The Wake9 Experience

The Surf/Skim challenge is a great event, it shows up overall wakesurf skills, riding a surf board in one direction on the course, then a skim board in the other.

Special thanks to Wakeshredder.com for sponsoring this division.

We will be updating The Wake9.com Experience podcast with several videos from the festival, starting with the competition video from inside the boat. Visit wake9.com/festival for updates on all of the photos and video from the Festival.

Here is a subset of the “photo shoot behind the scenes” images. There are just some darn amazing images of James Walker surfing. We have lots of other images, and more of other pros that we will be posting, but these were just sick. James really like the Tige RZ2 wake and told Dennis Horton that the wake just booted him in the air, and he almost felt like his knees were gonna buckle when he landed. The 2010 Tige RZ2 puts out an amazing recreational surf wake on both sides of the boat with just a few flicks of the Tige Touch screen. It switches sides in about 6-8 minutes. Just a few hundred more pounds and you can get a knee busting competition wake like the ones in these images. We used the same 2010 Tige RZ2 for regular and goofy surfing for this photoshoot, and we also used the same boat for the competition. Any boat can do that, but not many with this great of a surf wake.

Check out James kill it. Go to flickr.com/wake9 for all the wake9.com photos, but here is a slideshow of few images. Hit the Play button, then click the Full Screen icon in the lower right corner of the slide show and sit back and enjoy for the best viewing experience.

So I have been sorting through tons of images, while RJ is editing video, and I created this set from the first photo shoot we did with Tige and the 2010 Tige RZ2 on Camp Far West Lake. This was on Thursday Evening and near perfect conditions. James Walker and Nick Scott and Sean Cummings were on board. We used the red RZ2 to surf on and the beige one to chase. The camera taking these pictures was on my pontoon boat, and Whitney from wake9.com was the photographer. Here are some of the best shots, and GEEZ did James kill it that day. He seemed to really enjoy the wake and the conditions.

Go to flickr.com/wake9 for all the wake9.com photos, but here is a slideshow of 100 images. Hit the Play button, then click the Full Screen icon in the lower right corner of the slide show and sit back and enjoy for the best viewing experience.

OK, so here we go with the official pictures and such. What a great time had by all. Special thanks to Tige and the boats. They were incredible. The pictures you will see are all from the SAME boat, both goofy and regular, the contest was pulled by one boat. It wasn’t the plan, but we damaged a boat and so we went for it, knowing the 2010 Tige RZ2 would produce the same great consistent wake on both sides. Dennis, the Wakeologist, basically weighted the boat the same for both sides and just switched over. Towards the second day, we were switching in minutes. Hats off to Tige for there great automated ballast, and we just added some lead to that.

Special thanks to Cal Marine Sports for the giveaways, all the help and support. Special thanks to Jeff and Judy Walker for allowing us to stand on there shoulders and start with a great foundation. Special thanks to the Wakesurfing ambassador that is Sean Cummings, and Wakeshredder. Special thanks to Ski Supreme for allow us to do demos on their new V226. Special thanks to Chris Martinez, and everyone else that helped so much. Special thanks to Larry Mann for allowing us to give away a FAE system. And special thanks to Lake Wakes and The Walker Project for all the board demos.

My favorite view of the this recap, with the podiums at the end, is in this flickr.com slideshow. Click the FULLSCREEN icon in the lower right of the slide show below and sit back and enjoy!

Here are individual images of each rider. You may also see them at Flickr.com

First the Juniors

Then we had some amazing surfing from the pros. This class was for the riders to just try to through their best tricks, with no concern for landing them or not.

Expression Session

Then another fun class. We liked to call this the Wake9 Smackdown between the Cocoa Puff and the Vanilla Wafer.

Tandem Wakesurf

ok, I know I am partial to my daughter, but this one is my favorite picture of the contest. Dennis looks like the old superman training a new recruit.

Then we moved on to the Surf/Skim challenge. This was ride one way on a surf board, and then back on a skim board. Who is the best overall rider?

Surf/Skim Challenge

Then we moved on to Sunday, for the main event classes. We combined open women and amateur women, but combined the prize money also, so the girls were happy about that.

Open Women

Open Men Surf

Open Men Skim

Amateur Men

This is Frank Wolter’s sun, he is 14, and its his first competition. What a great job he did.

On to the Masters

Some great images right? Thanks to the photographer, David Wilsey, who you all know as notsobueno on WakeWorld.

Make sure you show up next year, and bring your friends, the event will be even better. Feel free to embed this slideshow or the images on your site, as long as you keep the watermark on the images.