Professional wakesurfer Cali Nance has been surfing at Roosevelt Lake, her second home, since she was nine years old. Now age 16, after four years of competing nationally, she is finishing her first season competing at the professional level, and has been invited to two world competitions to compete in the pro division – the 2025 Centurion World Wake Surfing Championship, and the 2025 Competitive Wake Surf Association’s World Championship, both taking place in October.
“She is our hometown girl,” says Tamia Boule Benites, Nance’s grandmother, who shares a mobile home at Lakeview Park across from Roosevelt with the rest of Nance’s family. “There’s no other pro surfer that uses Roosevelt as their home base.”
The world events typically invite the top 10-ranked surfers from around the world from each division. Nance is ranked sixth in the CWSA and seventh in the Centurion World Series of Wake Surfing.
While other competitors usually live on lakes full-time, Nance and her family live in Tucson and commute on a weekly basis to their second home at Roosevelt.
To make up for lost time, Nance surfs Roosevelt several times a day and year-round, including during the winter, when surfers usually avoid cold water temperatures.
“Cali is almost three hours away from her lake,” says her mother, Polly Mayfield. “She is very lucky that she is able to train year-round, every single month.” “When she was little, we put her in every sport you could think of,” she adds. “It wasn’t until wakesurfing that we truly saw a drive in her.”
The journey has involved a lot of hard work, says Boule Benites, “practicing year-round, sometimes in freezing temperatures, traveling to competitions, missing school and working hard to catch up.”
She credits the lake and marina community with supporting Nance and helping her along the way.
“We’re blessed with so many supporters, especially our lake family, who have all had a hand in getting her to this point,” she says.
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