A flipping good time

Athletes in swimwear, their chiseled physiques on full display, lounge in camping chairs atop a blue floating dock beneath a shaded canopy. Cheers erupt as each rider launches behind a speedboat, carving across the water's surface on their wakeboard.

On the nearby grassy shore, team officials chat idly while keeping an eye on their athletes executing tricks across the lake.

It's a scene that's effortlessly chill — pure beachside vibes — unfolding during the freestyle wakeboard event at the Chengdu World Games, held at the Sancha Lake International Aquatics Center.

There, Chinese water skier Zhang Wei, sporting a deep tan and a broad chest, flashes his bright white teeth with every takeoff, radiating pure joy without a trace of competitive pressure.

The 37-year-old, who first picked up water skiing as a primary school student in 1999, was once a professional athlete.

"Every time I land a trick successfully, I immediately want to challenge myself with a new one — it feels like leveling up in a video game," said Zhang, whose peak technique included mastering 900-degree spins on the wakeboard.

Wakeboard is a water sport where the rider stands on a short, buoyant board and is towed across the water's surface by a motorboat or a cable system at a wake park.

It blends techniques from water skiing, snowboarding and surfing, incorporating jumps, flips and tricks.

In freestyle, athletes are pulled by a motorboat, using the boat's wake to perform aerial maneuvers and stylish tricks.

In competition, riders are judged based on difficulty, execution and creativity.

In 2009, Zhang competed at the eighth World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

However, the intense pressure of being a professional water sport athlete combined with a number of knee injuries eventually overwhelmed him, temporarily dimming his passion for the sport and later leading to his retirement.

Now, returning to the World Games stage as an amateur — his day job being an urban management officer in Shanghai — Zhang approaches the sport with a renewed perspective.

He maintains his skills through home workouts on weekdays and weekend visits to a water sports club in Shanghai's Fengxian district for wakeboard and wake surf sessions, often joined by his 13-year-old son.

"This sport brings me genuine joy now, it's become the anchor of my healthy lifestyle," he explained.

"Wakeboarding in China has been developing quickly in recent years, and there is a lot of talent," Zhang said. "The future is theirs."