The Wake9 Experience

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.

Here is a map of the site, and we will be taking on site registrations on Saturday, and early sunday morning. Check back here or in the community forums for more information on on site registration this evening.

Map to Site.

Had some fun testing the new RZ2 with some extra weight in the boat. We filled the in hull rear tank on goofy side, then added a 1000 lb sac in the locker stuffed up to the ice chest on the goofy side. When riding, we had the rub rail touching the water. 5 of us in the boat, no one up front so we filled up the front ballast on goofy side up with about 150 lbs to knock down the curl a bit, we normally ride with at least one person up front, but it was a bit chilly.

Sorry for the bad audio with the wind. When I am showing the camera, I am trying to explain that we have a new wide angle lens for the portable Aiptek HD cameras, so that we can now mount the camera in the back of the boat low, instead of up higher, by the tower. This allows for an unobstructed view of the surfer, and a flattering angle for the surfer and wake. Hope you enjoy!

Pay attention to the podcast, for extra giveaways for competitors. We will giving away at least 1 1000lb fly high vdrive sac with tsunami pump, and we have a basic FAE (Fresh Air Exhaust) system worth $440 also. Another reason to make sure you register to compete in the contest. Prize money, and great giveaways.

We will be posting map links and last minute registration information later tonight, so stay tuned.

Its a bit rainy now, but the weather looks like it is really shaping up for this weekend. Looks like you just lost your LAST excuse to not head down this weekend. Grab your board and register for the competition!

So we have been working through our equipment, computers, and the logistics of putting on a first class webcast, and also broadcasting to a station on the shore. It has been one my goals to help make wakesurfing competitions more fun to watch. Its great from the boat, but not quite so from the shore. We are going to give a boat’s eye view to those on the shore and to those at home watching the webcast.

Here is a short quick podcast that gives an idea of what we are planning.

We had a great opening day at Camp Far West Lake. We were there to prepare for our upcoming Spring Wakesurf Festival. Its a don’t miss event. Make sure you watch this podcast to the end, there is some sneak peek info about the new Ski Supreme V226.

We still have room to register for the competition, so please get your registration in soon. There is no guarantee if you wait til the event. At least email us and let us know you are planning to attend.

Tigé gave us a great opportunity last halloween to review the RZ2 with the pro ballast setup. We had a lot of fun and it was a great boat. We did a full write up of the day which you can find here:

2010 Tigé RZ2 Review

We held the video until now because the season had wound down and we decided to hold the video for our first podcast in 2010, and now we are here. The funny thing is, I intended to make all podcasts in 2010 to be 5-6 minutes long at average, but this one is almost 20 minutes long. As we edited the video we found that the information we needed to cut to get the time down was removing info that we would have wanted if we were going to buy a boat. I have gotten to know many of you that watch our videos and read our articles, and most of you are just like me. Mostly Dads who love boating with your family and you like good information when thinking about purchasing a boat. I have never been fond of the “boat test” or waterski mag type reviews, that all say the same thing, and are basically advertisements. So here you go, its long, but lots of good info. Let me know what you think. Head over to the community and give me some feedback.

One last note, I added the graphics and opening, but RJ edited this completely on his own. I have been teaching him, and he will be editing future podcasts, so it will help us keep up a pace of about 1 per week. Great Job RJ!

NOTE: If you are a boat manufacturer, and you would like wake9 to give your boat the same treatment, feel free to contact us. We really want to promote great wakesurf boats, particularly wakesurf boats that throw a great wake on both sides.