Alisa Piper Interview

I have had the pleasure of being best friends with the best female kneeboarder in the world, Alisa Piper. Kneeboarding is a small sport in general and, like most board sports, the population in the sport is male dominated. But that doesn't mean anything to Alisa, who has been riding like she has to top the group of guys she rides with. While I'm at work, I will occasionally get voicemails that contain a bunch of people yelling about what Alisa just landed. She apparently wants to make the male athletes in our sport look bad, while showing the world that girls can shred too. So with that, I think its fair to say that an Alisa Piper interview is long overdue...

First off, have you had your rabies shots? and who let you out of your cage?

DANG IT JOHN!

Why do you yell so much?

Haha … oh man… if only half the people reading knew about the “ my name is _____ and I like to yell” oh and the “can I ask you a personal question” their lives would be so much more eventful. I did think it was awesome the first day I met the Aussies (Marc, Dogga and Wardy) the first thing they said to me was CAN I ASK YOU A PERSONAL QUESTION ! our stupid video made it all the way around the world =]

Tell us how you got into kneeboarding?

The first time I was on a kneeboard I am told I was 2 years old. Kneeboarding has been a huge sport in my family. Considering some of my family started one of the first kneeboard clubs ( M.A.P ). My whole life it’s been the same every weekend we go out on the lake. I always kneeboarded but never got serious about it untill George and Doris Rohner started the Skionee Kneeboard Club in 2001 and since then I have been 100 percent hooked on it.

What are your biggest accomplishments?

To be honest I have a lot of them because I am always pushing myself to do better, I would say my top 3 are American Kneeboard Association Female Athlete of the Year awards, Being a member of Team USA, and Being the first lady to land an Invert Front.

Have you noticed that Marc chose Team John over Team Alisa, how does this make you feel?... Loser :)

Marc knows who the Bad Ass is anyway…

Tell us about the first time you tried the mcdouble.

OH MY GOSH. I just learned my first back roll behind a tiny Moomba Outback wake and you took me out on your boat you had like 17 people + Stock ballast + 2 side sacks. I was so used to throwing it so hard I did the same thing ... all I know is I should have held on and I would be the first lady to land a mcdouble... as a side note my ribs still hurt thinking about that day =]

How did you get into art?

My Mom and Dad did Metal Art on the side when I was growing up and I guess I just picked up. Everyone that knows me pretty much knows that if there is a blank piece of paper around I am going to draw on it. I just recently got into painting I am no Picasso but it’s fun.

I know you have big plans on moving to Bora Bora. How do you plan on making the money to move there.

Mona Vie, getting into the boxed water industry, dentistry? Seriously people… ANY picture I have seen of Bora Bora there is flat calm water.

Give us the lowdown on the day you became the first lady to hit the invert front.

My good friend Brooke Grassman and I were riding together and we both decided we weren’t going to come in until we both landed a new flip. My brother coached me over the phone (and Brooke is a wakeboarder she had no idea what I was doing) the first three I crashed I had no idea what was wrong Brooke told me it’s awesome how you land backwards .. Realizing what I was doing wrong was almost landing Road Kills instead of inverts ... I fixed my mistake gave it 3 more shots and landed it on my sixth try, awesome feeling and successful day.

What did you throw in your International flip out run.

I did 4 back rolls and I was so excited I got that far I did and Invert Front and everyone was stoked =] End result was 5 flips in 21 seconds. It was the first time a lot of people had got to see me land my invert in person so everyone was excited.

Why is that the ladies got 2 rounds of International freestyle, but the guys only got one?

What can we do next year to insure we get as many runs as possible? Wellll … to try and sum it up as short as possible the ladies got talked out of ballast because there was already going to be about 9 to 10 people in the boat so we all said it was fine.. all the girls crashed .. NO wake what so ever all the weight was towards the front of the boat so much that the platform was completely out of the water.. I noticed it, protested and the other girl agreed so they granted us re-rides... Next thing I know Marc Gray is running past me with cinder blocks saying “Don’t worry ill fix the wake” haha

What kind of music do you listen to?

I am the biggest Country music fan ... but my ipod seriously has everything from Hank Williams to Eminem. I am not too picky.

Who is your favorite Nascar driver.

I am always an Earnhardt jr. fan...But I have jumped on the Denny Hamlin band wagon..dude does work.

You don't like Danica Patrick?..

Remember when we were at Daytona last year and she wrecked a guy his car was completely on fire and all they were worried about was her.. psh... come on now.

Can you confirm with me, that the next time Justin Bieber is in Orlando, that we won't miss his concert?

OH MY GOSH.. all We tried to do was come to Orlando to visit you and the Interstate was at a complete stop for hours with nothing but mini vans that had “Bieber Fever” written all over them ????

Ninjas or Pirates?

Pirates, they know how to have a good time

What new moves are you working on?

To be honest I don’t like to talk about what I am working on un till I successfully land it stay tuned for that... I am working on getting my 540’s and air 540’s more consistent for some reason spin tricks are hard for me and I constantly loose the handle. I am also always working on getting to that next buoy in slalom, right now my score is 39 (that is 3 Buoys and 28 off 22mph) . P.S Layouts are on the bucket list.

Look into your crystal ball and tell us what you see in both ladies kneeboarding future, aswell as kneeboarding's future.

Kneeboardings future, we need more people to come out to events. This year at nationals there was thousands of people in the park and countless people came up to me and said “we had no idea people still kneeboard” A lot of people don’t like events but at least there is a small group of people still keeping a spark alive. Even the Fly Ins are an awesome way to have people get together just to kneeboard. As For ladies kneeboarding I would love to see other girls getting into kneeboarding and pushing it as much as I try to. I guess I feel like I am always trying to go bigger and do better cause I always ride with the guys. We need girls that are not afraid to step away for 16mph up their speed and clearing the wake. .. Getting to ride with Ragen Mchan and Rachel Clark this year at Internationals was awesome, I was so excited to be around other girls flipping Rachel was killing it she landed her back roll and tried a front roll and an invert in her runs, Ragen was landing her back roll. To bad we can’t ride together all the time and live so far from eachother we would probably be taking ladies kneeboarding to the next level together.

Who are you sponsored by?

H.O Sports, Accurate Lines.

Anyone you would like to thank?
Parents, and George and Doris Rohner without them I would not love kneeboarding as much as I do. We all have them to thank for all the awesome events they put on and keeping kneeboarding alive.

Any last words?

……Can I ask you a personal question ? (ahaha) -Seriously the kneeboarding community is awesome I have met the greatest people because of this sport!

Thank you for your time Alisa Piper.

No prob John get back in your cage.