More indeed. From appearances to demos, clinics to photo and video shoots, the now-married father of two still finds himself fully immersed in the sport. Not that other interests haven’t muscled their way into the routine. Four mornings a week he commits to training on his backyard jungle gym, something he built to avoid the boredom of indoor workouts. The passion has grown to the point that Murray now competes on the popular television series American Ninja Warrior. But away from trying to make himself what he calls “monkey strong,” he admits to spending time considering just how to keep a middle-aged, former National and World champion relevant in a sport dominated by younger riders. Part of that effort includes daily interaction with fans on social media, and dreaming up ideas for pictures, videos, or instructional pieces. Another part of the equation is coaching. Murray is the marquee instructor at the Orlando Watersports Complex, where he works with students both behind the boat as well as on the park’s infamous cable.

And that’s not even taking into account one of the more interesting things on Murray’s resume — his involvement in Product Design & Development (PD&D) at longtime boat-sponsor Nautique. Evolving from sponsored rider to PD&D was a natural transition. Over his career, Murray helped design countless wakeboards for sponsor Hyperlite, gaining in-depth knowledge of how water works and affects hull design.

Murray does, however, have a few things to say about the sport he still obviously loves, and the impact on it from the latest trend — wakesurfing. “I’ve seen surfing take off and be a real big success because it’s what I call low risk, high reward,” he explains. But he cautions prospective enthusiasts not to write off wakeboarding as high reward, but high risk. “I really try to teach people that it’s different than that. People don’t realize that you don’t have to learn super hard tricks to have a good time, but that’s how we’ve viewed it because we really don’t know otherwise.”

Instead of urge his students to strive for that next monster trick, Murray urges them to first build a proper foundation. Cornerstones of this approach are proper body position, and riding with less effort but more efficiency. Years ago he released several well-received instructional videos. Today, that same instruction is available in an app, Wake MD, available for both iOS and Droid.