Whats up everyone, my name is Raequel Hoffman. My sister’s name is Shawna. We were born and raised in Chico and couldn’t ask for a better place to grow up in! In fact, we owe most of our accomplishments and professional status as wakeboarders to the people and places we grew up with in Chico. Shawna and I have had the opportunity to check out a lot of places around the world because of wakeboarding; a lot of different lakes, people, downtowns, and landscapes. We have been able to ride around the gators in the bayous, the cacti in deserts, and in the bays of big beach cities. Now I know it’s an ancient statement, but there really is no place like home; especially when your home is Chico. Keep reading and you’ll know why, if you don’t already!

Our parents have had a boat since we were really young, even when it was a tiny ski/fishing boat. One day, our neighbor decided to take a wakeboard out on the boat with us so we could try something different from the usual kneeboard or ski. We all got up and were hooked immediately. That was almost ten years ago. About five years later, we ran into the guy from Homegrown Clothing company, Kyle Utterback. He took us out on his boat with his friends and helped us land our first inverts and spins. He also convinced us to try out our first local contests. Another person from Chico, Justin Nix who worked at the CWB board factory, got us hooked up with CWB boards and persuaded us to try pro contests. A few years later, we were added to the Epic Boats family of riders.

From there, time has gone by so quickly that weeks seem like days. We try to focus on progressing the women’s side of wakeboarding, since women still have a lot of room to grow in the sport. We are always stoked on getting girls to that next level, and also try to land tricks that women haven’t landed yet. A lot of people often ask Shawna and I if we have some kind of sibling rivalry…like each of us strive to be better than the other sister. There is no rivalry, but we can definitely challenge each other. We’ve always tried to expand our style and trick variation so as to look different on the water. For example, there are certain tricks each of us grab in different places. Shawna has always been a fan of the on axis or flat spins while I have been better at off-axis (corked) spins.People ask me all the time which sister is better; and it honestly depends on what you like in a rider. Shawna has more style in her riding while I do tricks with more difficulty. We don’t count who has more tricks or anything like that. In contests, we help each other out a lot by telling the other sister how the wake/course is after one of us rides. Seeing the other one of us on the dock at professional contests lets us feel more at home and less nervous before we ride.

I think we have the best home out of all the girls! I made a decision to stay in Chico when it came to where I wanted to transfer after Butte College. I thought that staying in Chico would leave me wishing I would have gone to check something else out for a change, so I was about to go to Sacramento. I also lived in Florida for two springs while I took online classes at Butte, because Orlando is the wakeboarding capital of the world. Sometime in between transferring from Butte College to Chico State, I realized that Chico is the only place that fully complements my lifestyle. My reasoning for that has nothing to do with the party scene, but rather the scenes in and close to Chico. The mountains, lakes, rivers, creeks and everything that goes with them are literally minutes away. Lake Oroville is one of those features, and a part of my home that reminds me every day why I don’t live in Florida. At Lake Oroville, Shawna and I may not have the advantage of living on a lake and riding with world renowned coaches and wakeboard magazine photographers daily. But we have the advantage of jumping off rocks, hiking up waterfalls, boat-in camping with our family and friends, and watching deer swim across the water. That doesn’t happen in Florida. In fact, I’ve found out the hard way that if there’s something keeping you from wakeboarding (like an injury or weather conditions), there is not much to do at all in Florida. As small as Chico is, it’s home to a lot of exceptional athletes. I’m so excited that we finally have a website to showcase all the insane talent! Thank you Chico Grid!

-