What is up with Australian Tour?

I checked stop 2. Hardly anyone is riding over there, even many of the Ausies. What is up? I think changing up the dates may have had an impact. I heard last year was awesome. Why can't wakeboard or

watkins is having a year off and so is ike. scotty broome's out with a knee injury as is mitch langfield. chris o'shea didnt ride the second stop but did the first. and dean smith and harley clifford have come 1st and 2nd at each event. i dont know what else though. i reckon the top US riders should go over and ride the tour. watson and lyman did last year and apparently loved it. the aussies dont have a winter so why should the us riders

This time of year a lot of the US riders are committed to representing their sponsors at the Boat shows and such.

Yeah I was with Watson and Lyman all day at the Dallas Boat Show and they are doing the boat show circuit this year.

Its so badly scheduled, the tour spans over four months with only 4 stops, one stop is in new zealand. most the guys like ike, sanders, watkins are having the season off. they've been competing non stop for around 10 years now.
adam errington went to the first stop. lyman, watson, shane etc. have done some stops in the past.
poor event planning has let us down

I know Lidberg and Hair were there last year and some other Americans. I heard they had a great time and traveled like a caravan from one stop to the other. They had 4 stops in 5 weeks so the Yanks could do a 5 or 6 week trip and hit all the stops plus some other stuff.

Why do organizers shoot themselves in the foot. No disrespect for Dean and Harley but the level of competition seems very suspect- throw in Smeele and you have 3 riders and only 2 are pro men at the last stop. It looks like less than 20 even rode.

The pro Ausies probably hate it. They have no break leaving US in October and starting there in Novemeber. A 5 week tour allows the boys to get some rest. Will they go back to a 5 week schedule next year?

Dean Smith got injured.

Harley Clifford beat Watkins and Ike on the weekend at the wake slam jam on the gold coast! You can't say that he and dean dominating the pro tour isn't legit when he's just beaten two of the biggest names around...

I think it's generally agreed that the planning of the aus pro tour dates was pretty poor this year.. . hopefully they've realised their mistake and will put them closer together next time.

Alice- No offense- Aussies have killed it for years, but I would not call this year's tour legit. Now Dean is out? So Harley and Brad are the only 2 that anyone has heard of? 2 name riders? The APWT deserves better than that.

Roger, your forgetting about Ike, Watkins, Chris O'Shea & Jeff Weatherall I would count them as "name riders" all finished in the top 27 for king of wake.

Dean is supposed to be back riding before the next pro tour stop.

Randy, of those riders you named, only o'shea is competing in the APTW this year, but my point was that harley kicked the asses of those same big names this weekend (in another pro contest - unrelated to the APTW), so that proves that the level of riding in the APTW is up there, despite not having as many big name competitors as usual.

Roger, I definitely agree the APTW deserves better than that. I'd say that by now the organisers would have figured out that they need to have the stops closer together in order to attract the big name aussies along with overseas riders. or at least, I hope they have - it's pretty damn obvious!

alice i think your talking about WakeWars, harley won that. or the wake slam jam which he also won

Didn't Ike, Watkins, Chris O, & Weatherall all ride at Adelaide, I thought that was part of the APWT?

no, adelaide is wake wars - not part of APTW.

yes lachie, i know harley won the wake slam jam - i was there.
read my post this time to get what i was actually trying to say!!

I think we all agree- Go back to the old schedule. Do people who put on wakeboard tournaments all go to the same event organizing school? If so that explains a lot.