2011 Northwest Riders Wake Series - Recap

The 2011 Northwest Riders Wake Series was bigger and better in almost every way. The riders this year were awesome for all three days and we are stoked to see so much support from the northwest wake community. Those of you that came out and judged, drove, rode, installed, tore down, and lent a hand for everything in-between are the reason we are able to even put on an event...so thank you!

The Friday night event got started earlier so the finals riders could actually see the double ups this year and we finished just as the sun went down. The Saturday contest had a considerable amount of riders more than the 2010 event and featured great riding all around. The Sunday clinic was packed out with a lot of new riders learning wake.

Our 2011 event started out with a Friday night Double Up contest sponsored by Mastercraft Northwest / Seattle. The format was head-to-head and was a winner-take-all showdown...same as last year. We had learned a lesson from the 2010 event that our lighting was poorly placed and made a mean glare for the finals after the sun went down. The riders simply could not see the wake making it impossible to hit with any sort of consistency. With that knowledge in our bag we thought we could move the lights to make the wake backlit and give the riders the visibility they needed to put on a show in the dark. After a Thursday night setup and test run we realized that the lights just were not going to work and made the decision to bump the event to nearly two hours earlier than last season to make sure that every rider had sunlight all the way through the last double up of the finals. As mentioned above...the timing was perfect and we announced the winner just as the sun set for the evening.

Our driver this year was none other than Eric Sund, formerly of Koppert Lake fame. Mr. Sund helmed the Mastercraft Parks Edition X-Star and drove by the crowd gathered at Sockeye's Restaurant creating a massive wake for the riders to boost off. The $500 cash prize was again up for grabs to the field of riders which included: Dan Klopp, Thomas Olson, Scott Woods, Spencer Norris, Zach Schneider, Robby Carter, Chad Douglas, and Brenden Leib.

The riding was crowd pleasing and only got better as the event wore on. The riders began pushing the bar higher as the rounds narrowed the competition down. The big surprise of the night was when last year's champion, Robby Carter, was knocked from contention by newcomer Zach Schneider. Zach went on to the finals and just missed out on the win while Dan Klopp took the title. Dan's final attempt of the night was a double backroll which he almost landed and scored some style points with the crowd nonetheless.

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2010 Northwest Riders Wake Series :: 1st Annual Wakeboard Event

This event was fun...and I'm not just saying that because it was our event. I had a blast.

Greg had a blast. Our volunteers had a great time. The riders enjoyed it. We also heard the

same from Monroe locals (most at least), the Monroe Parks Department, the City of Monroe

Mayor and staff, and on and on. It was fun because all of these people made it just that.

Thank you. Anyone that came out and supported us...you are appreciated.

We started out with a Friday night Double Up contest. The format was head-to-head and was a

winner-take-all showdown. The night before, Greg, Chris Hudspeth, our buddy Jason, and myself

ventured out to set up stadium style lighting. We knew the latter portion of the event would

be in the dark so we wanted to make sure and keep the water lit. We partially succeeded. The

first few rounds were solid as the Mastercraft X-25 provided by Darren and the boys at

Mastercraft Seattle cranked out a mean wake for the riders. Our driver, Sean Kilgus (BFY

Productions) drove by the crowd gathered at Sockeye's Restaurant literally feet from shore.

Lake Tye is man-made and perfect for a wakeboard competition with a good amount of depth more

or less the entire area of the lake. The riders vying for the prize of $500 cash and the

title of the first ever winner of the Northwest Riders Wake Series Double Up Showdown were:

Dan Klopp, Alex Scagliotti, Travis Stewart, Rob Carter, Nick Cardoza, Scott Woods, Spencer

Norris, and Thomas Olson. The riding got more difficult as the night wore on. As I mentioned

earlier, we partially succeeded with the lighting. The crowd could see well, while Kilgus and

the riders had a bit more difficult time. We had the lights set where they created a bit of a

glare at water level. The semi-finals featured Alex Scagliotti, Dan Klopp, Rob Carter, and

Scott Woods. Alex and Robby moved on to face each other...fitting as both are from the Bend,

OR area and have been riding partners for years. The visibility on the water proved to be a

test for the riders and in the end, Robby won on literally the last double up of the night

with a big tweaked out Indy Glide. Congrats Rob!

Day two, Saturday, was the meat of the Northwest Riders Wake Series which ran all day from

roughly 8am to 6pm. We had 45 wakeboarders across the divisions: Novice, Womens,

Intermediate, Advanced, and Open. There was plenty of entertainment for the crowd. Not only

was there great wakeboarding to watch out on Lake Tye, but Grizzly-Sports brought out tubes

and a water trampoline for the swimming area, and we had Jared Eygabroad on the microphone

giving away gear and raffle prizes nearly the entire day. Jared also had some interesting and

awkward contests such as: Cutest Kid Contest and Tackle Greg Young for a T-shirt. He also had

a few fans convinced that Toby McGuire was on shore signing autographs in a Spider Man mask. Vitamin Water came out to make sure everyone stayed hydrated which was clutch as the temperature hovered in the 90's. All-in-all, we saw some great wakeboarding, had some laughs, and learned some lessons for making this even bigger next season.

After clean up and tear-down on Saturday, we wrapped the whole event in a nice little package and put a shiny little bow on top in the form of a wakeboard clinic taught by none other that WA wakeboard icon Brent Starr. Fourteen people came out to learn something new on a wakeboard and test out the Slingshot wakeboards and bindings. There were first-timers on up to riders that have been  out there for years and all left with more confidence and a little bit bigger bag to carry around their tricks in.

The 2010 Northwest Riders Wake Series was a success...hands down. We definitely have room for improvement and we are already planning for next year. We want to thank so many people that made this possible. It is hard to fit everyone in, but a few are:

Wade Wagley and Slingshot Wakeboards, Grizzly-Sports, Bakes Marine, Mark and Lani at Malibu Boats, Mayor Zimmerman - Denise Jacobsen - Mike Farrel - Oriville - and the City of Monroe, Darren and Mastercraft Seattle, Robert and NW Quality Remodel & Deck, Vitamin Water, Sockeye's Restaurant, Rhys Logan, Sean Kilgus, Matt V, Jared Eygabroad, Dylan McGuire, Chris Hudspeth, Brent Starr, Eddie Roberts, AJ Koenig, Brandon Robins, Ryan Brien and The Rock Church, Nick at Red Bull, Ray Durkee, Gary and Carol Clinefelter, Caitlin Goetze, Muscle Milk, Spencer Norris, all of the riders, all of the families of the riders, all of the fans and people that came out in support, Phil Thomas Kat, Tommy Robinetti, and the one pissed off "Sportsman" ... anyone we didn't list we want to thank also with the classic: "you know who you are."

Until next year...