Living the dream is completely subjective based on who you are and what exactly it is you dream about. For 15-year-old Tyler Worrall, that dream is wakeboarding, and ever since he was born, he’s been in the thick of it.
Could you imagine a world where you walk out your back door and regularly get to watch some of the best riders on the planet do their thing? Then imagine starting to ride yourself and, within a few years, getting invited to the Ronix team catalog shoot.
That world exists, and it’s one Tyler Worrall has been living in his entire life. Home for Tyler and his family is the infamous Lake Minnehaha in Clermont, Florida, which also happens to be the home of Danny Harf, Parks Bonifay, Trevor Hansen, Dylan Miller, Oli Derome (when he’s not in Canada) and many others. These days, Tyler isn’t just watching the pros from his dock, he’s getting to ride with them on a daily basis.
When Tyler’s cousins (wakeboarders Chad, Justin and Eric Worrall) taught him to ride at age 5, he had no idea that in just a few short years he’d be rubbing elbows with some of the top pros, both on and off the water. “Now I don’t just ride with Danny, I play golf with him. It’s pretty insane,” Tyler says. “Danny’s really good, and when I started playing on my high-school team, my dad and I started going out with Danny, which is really cool.”
Tyler’s connection to Danny began before he even knew the three-time X Games champ lived on the same lake. At age 6, Tyler started taking lessons from Lauren Harf, Danny’s older sister. “I met Danny’s dog before [I met] Danny. Parks was actually taking him for a walk,” says Tyler with a laugh. “Me and all the other kids were more excited to play with Buddy than Parks; we had no idea who he was.”
By the time he was 8, Tyler was getting coached by Ben Greenwood, who then was also a Minnehaha resident. The world he was surrounded by was quickly becoming a passion.
“Being around Ben and other pros, progressing and riding more really made me love wakeboarding,” Tyler says. “It was around then that I was going out to ride from Danny’s dock and Paul O’Brien was there. Danny introduced him to me and my dad. I’d been riding the Vision, and Paul asked if I’d like to come out to the catalog shoot. I’ve been riding for Ronix ever since.”
Even with the dream world he lives in daily, Tyler has a perspective on it beyond his years. “I’m just a 15-year-old kid who loves to wakeboard and wants to keep progressing. The fact that I’ve grown up around and get to ride and hang out with some of best riders is unbelievable. All in the little town of Clermont.”
Yep, Tyler is definitely living the dream, even if that dream was influenced by where he grew up. For the time being though, he’s still stuck with a very 15-year-old problem: no driver’s license.
