By Luke Graham

Alliance Wakeboard Magazine managing editor Garrett Cortese takes his own photo during a wakeboarding shoot on the California Delta near Sacramento.

Every day that Garrett Cortese ('04) wakes up and has to go to work, he undoubtedly has a smile on his face.

As managing editor and staff photographer for Alliance Wakeboard Magazine working in Orlando, Fla., Cortese said he gets to do something he has always loved to do.

"The most fun part of my job is – well, my job," he said in an e-mail. "I get paid to travel the world, hang out on boats with wakeboarders, take pictures and write stories. Plus I get to ride whenever I want. I also like the fact that my business attire is board shorts and flip-flops."

Wakeboarders are towed by boats similar to water skiers, but they ride a board sideways much like a snowboarder, Cortese said, using the boat's wake as a ramp to get air and do tricks like spins and flips.

"Wakeboarding has become so popular and grown so quickly the past 10 years that the number of participants has far surpassed its water-skiing counterparts," he wrote.

Cortese didn't just stumble onto his dream job. During the summer of his sophomore year, he said he started pursuing wakeboarding photography at his home in Northern California. He said he would take pictures of his friends wakeboarding, and when he thought his photos were good enough, he sent them to the editor of Alliance Wakeboard Magazine. The editor liked them enough to introduce him to some professional wakeboarders so that he could start taking pictures of them. After that, he said he spent every summer vacation free-lancing for the magazine and after he graduated, did travel features before being offered a full-time position last December.

Even Cortese's parents are amazed by his job, he said, adding that he learned to wakeboard from his father, and last summer his parents got to go out with him and witness him on the job.

Wakeboarder Nick Cardoza goes upside down during a jump on the Pend Oreille River in northern Idaho in August 2005. Photos by Garrett Cortese.

"As they were watching from the boat, I turned to them and said, 'Welcome to my office. I guess it's bring-your-parents-to-work day,'" he said.

"I think they're both pretty jealous that what I do is a real job."

Cortese credits a lot of his success to his training at the School.

"I was a News-Ed major because there isn't a photo major," he said. "I became a photographer who could write, and having the ability to wear two hats in the industry is really valuable."

He also said photography adjunct instructor Kevin Maloney was especially helpful.

"He's the best," Cortese said. "Kevin is so great at getting to know each student individually, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses and then pushing them to grow as photographers. He didn't just teach me how to set up a camera and press a button, he taught me how to see and capture moments."

Since last summer, his job has taken him to Tennessee, the Florida Keys, San Diego, Idaho and the San Juan Islands. In January he will travel to New Zealand. "It's a lot of travel," he said, "but for a 23-year-old kid just one year out of college, it's a blast." garrett@alliancewake.com