While most 16-year olds are looking forward to their first car or going to the prom, Nicola Butler is already a professional athlete, looking to change history.

Butler, a South African native and one of the premiere female wakeboarding athletes, is set to compete this weekend at the final stop of the 2008 MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour being held at the Sparks Marina.

But Butler, unlike others before her, is the only female athlete to have won all the previous four stops of the tour. If she wins after this weekend, she’ll have set a new record.

“Most people get stressed while they’re wakeboarding,” Butler said, explaining that she wakeboards at least 30 minutes everyday. “I just try to remember that it’s just wakeboarding and to do what I can.”

Alongside Butler, Phillip Soven, 19, is also facing an undefeated run through the tour, marking a first in the MasterCraft Tour’s 17-year history and for a fierce competition, event coordinators said.

“Reno has a very strong wakeboarding community,” said Mike Weiss, a program organizer. “A lot of people like our event and our athletes so they keep coming back. So we keep coming back.”

Among the three competing divisions, including professional men’s and women’s tracks as well a junior division for ages 14 to 18, at least 75 entrants will be participating over the weekend, Weiss said.

And being the only organization that has obtained permission from the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitor’s Authority to have motorized boards in the marina, Weiss said he expects a successful event that will showcase a lot of talent.

“We get riders from all over the world,” Weiss said. “And what they do is not easy.”

The competitions, which are decided by a panel of judges, are assessed on a point system, the highest being 100. Competitors are given two laps through the course of ramps, jumps and rails being pulled behind a boat in a similar fashion to water skiing, only on a board that is shorter and wider than a snowboard. After two falls, the wakeboarder is disqualified.

Points are awarded on execution, intensity and overall performance, to name a few, Butler said.

Speeds can reach up to 25 mph and aerial stunts from the boat's wake can often send riders at least 20 feet in the air.

But Butler, who has only been wakeboarding for four years, shrugs off the intensity of the competition saying she really just stumbled upon the sport one day.

“I just tried it once and it turned out it kind of came naturally,” Butler said. “I’m the only one in my family that does it, actually.”

To catch Butler, Soven and the rest of the top-ranked competitors, tickets for the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour cost $10 for general admission, $5 for ages 6 to 12 and ages 5 and under are free.

For more information about the tour visit the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour Web site at www.prowakeboardtour.com.

To read about Krystal Bick’s experience learning to wakeboard with the pros visit the Daily Sparks Tribune Web site at www.dailysparkstribune.com.