Malibu Pro Athlete Stacia Bank is a professional wakesurfer hailing from Minneapolis. A Malibu Boats and Phase 5 team rider, Stacia is a decorated athlete who even holds a Guinness World Record for the most spins in one minute on a wave behind a boat. As a high-performance wakesurfer, Stacia only trusts Malibu Boats to consistently deliver the wakes that she expects and requires for her training. Her boat of choice is the 2025 Malibu M230, one of Malibu's latest and greatest wake boats. But to Stacia, her boat is much more than her gateway to world records. For her & her family, it's their key to family unity.
"The truth is that nature and water connect us all. The closer we can be to nature and water, the more connected we feel."
Stacia's passion for nature is a core part of who she is; an extension of her spiritual life. "Nature is honestly a preview of heaven, and I feel that if I can be still in nature, I see more things; things that I may not have seen had I just been rushing through life," she said.
If you have ever gone into nature and felt immediately calmer, you are not alone: Stacia feels that way, too. "You think about all of the noise and things that are going on in all of our lives, and then you come to a place like the woods, and you see these old trees, and you just feel calmer."
Soon after becoming a parent for the second time, Stacia experienced an injury that impacted her ability to do the things she loved the most. "After my second son was born, I had a freak fall and ended up fracturing my ankle. It was a really tough year during which I had to have surgery." Stacia's husband, Chris Bank, described what happened next. "We kind of fell into wakesurfing during that time while she was healing. Unbeknownst to her, the 2010 World Wakesurf Championships were happening in Minneapolis. I had signed us up and only told her about it, about a week in advance."
Chris' secret came as a pleasant surprise to Stacia. "I think my husband - being the smart man that he is - knew that a driven person like me, needed some sort of goal. My goal for the tournament was just to ride at it. I had been on crutches most of that year."
The result was spectacular, as Chris explained. "At that World Championship, Stacia ended up winning!"
"The truth is that for our family, boating is the great unifier; it's what brings us together," she continued. "We all authentically put our phones down and just enjoy that time together. That disconnection is one of my favorite things about it, too."