SYRACUSE - After a long absence, a major sporting event will be held at Onondaga Lake this summer when the city hosts the USA Wakeboard Nationals.

Between 200 and 500 top wakeboard riders from across the country will compete for national titles July 12 through July 15 in Syracuse, said USA Water Ski, the sport's national governing body. Wakeboarding is a watery version of snow boarding.

The organization, based in Polk City, Fla., is trying to get wakeboard's national championship more public visibility to match the sport's growing popularity among young people, said Andy Jugan, USA Water Ski's executive director and former coach of the Syracuse University track team.

Most previous wakeboard events have been held on private lakes in remote locations to minimize interference from boat traffic. But it also minimized public visibility, he said.

Participants ride on boards about the size of snowboards. They hold on to a rope pulled by a boat and do jumps, flips and other tricks as they cross over the boat's wake.

Until the late 1980s, Onondaga Lake hosted professional hydroplane racing and the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta, one of college rowing's premier races.

The lake is one of America's most polluted waterways but is in the initial stages of a nearly $1 billion cleanup.