Moorestown Resident Hopes to Tear It Up at Wakeboarding Championships

In a sport where many of its participants reside in Florida and California, Moorestown-resident Jeff Barton is preparing to ride on the biggest stage of them all.

A long-time wakeboarder, Barton was recently selected to participate in the IWWF Wakeboarding World Championships. The competition will be held from Aug. 28 through Sept. 1 in Busan, South Korea.

Barton, 43, will be competing in the Veteran Men division for his country. While he has competed with the national team before, it is the first time he’s doing so on the world stage.

A victory in a regional qualifier in March of 2012 helped boost Barton’s profile in terms of being selected for the national team.

“My name was put into the hat for a potential team spot,” he explained after his victory last year. “My potential to score well in the old-guy category was a valuable commodity for the team.”

Wakeboarding is far from a popular sport in New Jersey and Barton is even willing to say that he is a bit out of place not hailing from Florida, where most of the sports’ riders live. However, through many his many connections and experiences, Barton has become a household name in the sport.

He began to take up wakeboarding when he was a kid. Barton explained that he first took up surfing, which he fell in love with after seeing a magazine in school.

“When we traveled to the shore for the summer, I scratched together some nickels and dimes,” he said. “I came up with $30, my parents matched the $30, and I bought a $60 surfboard.”

However, Barton had a bit of a problem; he wasn’t very good at surfing.

Then, one day, he walked into a surf shop and saw a skurfer, a type of wakeboard. Because it had foot straps, Barton thought it’d be a better sport for him than surfing, where he struggled to balance on the board. After taking up wakeboarding, Barton never looked back. 

“I immediately fell in love with the sport,” he said. “I was hooked.”

For a while, Barton competed recreationally and eventually headed out west to attend college at San Diego St.

While in college, Barton began to coach and train with a 16-year old kid named Randall Harris, who is a big-name competitor in wakeboarding today. Through riding with Harris, Barton greatly improved his abilities and competitive drive.

He explained that Harris’ father would go out on the boat with them and he taught them a lesson that Barton would not forget.

“He instilled in us that every time you get in he water, you treat it like it’s a competition,” Barton said.

That phrase helped turn Barton into a dynamic wakeboarding who gives his all at every competition. He said that he has greatly earned the respect of his fellow competitors and teammates, though much of his team is only about half his age.

Back at home, Barton found a great spot to wakeboard along the Rancocas Creek. He frequently goes out with his two daughters, whom he said have both fallen in love with wakeboarding just as he had when he was young.

They’ll both be rooting their dad on as he travels to South Korea in two weeks. As for Barton, he is ready to jump on that board right now.

“I’m excited about the prospects of going halfway around the world and standing on that dock,” he said. “I’m excited about feeling that line tighten and hear that engine rev up.”

“I have been training for this moment far longer than I knew this moment even existed.”