No CWB in Pro Team Challenge?

Anyone know the criteria for being invited/participating in the pro team challenge? CWB and OBrien weren't there, and I wondered if it was because they didn't have any team members who rode for Malibu, or simply decided not to go? I figured with their strong west coast presence, they would have figured in the mix.

Hi Loren, I was out for the event and I thought the same thing. Pretty big event for no CWB participation.

What event?

J-Rod, the cover story put up today, the Malibu Pro Team Challenge in Washington 2 weekends ago...just thought it odd that 2 of the 6 main companies (not to mention slingshot and others) were not present. Seems like having a auto show and not inviting honda or nissan.

CWB participated last year. It was on Fuel.

Any team that puts up $5,000 towards the prize purse is invited. CWB chose not to participate this year due to budget constraints. I don't know why O'Brien chose not to participate.

It cost the teams/companys a bunch of $$$$$ to be in it, and some of them didn't think it was worth it....


Dave beat me to it, but I heard it was more then that??

(Message edited by jjakober on August 25, 2008)

Guess CWB thinks highly of their team. It would be hard to beat HL, LF, and Ronix though!

Thanks for the clarification, I just figured Malibu was putting the event on, and had not thought that the teams had to 'pay to play'. Strange for Gator to jump in without any of their guys...maybe they committed awhile ago and it was too late so why not give it a shot. They should call it 'Pro Team Challenge - BYOP'

That is kind of messed up.

BYOP = bring your own prize or paycheck...didn't think about what other, less desirable things that acronym could have stood for.

Why is that messed up? All events are paid for by the sponsors. In this case, the board companies are the sponsors along with Malibu and a few others. However, this event adds some new twists by making it winner-take-all, pushing quite a bit of the sponsor money toward the prizes rather than into the pockets of the organizers and pitting board company teams against each other.

I think it's cool to see contests that add a new dimension to competitions. I would say that's the exact opposite of "messed up."

Guess I didn't realize thats how it was, so I thought it was messed up. I thought Malibu put on a comp to see who the "best team" was, which of course would have some sort of entrance fee, but I didn't expect/realize it would be such a large amount so that the winning earnings could be so high. In general, I thought it was marketed to be a high dollar payout, team comp that malibu was putting on. I didn't realize the board companies were sponsors as well.

I think it says something good about CWB. If I were a rider, give me a 1/5 of that money, or send the team on a trip instead. Yet I do find it really cool that Gator represented, and lived up to their title.

Can someone give me a shovel?

I agree new comps are cool, and will hopefully happen more often.

(Message edited by behindtheboat on August 25, 2008)

No CWB, OBrien, Gator only had 1 rider at the DU contest, No Ricky G, Philip Soven, Rusty, Watson, Shane, Ben G, or Lyman. Ronix seemed to put out the A team with Harf, Errington, and Sharpe.

That's what I find hard to understand. It seems like a lot of the top riders were not there. That being said, it's a pretty impressive win for Hyperlite since they did it without Rusty and their top rider is a rookie.

i'm sure it has alot to do with schedules as well.

A lot of the top guys were someplace overseas for a contest (cant remember where) and it was the same weekend as the Canada Nationals, Rathy left Saturday afternoon to catch a plane back to Canada and didn't ride on Sunday. The riders that were there put on a good show and had a pretty good time.

That's alot of damn money.

The other riders were overseas in Egypt.. Just because Jimmy is a rookie does not mean that he is not riding at the same level as other top pro men. Rathy has been riding super good as well. JD, Jimmy, Rathy, Ruck for hyperlite. As far as CWB is concerned, Andrew & Trevor were both over in Egypt, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense to pay a grip load of money to enter a contest when your top two contest riders wouldn't be attending.

Yeah i agree with Ben. Even though Jimmy is a rookie, he rides with those guys everyday and lives with Rusty, so it is not like he is nervous riding against them. Its going to be really exciting to see these young guns come up and own it. Between him, Rathy, Adam, Phillip and Bob Soven, our sport has a solid future ahead of it

Just piss poor planning. Almost every event organizer waits to see when WWA, and World events are scheduled before they make their dates, it's no wonder.....

this thread is boring. lets make it interesting...how do you think O'Brien, SS, and CWB would have done if they were to compete with LF, Hype, Ronix, and Gator?? Would they have a good chance of winning? or do the heavy-hitters pack too much punch, even w/o some big-name riders? of course its all speculation, just looking for a sensible, well-thought out response.

$5000 for each team to enter? Malibu makes that on one boat sale!! CWB would have faired well in the comp., so would O'Brien. Pro-Team Challenge? You got Am's out there with them? C'mon, these comps are getting more fickle buy the day. Nobody seems to be able to distinguish between Pro and Am anymore!!

Is it going to air on Fuel again this year?

Sling Shot would have done horrible, not even fair to compare. O'Brien would have little chance. CWB would have done alright as long as Hutton, Andrew & Trevor were on their game.

If I were CWB I wouldn't pay 5 G's to go get my ass handed to me by hyperlite either!

Ben, isn't Jeff McKee a good rail rider? same with Jeff House?

Jimmy Rides in a "Pro" Division, it's just a younger braket isn't it? I'm suprised LF didn't win, between Kevin Henshaw [best rail rider IMO], and Watson [winner of the carnival]. And it sounds like Ronix had a good chance, Chad Sharpe [easily in the top 5 best rail riders] harf does well, same with errington. I thought Hype plain wouldn't have a chance.

Edit: oops, thought the Malibu Pro Team Challenge was strictly a rail comp [http://alliancewake.com/video_details_extreme.php?id=3474]

(Message edited by hawk7 on August 25, 2008)

I bet Jimmy earned more pro money this year than every pro other than Soven. I think he's arrived!

^^^ true dat.

Riley, I don't know you but I seem to think you are a professional photographer of sorts. Please correct if wrong. Being that this is a small industry don't you think it might be counter intuitive to bash a potential customer? Just wondering.

Between you and lfxstar, it's hard to determine who talks the most crap on other companies (I'd probably give him the edge).

i dont think riley is a professional photographer, i think he just gets product from hyperlite. kind of a lower level freebee type of guy, at least thats the talk around tx photographer scene. i dont know him, but i can see why he would be a big hyperlite supporter, if they were helping him with product and stuff. maybe ill get a camera and see if a company would give me free product to bash other things in the industry.

You can be a big Hyperlite supporter, without bashing other companies, just puts a negative vibe on theses threads and our industry.

I'm surprised more people aren't talking about this comp and how there were 3 ts bs 720's landed. The article said Rathy stuck one in the boat comp and then Harf stuck 2 grabbed ts bs 720's in the D-up comp. Any videos of these?

I wasn't trying to bash CWB. Hyperlite just happened to have most of their heavy hitters their.

Was Soven there for LF? Probably not cause if he was they would have taken it. His track record speaks for itself.

Adkinson is my favorite rider no one can deny that he kills it! He has the sickest style on what would be considered "tech tricks" I love his grabbed back mobes! With him in Egypt he can't do much to help them in that event.

Sorry I didn't explain myself well enough..

Yet again another post taken out of context. I will explain my post better in the future to keep you from getting bent.

(Message edited by steezyshots on August 27, 2008)

(Message edited by steezyshots on August 27, 2008)

obrien would have faired alright... sanders and watkins kill it.

Good point JKW... That is sick! New hammer trick that all will need?

Alliance was out in full force, and Ronix supplied the Helicopter. There will be some video and more shots for sure!!