Weekend With The Pros
Twenty years ago, a summer tradition on Lake Murray started when a group of college students with a shared passion for watersports created a grassroots event that evolved into one of the biggest wakeboarding traditions in America. Together they set out to introduce people to the best of lake life and they ultimately built a community of watersports enthusiasts that gather together annually to celebrate wakeboarding.
The event, dubbed Weekend With The Pros, would have never come to be if it had not been for Chris Farr’s parents, Ed and June Farr, and the birthday gift they gave him when he turned 13. Instead of sending him to a wakeboarding school, they arranged for professional wakeboarder Johnathon McDonald to come to Lake Murray and give him private lessons. It was an experience that sparked Farr’s lifelong love of the sport.
Farr was hooked from the moment he saw McDonald land his first trick behind the boat, learning to wakeboard himself and going on to compete in competitions throughout high school and college.
While in school at the University of South Carolina, Farr and several of his friends decided to pool their resources and create the same experience that Farr had when he was younger and first fell in love with watersports. They decided upon a name for their group—South Carolina Rough Riders—and went to work putting together the very first Weekend With The Pros, inviting pro riders Gerry Nunn and Shaun Murray to come to Lake Murray and teach wakeboarding lessons. Their goal? To not only learn from world-class riders, but to also show their friends who had not grown up on the water what it was all about. They set up in the backyard of Farr’s parents’ house and by the end of the weekend, everyone was all in and they began to set plans in motion to repeat the event again the following year.
Weekend With The Pros had been born and everyone who was there that weekend would tell you that they never imagined that their inaugural event would ever grow to as big as it is today. Too popular to host a backyard after the first few years, it moved to different spots around the lake before settling at Captain’s Choice Marine in Leesville.
Whether you’ve been shredding on the lake for years or you’re dipping your toes into the wakeboarding waters for the first time, Weekend With the Pros is an event for everyone and it’s easy to get involved with it. The lessons with the pro riders are tailored to each individual’s needs and skill level, aimed at improving confidence for beginners and fine-tuning skills for advanced riders. More interested in seeing the action rather than participating? Drive your boat right on over to Captain’s Choice Marine, drop your anchor, and raft up for the day—You’ll have front row seats to the Pro Wakeboard Show where you’ll catch all the incredible tricks and be able to get autographs from the pro riders after the show finishes.
The Pro Wakeboard Show is a family-friendly event, geared at highlighting all the fun that can be had on the lake. The reach of the event extends beyond the shores of Lake Murray, bringing in individuals and families from around South Carolina to the lake to enjoy. The weekend’s most unique feature is the chance for riders to learn directly from top-tier professional wakeboarders who come to Lake Murray each year. Not only do participants receive lessons from the best in the sport, but they also get to ride behind the latest high-performance boats, courtesy of event sponsor Captain’s Choice Marine.
Weekend With The Pros has hosted such riders as Shaun Murray, a 4-time World Wakeboard Champion who has been wakeboarding for over 30 years; Bec Gange, a 2-time World Wakeboard Champion that currently rides for Hyperlite and Axis; and Massi Piffaretti, the first Italian World Wakeboard Champion and a sponsored RedBull athlete. Other notable riders that have participated in prior years include Dallas Friday, Chad Sharpe, Parker Swope, Josh Palma, and Steel Lafferty.
The one-on-one lessons give riders the opportunity to talk with the coaches, show them their strengths and the areas they are looking to improve, and to receive direct feedback as they take sets behind the boat. Riders also get to hang out with the athletes that they look up to, as well as get autographs and take photos together.
Weekend With the Pros has always been about more than simply inviting a pro rider to come in and teach lessons to wakeboarding enthusiasts. It’s been about growing a community that loves to be out on the water and “passing the handle” on to the next generation of riders. Passing the handle is a beloved tradition throughout watersports—It’s a phrase to describe the act of introducing wakeboarding or wakesurfing to someone who has never tried it before. You’re physically handing them a handle connected to a rope that connects them to the boat that will tow them around as they learn the sport.
The South Carolina Rough Riders have passed the handle to hundreds of riders over the years, but it’s always extra meaningful when one of the new riders to come into the fold is one of the founding members’ own children. Farr and his wife Brynley’s three oldest children—W.H., Jack, and Christopher—have inherited their parents’ same love of watersports and have each taken up wakeboarding. They too participate in the weekend’s festivities between taking lessons themselves and wakeboarding in the kickoff of the Pro Wakeboard Show each year. It’s a family event that now spans multiple generations, something that the South Carolina Rough Riders are immensely proud to have achieved.
The longevity of the event is also something else that the group takes great pride in. According to the World Wakeboard Association, with the exception of the annual WWA Regionals and WWA Nationals, Weekend With The Pros is the world’s longest running annual wakeboard event. It all came from a thoughtful birthday gift plus the ingenuity of a group of college kids that were looking to have a fun weekend on the water some 20 years ago.
The 2025 edition of Weekend With the Pros will be held on June 6-7 on Lake Murray at Captain’s Choice Marine in Leesville, SC. Friday will feature full day lessons with pro riders from 8am until 4pm. Saturday begins with half day lessons from 8am until 12pm followed by a Pro Wakeboard Show at 2pm that will feature pro rider Shaun Murray as well as local Lake Murray legends.
For the South Carolina Rough Riders, Weekend With The Pros isn’t just an event; it’s a tradition that brings together generations of wakeboarders and enthusiasts. Whether you’re learning to ride for the first time or catching a glimpse of pro riders in action, the weekend is all about community, sharing the love for the sport, and passing the handle to the next generation. Join them this June to experience the magic for yourself.
For more information on this year’s event as it becomes available, including the announcement of this year’s second pro rider and how to purchase wakeboarding lessons for yourself or as a gift, be sure to follow SC Rough Riders on Instagram and on Facebook.