DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- "Hey Biff! You going to get into the water or not?"
Greg Biffle was riding in the back of a wakeboard boat on Lake Lloyd between Saturday's Busch Series and Nextel Cup races at Daytona International Speedway, watching some of the top wake boarders in the world perform.
An avid wake surfer on Lake Norman near Charlotte, Biffle wasn't really dressed for the water in blue jeans and a white shirt.
But under tremendous pressure from the five media members that ventured to this garden spot of the Daytona infield, he borrowed a bathing suit that covered his knee caps and hopped into the water.
Does the word farmer's tan mean anything?
For those who don't know what wake surfing is, which I didn't until today, it's similar to wake boarding except you stand on the board a few yards behind the boat and let the boat wake carry you without the rope.
Biffle began wake surfing a couple of years ago to fill the void of water skiing that he gave up when he moved into the Nextel Cup series.
Unlike the others in the boat who do things with nicknames such as "Hoochie Glide," he doesn't do a lot of tricks.
"I try, but I always bust my ass," Biffle said.
Saturday was a bust-your-butt kind of day for Biffle. He got up early to run in the Busch race, only to be sidelined by a broken shock. He then attended a press conference to promote the boats that pulled him on the lake.
From there he went to the lake for an hour before heading to an appearance prior to getting into his car for the Cup race.
And no, team owner Jack Roush wasn't standing on the dock when Biffle came in, worried that his driver was over-extending himself.
"It's actually real easy," Biffle said of wake surfing. "You don't have to anything. You can literally stand there with your arms crossed."
Well, it can't be that easy. On the first of six attempts, Biffle hit the water faster than you can say "start your engines" after releasing the rope.
He blamed that on the aero package.
"Just a really different board than what I ride," said Biffle, who got the hang of the new board on his third attempt. "That thing is super light. I mean, it's professional stuff. I'm used to old-school."
Biffle wasn't old-school when it came to changing back into his blue jeans. He dropped his suit right while in the boat in front of the dock -- revealing a little known secret that he sometimes wears camouflage boxer shorts -- and slipped on the jeans without thinking twice.
"I just decided, 'What the heck?' " Biffle said with a laugh.
Just a typical day in the life of The Biff.
David Newton
