Cables, pulleys replacing boats for wakeboarders in Colorado

MILLIKEN, Colo. — It was first called skurfing: a combination  of water skiing, surfing, and snowboarding.  Now, it’s simply called wakeboarding.

“It’s fun.  It’s what I enjoy to do. We’re in the fun business,” says Steve Jones, owner of Mile High Wakeboarding located in Milliken, Colorado, about an hour north of Denver.

From Monterey, California to Milliken, wakeboarding is a very popular sport.  But not everybody has a boat, and that’s a problem. 

“And it’s even a bigger problem in Colorado because even if you have a boat, there’s only a few lakes you can actually get out and enjoy the water,” says Jones.

The solution?  It’s called cable-riding.

“It’s an overhead pulley system that pulls you back and forth across the lake and allows you to water ski or wake board without a boat,” says Jones.

It’s all the fun of wake boarding, just without the boat.

No boat? No problem for Megan Guthrie. 

“If you don’t have access to a boat, you know you can still come out and ride and enjoy the water and learn new tricks,” she told us.

Total cost for the two pulley system set Jones back about $100,000.  Business is very good.  So good that Jones is considering opening a new cable ride in the Denver metro area.