Wakeboard Wizardry
Fun times for a 6-year-old wakeboarding on Coleto Creek Reservoir outside Victoria turned into a teenager’s passion. And for 14 years, Blake Daniel practiced and competed, even as he became a distribution engineer at South Texas Electric Cooperative.
Finally, in September 2023, Daniel reached the pinnacle—capturing a wakeboarding world title in his age group in an international competition in Portugal.
“It was crazy. I can’t explain it,” he said. “It’s something that I feel like we’ve been working for forever. Finally, to win is an unreal feeling.”
Many family members, wearing shirts that read, “I throw Texas-sized tantrums,” shared Daniel’s joy. In wakeboarding lingo, tantrums are good things—blackflips on a board.
Ardor Day?
May 16 is National Love a Tree Day. One of Texas’ largest and oldest—Big Tree, a live oak at Goose Island State Park near Rockport—is estimated to be up to 1,100 years old.
Cheeky but True
The man whose shaving habits gave us sideburns was born 200 years ago this month.
Ambrose E. Burnside, a major general in the Union army during the Civil War who grew thick strips of facial hair down his cheeks that connected to a full mustache, but with a clean-shaven chin, was born May 23, 1824, in Indiana.
His grooming touch came to be known as burnsides, though since around 1875 they’ve been called sideburns.
