Lake Tulloch Spring Break

Amognst all the running around I was able to grab a few pictures from the event, for those of you unable to attend. Personally, we have been to a ton of events and contests and I think this is one of the best ways to structure an event. One day as a gathering where you are able to ride behind various boats and connect with other enthusiasts and the second dedicated to the contest.

Despite the best efforts of mother nature, the threatening sky and rain quit on Sunday to allow a rain delayed start to the contest. It was great fun.

I want to start this by extending my heartfelt gratitude to my judges. Mike Armstrong of Calibrated, Dennis Horton the NorCal Representative for the Walker Project and Jerry Price the principal of Shred Stixx. Thank you guys for all of your hard work, dedication and commitment. It couldn't be done without you. Many want contests and events to take place, but without the contribution of time and effort, as you three do, events such as this simply would not happen.

Mike an Dennis



Jerry

Yes, they did a great job!

Thank You

Kit Stocks

A few of the competitors, Jim Rockwood of Neptunes Audio, James Walker and Leo Goldstein.

The contest was pulled by two Centurion 24 Enzo's. Mike Daughtery and Rich Sellers graciously brought their boats for the contest. Also, Alan Bogdanoff had a 23, I do believe that was used on the first day to allow folks to see what the Enzo could produce. This is Mike Daughtery's 24 Enzo that you'll see in many of the Mob Group Video's and Wakesurfing Magazine.

The folks from Inland Surfer brought down a contigent of riders for the event. My thanks to all of the Inland Surfer riders for volunteering to help with the judging and also for the cooperation and understanding as we dealt with the weather issues.

Jeff Page the man behind Inland surfer took a short break from picture taking to chat with me.

No one ever gets pictures of the photographer! Tim Wong with Inland Surfer was everywhere snapping pictures.

Jeff Page is a fixture when it comes to announcing wakesurfing events. We were fortunate to also have Josh Sleigh with Mob Group on hand to watch and share the announcing duties. Again, my gratitude to both individuals for lending their announcing talents in describing the action and keeping the crowd smiling.

Strategically, the rain came in late Saturday and was forecatsed to last into Sunday morning. We had a very tight schedule for Sunday so a last minute decision was made to run the Masters division on Saturday afternoon. Sadly, Alan Bogdanoff wasn't aware of this last minute change and didn't get to ride. A true professional, and always supportive of the sport Alan agreed to skip his ride. Alan, you are the consummate sportsman and 'bro.

Jerry Price from Shred Stixx brought his own boat for the two days, providing rides and also patrolling the course to keep errant boaters away.

With 47 riders in four divisions, the prizes and goodies were pretty substantial. I don't have all of the event sponsors in front of me, but at least a partial list included:

Area53
Dbot5
Inland Surfer
Shred Stixx
Phase 5
The Walker Project
Wakesurfing Magazine
Xtreme Board Company

and on and on and on.

Some of the prizes:

J.L. with the Mob Group was everywhere, filming and taking pictures. I obviously do NOT have his skills with a camera. I'm sure that Mobgroup.tv will have another superlative video featuring some of the riders from this contest.

Some additional competitors, Jenn and Michelle Sellers with Chase Hazen.

Rich Sellers provided the 24 Enzo with a counter rotating prop for the goofy-footed wake, with Mike Kozacek one of the Men's Open Skim division competitors.

Just a sample of the crowd that gathered to watch the event on Sunday.

The mastermind behind it all! Kayce Brewer with Centurion, the event organizer and chief bottle washer Kayce was quite busy the entire event. Her she is announcing the winners of the various divsions.

The winners of the men's open surf division.

First Place: Jaime Lovett
Second Place: Johnny Steig
Third Place: James Walker
Fourth Place: Chase Hazen

The winners of the Women's division:

First Place: Bri Chmel
Second Place: Jacqualine Croce
Third Place: Jennifer Sellers
Fourth Place: Kit Stocks

The winners of the Men's Open Skim Division

First Place: Jaime Lovett
Second Place: Ryan Fair
Third Place: James Walker
Fourth Place: Tommy Szeschin

Thanks Jeff for the "Great" pictures of Mike and I must have been late in the day after Judging for 5 hours our eyes were glazed over.

So we had better weather in Tennessee than you had in Sunny CA? Looks like everyone had a good time.

Did you have good weather Ed? No ice or snow? Tulloch was great fun for everyone, I mean you can see it in the pictures of Dennis and Mike or even the outfit Jerry chose to wear for the judging.

