The first ever sanctioned national wakesurfing competition was held in Dayton, Ohio, on August 18th and 19th. Last fall Chris Walker, chair of the National Wakeboard League (NWL) invited us to add wakesurfing to the NWL Wakeboarding Nationals. When USA Wakeboard had a problem with their Nationals venue Chris also invited USA Wakeboard to use the same venue, Eastwood Lake, the Dayton, also known as the Dayton Hydro Bowl. Basically we had a three ring circus going. Even so Chris was organized enough and Eastwood Lake was big enough to support all three competitions. Chris is either the best water sports organizer or some kind of lunatic, I’m not sure I know where I want to come down on this one, thanks Chris!
The competition was sponsored by Centurion boats. The venue was pulled by a bright-red Avalanche and a deep dark, black Avalanche. Naturally we used the red boat pull the regular surfers and the black boat to pull the dark side. Noelle and I had a friendly argument about Darth Vader and surfing the dark side. She made a good case for the notion that Darth Vader would not actually surf on the dark wake but would instead manufacture legions of genetically engineered clones to surf the dark side. Either way he’d probably have an awesome black boat.
Jeff Walker, President of the American Wakesurf Association, Mike Armstrong, owner of Calibrated Surfing, and Dean Jones, long time friend and former snowboard organizer were our judging crew. Jessica Oswald, two time world wakesurfing champion assisted judging the Saturday Women’s division.
Saturday we ran Youth, Men’s, Women’s, Long Board, and Masters. Sunday we ran Open Men’s Skim, Open Women’s Skim, Open Men’s Surf, and Open Women’s Skim.
The wakeboard course on the other side of the lake is fine for wakeboarding but too shallow for wakesurfing. The depth in front of the Jet Ski beach at the other end of the lake ran from 19 to 30 feet, perfect! The course was 1,500 feet long with a 300 foot run in at each end. The length of the beach was about the same length as the course and centered on the course, again perfect!
Even with the great proximity of the course and beach it’s nearly impossible to see a rider like Bri Chmel in her low down multi spin stance, she just can’t bee seen. Last year we set up a video link at the Scioto Wakefest. This year we set up a transmitter on both boats and a video tent. As we moved judges from boat for boat we also moved our video camera and simply plugged it in to the other transmitter. We (Jac) ran the television from a battery and inverter.
We had only a few minor issues. I forgot to pack grilling tools. So we got out a long #2 screwdriver and a large crescent wrench. Then we made the mistake of letting Mike and Austin cook hot dogs, big, big, mistake. The dogs were blacker than the coals still in the bag at night. Sunday we let (couldn’t stop) Judy and Stacy cook the dogs, much better. The beach was a little rocky. Getting surfers to the boats was a little challenging. We found some of the rocks with my prop, dang it. Later in the afternoon I spoke with Ed Gerdeman, Dayton Park Manager, told me that I could have had 115 Vac power and a dock if I had asked for it, next year, next year. There are so many possibilities at this site.
Big thank to:
…Chris Walker – thanks for the invitation to add Wakesurfing to Nationals
…Centurion boats
…Surfers
…Judges
…Corey and Noelle – The Amazing Red Avalanche
… Mike Smith – The Equally Amazing Black Avalanche
…Kelly registration
…The Gordon’s for videography and photography
…Dave for precision GPS course setup
…Jac and Dave set up
…Jon for bringing the massive Stewart long board
…Jon for bringing the grill
…More I’m sure
I really enjoyed meeting new friends and riding with friends and my regular crew.
The Jet Ski Beach
Regular Red Boat
Darth Vadar Boat
Judging crew
Regular wake
The dark side
How could you see Bri without video?
#2 grilling instrument
A Girl Scout is always prepared
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