Tucson teen represents U.S. at the World Wake Surf Championship

When Cali Nance hit the water this past week in the Scorpion Bay Marina at Lake Pleasant, she wasn’t just chasing waves. She was chasing a world championship title.

The native Tucsonan and Tanque Verde High School junior was the sole American wake surfer competing in the female professional division at the Competitive Wake Surf Association’s World Championship.

Currently ranked No. 6 in the world in her division, Nance faced top competitors from Canada, Japan, Russia and South Korea over the course of two days.

Ahead of the championship, Nance told the Arizona Daily Star that she was feeling good and a little anxious.

“I feel like I’ve trained so much for it and I’ve done everything I possibly could leading up to this moment, so I just want to do it and hopefully have a really good run,” she said. “But I’m still practicing. Leading up to this, I’ve been going out a couple of times, like yesterday, I went out three times just to practice. So, I’ve still been practicing leading up to the days before, just to hopefully get my run down like I’ve practiced it.”

“I’d love to have a great run, but just being invited and getting to say, ‘I’m pro and I made it out here my first season’ is just super special,” she said ahead of the competition. “So, I’m excited to see all my friends and people from all over the world and just to be out here and get to surf. And it’s close to home, so that’s super cool because it’s never been this close to home.”

Her efforts paid off with a second-place finish, which came with a $3,000 prize.

This is the first time the CWSA World Championship has been held in Arizona. The elite competition has been held in Geneva, Switzerland, and Seoul, South Korea, in the last two years.

Aside from the location making this championship special for Nance, it’s also her first as a professional.

The 16-year-old has worked her way up from juniors to amateurs, to semi-pro, and now to pro. She says she spent around a year in each division before turning pro in the last year.

“I got third at Worlds last year in semi-pro,” she said. “So, it was the option of: ‘Do you want to stay in semi-pro or do you want to move up?’ And I decided to move up to push myself to get better and compete with the higher (level) girls that I’ve been looking up to for my whole life, since I started wake surfing.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Nance began wake surfing when she was 9 years old and fell in love with the sport instantly.

She grew up frequenting Roosevelt Lake north of Tucson with her family, and can still remember the first time she tried wake surfing.

“I grew up by the lake my whole life, went tubing and wakeboarding, but one of our friends had a surf boat, and I had never even heard of it, and I just tried it for the first time,” she said. “So, that’s kind of how I got into it, just from being around it and surrounded by it. Then, from doing it the first time, I just instantly wanted to get better at it.”

But it wasn’t until she was around 11 that she began practicing regularly and learning more technical skills. By the time she was 12, she was entering competitions and making a name for herself in the sport.

Since she began wake surfing competitively, she tries to practice up at Roosevelt Lake at least twice a month, year-round, even when it’s blazing hot or freezing cold.

The sport has become a family affair for Nance over the years, with dad driving the boat and mom and little sister (who also just started wake surfing) tagging along.

“She’s always been good at sports. She’s athletic,” said her mom, Polly Mayfield. “We put her in every sport you could think of, everything from gymnastics to softball to soccer, and she was good. And we’d say, ‘Do you want to do it again next season?’ And she would say, ‘No, no thanks.’ It wasn’t until she got on the surfboard for the first time that she immediately fell in love with the sport, and we could just see the drive and passion, and she wanted to get better and practice. And it’s just really cool when your child finally finds the sport that they love. …

“And it’s really been nice for our family just to be able to do it together. And we really watched her progress, and it’s been really amazing to watch her progress and just be passionate about it.”

Wake surfing has taken Nance and her family across the United States, including to North Carolina, Minnesota, Utah, Washington, Texas and California for competitions.

She hopes one day the sport will take her to places beyond the U.S., like her dream spot in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

With another year of high school left, Nance continues to balance school and sport, but looks forward to continuing her wake surfing journey in college and beyond — something her family is on board with.

“She has progressed this season more than any other season and it’s been really fun to watch her really be pushed to the max. We’re just so incredibly proud of her,” Mayfield said, adding, “We hope that surfing can still be a big part of her life for as long as possible, as long as she’s passionate about it and wants to do it and wants to get better and practice, we are all in. So, hopefully she continues doing this for many years.”