World wakeboarding champion Bec Gange may spend half her life in the USA, but she will always call Australia home. Bec chats to Caitlyn Morgan about her “endless summer” and the hard work and determination it took to get there. Pictures: Louise Barker
AT 16 Bec Gange dreamed of a life spent wakeboarding, competing in Australian and international waters.
Two years later her dream became a reality when she boarded a plane to the US.
“It’s the dream to have an endless summer. It’s always been the dream,” Bec says.
“It won’t last forever so I have to make the most of it while I can.”
Since 2008, Bec has split her time between Mildura and Clermont, Florida.
While in America, Bec spends her time training, competing and helping at events.
While in Australia, she spends her time working, coaching, competing and making the most of her time living by the Murray River.
“Some days you do feel like riding but then I thought of all the other things I could be doing and having worked a real job before I know wakeboarding is what I want to do,” she says.
“I know it’s what I love to do and how happy it does make me.
“You can have the worst day and don’t even want to wakeboard, but then you do and all of your worries disappear.”
Bec admits when she first gave wakeboarding a go almost two decades ago, she wasn’t the biggest fan.
“We didn’t get a boat until I was 11 after Dad and I had begged Mum to get one and finally convinced her,” she says.
“I tried wakeboarding for the first time and initially I didn’t like it and single skied instead but my brother continued wakeboarding.
“A few years later we got a bigger boat and with the wake too big to ski, I gave it another go and loved it.
“I started to slowly learn new tricks and not face planted nearly as much and that’s when I really fell in love with it.”
At 14 Bec found herself entered into her first competition, where she went “terribly”.
“I fell on my first two tricks and that was my runs finished but it did make me more determined to come back and do better,” she says.
“Then at my first Australian Nationals at 15, there was only one other in the junior women that could do a flip.
“I ended up coming 10th but I knew that I could get better and perfect my skills.
“I went on to win the next six Australian Nationals and eight in total.”
Bec proved to the rest of the world she was a force to be reckoned with and became a world wakeboarding champion, ranking first in the WWA Pro Women World Championships in 2014 and then again in 2018 after recovering from a torn ACL.
“After winning the worlds for the first time I thought nothing could be as exciting but winning it for the second time was just as exciting,” she says.
“I would love to win the worlds this year, the final day of competition is on my birthday so to win my third worlds on my 30th would be really cool.”
Despite Bec’s many career highs, she says there have been times she has questioned if she was good enough.
“In 2011/2012 I moved back to Australia to live in the Gold Coast. I just couldn’t do the tricks the other girls were doing so I took time off,” she says.
“I just didn’t think I was good enough.
“While in the Gold Coast I learnt harder tricks and realised they didn’t have much more on me so in 2013 I made the decision to go back and have one big crack at going pro.”
Despite now being one of the older competitors in the sport, Bec has no plans to slow down anytime soon.
“I have just renewed my visa, so I have at least five years to go,” she says.
“There are still plenty of tricks I have to learn with my goal to do a 720.
“I will never not be involved in wakeboarding even after I stop competing, whether that be coaching or something else.”