AWESOME EVENT!!! It was definately worth flying out to Lake Tulloch for the Spring Break contest and we (Jaqualine and I) definately look forward to it next year! It was cool meeting everyone and finally putting faces to the WakeWorld names. Top Notch event, in spite of the rain and cold, windy weather. My vote is sunny Florida or SoCal for the next gathering/comp!

I just did a quick tally of the total prize value, I estimate it at over $5,000 retail! That's pretty amazing for an amateur event like this.

OK Jeff you win, you had ten times the prize value than we had at Lake Norris.

Hey, I thought that all of the fine young ladies out west walked around everywhere in bikinis. All I could see in the photos was jackets and hoodies are you sure you were in California?

We did have excellent weather at Norris. The water temp started off at 60 in the morning and maybe 67 in the afternoon. Air temps were in the 80s. This will probably be the only day that I surf in better weather than you have on the left coast. Looks like you all had a great time, maybe some year I can make it out west for one of these wakesurf tournaments.

Jeff didn't post the pictures of the other events at the resort that weekend. Female mud wrestling, bikini contest and wet t-shirt contest. We just missed all because we were at the contest.

We'd love to have you out for one of our events. Dennis is right, when the Masters division was running the "mud wrestling" championship was also being run (in a secure area so that no one under 18 was permitted). On the dock are 5 of the 40+ year old men in wetsuits. Kit turned to me and teasingly states: "I just don't get it, there are OLD MEN in NEOPRENE here and those folks would prefer to gawk at attractive young scantily clad women covered in mud?"

Overall it was a great event, we certainly enjoyed it.

yea the contest was sick, what are the "guidlines" that declair the differances between a surf board and a skim board? because it seemed like quite a few skim boards were ridden in the mens surf style devision.

here's some more pix from the event...

2 of the Victoria Skim/Allyance guys:
1] <img>
2] <img>

and another competitor from Crowley Lake, CA, Tommy Czeschin, also a pro snowboarder on the US olympic team and a brand new father:
<img>
he did ride w/o the rope (landing a few 3's and a 180shuv in a very short ride) but i only have video from that, no pix, sry.

All pulled by Alan of Area53 Saturday b4 the comp by his new Enzo. Thanks Alan for the pulls & good times and props to Alan's son for his expert driving skillz. <img>

Also, thank you to the Wakesurf Mag crew for being so generous and kind as to let Jaqualine get some practice in behind a regular Centurion for her first time the day before competing. We were really feelin the music selections (Slightly Stoopid) and the whole vibe on that boat. Thanx to everyone from the Daugherty fam, Chase for the tips, Cody for the support, Sleigh for the crazy announcing and for keeping the sport on its toes, and everyone at MobGroup for the photos and vidz. Mucho gracias.

Here's a shot of Tyler trying out an A53 skimstyle board and doing... something.
<img>

here's some more pix from the event...

2 of the Victoria Skim/Allyance guys:
1] <img>
2] <img>

and another competitor from Crowley Lake, CA, Tommy Czeschin, also a pro snowboarder on the US olympic team and a brand new father:
<img>
he did ride w/o the rope (landing a few 3's and a 180shuv in a very short ride) but i only have video from that, no pix, sry.

All pulled by Alan of Area53 Saturday b4 the comp by his new Enzo. Thanks Alan for the pulls & good times and props to Alan's son for his expert driving skillz. <img>

Also, thank you to the Wakesurf Mag crew for being so generous and kind as to let Jaqualine get some practice in behind a regular Centurion for her first time the day before competing. We were really feelin the music selections (Slightly Stoopid) and the whole vibe on that boat. Thanx to everyone from the Daugherty fam, Chase for the tips, Cody for the support, Sleigh for the crazy announcing and for keeping the sport on its toes, and everyone at MobGroup for the photos and vidz. Mucho gracias.

Here's a shot of Tyler trying out an A53 skimstyle board and doing... something.
<img>

Johnny,
We are currently looking at the rules to create a better standard for surf and skim style boards. We will have these rules in place before the next AWSA sanctioned event.

Great pics Jeff! Here's a few of mine Thanks again for having the crew out on your boat on Friday

And more...


Jerry was ready for the weather!

Taking a cruise!


Look! I'm so happy!

This water is cold - get on course

oh ya and we can't forget the GUNSHOW!

yeah this contest was fun!
and
CALIBRATED KILLED IT!

Hey Mike, tell me something...I'm curious, what board manufacturer do you ride for?

I have to apologize to Mr. Czeschin for my typo on his name. For those not familar, Tommy was a member of the US Olympic snowboard team, as well as, X Games medalist and World Cup winner. We had a TON of celebrity atheletes present.

Tommy's US Olympic profile:

http://www.usoc.org/26_710.htm

http://www.centurionboats.com/news/?p=120