RIDER PROFILE: KELBEY HUEBNER

Photos and story by Daniel Shoemaker

When the phrase “sponsored wakeboarder” is mentioned, it would be common to visualize a tan, athletic, young man with large sunglasses and sun-bleached hair. For Kelbey Huebner that could be the case… in five or 10 years.

12-year-old Kelbey Huebner is a sponsored wakeboarder living in Canyon Lake, Texas. He attends school in Wimberley, Texas and his wakeboard sponsor is the well established wakeboard company, Liquid Force.

“I’ve been wakeboarding on the cable for five years,” Huebner stated. “I love wakeboarding. My set up is the Liquid Force Harley board with Watson bindings. I’ve been riding for Liquid Force for about a year now.”

Huebner’s wakeboarding primarily takes place on Texas Ski Ranch’s cable lake. Saying he wakeboards there regularly would be an understatement.

“He’s out here a lot,” said Alex Travis, 19, female cable operator and Texas State University freshman. “I feel like he comes here almost every day. I see him just about every time I’m here. Every contest I’ve been in he’s been in and he has always done awesome.”

Huebner boardsliding across a slider rail.

The competitive side to cable wakeboarding is an aspect of the sport Huebner enjoys greatly and fuels his ambition.

“I will be competing in Cablestock out here (at TSR) next month,” Huebner explained. “At the end of this month, I’m riding in the Wake the Line contest. If I place high enough, I get to go to Germany and compete in the major Wake the Line contest there.”

Wake the Line is a cable wakeboard contest in Cologne, Germany hosted by the clothing company O’Neill. The contest Huebner is competing in at Hydrous Wake Park in Allen, Texas is a qualifier for the one in Germany. The top four finalists at Hydrous Wake Park will receive wild card invitations to the German event. Achieving such a goal will be no easy task for Huebner, as there will not be any separation between the riders based on age in the Wake the Line contests. Huebner will be competing against expert riders of all ages.

“The expectation isn’t for him to win,” said his father, Charles Huebner. “The expectation is for him to have fun. It is important for him to have fun”

Huebner performing an air raley.

After watching someone of his age exhibit incredible talent and fearlessness in such an extreme sport, his demeanor is a bit unexpected. His sentences are well articulated and appropriately worded. Every response comes with a “sir” or “ma’am”.

“For a 12-year-old to be so polite and, also, to be up there with the best, probably the best in his age group, it’s absolutely amazing.”

How he manages to stay grounded with a humble and respectful personality is a natural question to pose. One conversation with his father and the answer is revealed.

“If he’s having fun, he is going to progress,” his father said. “We just got to make sure priorities are in line with school work. To be honest with you, we got to make sure he is being a young man before he becomes a rider. You can make it far being a good rider, but you can make it a lot further in life being a decent, young man.” 

Huebner performing an S-Bend (an air raley with a 360 backside barrel roll rotation)

To watch Huebner compete, head out to TSR the weekend of May 3 through May 6 for the Cablestock event. For information on the event visit http://www.tsrcablestock.com/.

More pictures of Kelbey Huebner below.

Huebner launching off the starting dock at TSR.

Huebner perfroming an air raley.

Huebner wakebording

Huebner performing a switch boardslid to 270 out.

Hubener performing a krypt (air raley with a 180 turn landing switch stance).

Huebner performing an ollie 180 to blind.

Huebner performing an air raley.

Huebner gapping the kinked rail at TSR.

Huebner performing an air raley.

Huebner landing an aerial maneuver.

Huebner perfoming an S-Bend.

Huebner performing a krypt.