Work Hard Play Hard

© rumbum.com, Andrea Barrack

Brad Smeele at Board Up Miami

Sporting an Oakley t-shirt, shades, straw fedora, and a little more than a 5 o’clock shadow on Friday afternoon at BoardUp Miami, Brad Smeele oozes chill vibes.  Between hitting hot lounges, photo shoots, and the nearest body of water, the pro wakeboarder from Auckland (whose last name is pronounced “smailer”) zips between New Zealand, Australia, and Orlando living the dream.  The 6’2” model and recent candidate for Bachelor of the Year by CLEO Magazine (New Zealand’s answer to Cosmo) might play hard – especially with his fellow pro wakeboarders, Kiwi Jeff Weatherall and a pack of Aussies – but he’s also one of the fastest rising pros in the industry.  Recently joining the elite few who’ve landed 1080s, a club whose members you can count on one hand, Smeele was the first in the industry to land it regular toe-side.  “I’ve been trying to do a lot of stuff differently,” he said, “stuff to try to make myself stand out.” 

Smeele made history again earlier in April when he completed the first water-to-water step up. He built his own ramp and placed it in a pond at the bottom of a dammed lake in New Zealand’s Central North Island town of Tokoroa.  Just like he’d seen from snowboarders, he soared into the air and landed softly at the peak of his jump.  Smeele perhaps owes his mum for his knack for skill and originality, considering she was one of New Zealand’s top waterskiers and for 10 years held the record for being the first woman in the nation to jump over 100ft.

Luckily for Smeele working hard and playing hard seems to occur simultaneously.  After BoardUp, he’s headed to Orlando (“the Mecca of wakeboarding”, he calls it) to hang out for the summer with Weatherall and the pros from Oz – a crew of the world’s best who keeps the 22-year-old on his toes.  There he’ll practice, model for the Ronix 2010 catalog, ride the wake for some videos, and nurse a taped-up shoulder he dislocated at the Aussie X Games (which he still managed to win).  But glides, tricks, and jumps aren’t the only hazards Smeele needs to avoid.  As he explained – with a bit of a bemused smirk –  a story beginning, “I was drunk in town...” and ending with him re-dislocating his shoulder after doing a backflip off a wall, he may want to keep it taped up off the water, too