Chloe, now 15. Because they’re so close in age, the sisters often competed in the same division. It could be kind of weird, Raimi admits. “We used to switch off; sometimes I would win, and sometimes she would win,” she explains.

Mostly, though, they enjoyed wakeboarding so much that they didn’t let their competition cause any stress in their relationship. “We didn’t really put that against each other,” Raimi says. “We just had fun.”

Now focused on soccer, Chloe is taking a break from competitive wakeboarding. So Raimi is on her own in the wakeboarding competitions she enters.

A Career in the Water
Two years ago, when she was 11 years old, Raimi won the national wakeboarding competition. That same year she was picked for the U.S. Wakeboard Team and won a gold medal wakeboarding at the world championships in Seville, Spain. She has traveled around the world to compete (she’s even wakeboarded in Moscow, Russia!). This season she’s looking forward to the Pan-American Games, as well as the nationals and the world championships.

But she has her eyes on an even bigger goal than winning those competitions.

“I want to turn pro this next coming year or the year after,” she says. “I want to turn pro and be a world champion professional.”

It’s “pretty crazy” to say something like that at just 13 years old, Raimi admits with a laugh. But she enjoys the sport so much—the friendly people she meets, being out on the water on a sunny day, challenging herself by learning new tricks and improving old ones—that she doesn’t want to do anything else.

“I always wanted to be a world champion since I first started,” she explains. One of the reasons she wants that title so much is because she so often heard how difficult it was to earn it. That excited her competitive streak. “I could see that it’s really special,” she says.

So she made up her mind to become a champion—just the way she makes up her mind to learn a new trick, even one that scares her because she has to flip upside down and she’s worried she might get hurt. “It’s a lot in your head,” she explains. She just reminds herself that her coach would never let her attempt something she isn’t ready to do—and then she gives it her best shot.

“I’ve been around the water for so long—it’s fun,” she says. Plus, she adds, “I want to be the best. I kind of want to follow in my dad’s footsteps.”

A Schedule Full of Fun
Raimi is homeschooled, so she has the freedom to attend competitions and schedule training sessions—from personal training to trampolining to weight training—whenever she needs them. In her free time she likes to do other water sports, like wakeskating, wakesurfing, and tubing, but she also likes to do some things on dry land—like racquetball.

Wakeboarding can be an expensive activity, but since Raimi started winning championships she’s been able to land sponsorships to help cover her expenses like equipment and travel costs. On top of that, she can win prize money in the competitions she enters. But money isn’t the point.

“I just like going out there for fun, not just for money. I like doing it,” Raimi says. “I like going out in the boat, teaching other people how to do it, going out with my sisters and stuff.”

Wakeboarding is an activity Raimi wants to stick with for the rest of her life. But she realizes it’s unusual for someone her age to know exactly what she wants to do for a career! Most 13-year-olds aren’t sure which career path interests them. But that’s OK, because they still have time to explore lots of different options.

“Just go out there and have fun. Try new stuff,” Raimi suggests. “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”

And, she adds, don’t let other people put pressure on you—especially the pressure to try things that you know aren’t good for you. In the wakeboarding industry some people have abused substances. Performance-
enhancing drugs are becoming enough of a problem that there is now random drug testing at competitions. In the 2007 Pan-American Games, the United States Anti-Doping Agency—which conducts drug tests on behalf of the U.S. Olympic Movement—will be testing competitors.

Raimi doesn’t pay attention to the people who use drugs—and she has no intention of trying them herself.

“I don’t want to ruin my career,” she says.

Raimi has gained confidence, traveled around the United States and the world, and faced her fears as she’s grown into a champion wakeboarder—but her attitude about substance abuse is one of the best things to develop from her passion for the sport.

“I think it’s just important for [kids] to have anything, when they’re growing up, that they’re involved in,” says Steve Merritt. “The key thing . . . is to have fun.”