2011 USA WB Nationals - Wakesurf

We are in Oklahoma City for Nationals, some pictures from the event. Friday was practice, Saturday was prelim's and today is finals. Feel free to post any pictures if you attended the event.

Pulled by Epic's new 21 V

how the wake on those boats..looks windy..

It's insanely windy this weekend.

Yeah super windy. I looked it up this morning and it called for winds from 25 to 35, with gusts to 45 or thereabouts. The venue is on the Oklahoma River, rather shallow, I believe that I read max depth is 9 feet, at one point James jumped in from the boat and touched the bottom...so 6 feet, maybe?

With the the combination of depth and wind, the wake was a challenge for wakesurfing

I was hoping to see some surf board vendors but all I saw was the cable park with clothing.
I wish I had got to meet up but I honestly forgot till I saw your post it was this weekend and got there after lunch today.
You still in town?

Just got home from the event.......Here are some pics




Podium Winners


Mens Pro Open - 1st James, 2nd Chris, and 3rd Todd


Chris' in his Finals Run

It does not look like they did a very good job weighing the boat down. If you look at that last picture of Chris you see very little to NO list on the boat.

congrats to james and chris!!

looks like some other walker's placed also!!

Were there any spectators?

@ Daniel, sorry I missed you! I replied to your PM.

@ Frank - YES!

There were some spectators.

Podium results.

Girl's

1) Andi Smith

Boys

1) Zane Montgomery

Women's Open

1) Ashley Kidd
2) Chelsea Reedy
3) Stephanie Gaughan

Masters - the only division that REALLY matters!

1) Jeff Walker
2) Judy Walker

Men's Open

1) James Walker
2) Chris Kinsey
3) Todd Gaughan

The conditions were quite a challenge. Winds at a steady 35, challenging water depth, temps at 102, etc. Chris K threw air reverses in both the prelim's and finals. James landed his air 180 to backside switch revert 540. The skill needed by those two to land anything in these conditions is a testatment to their abilities. The men's open was a nail-biter, it came down to the last 300 feet of the last rider. Fun to watch!

so what did they think of the wave behind the epic?
was the water shallower than normal or was this the first time there?

Andi Smith LOVED it - her dad is Gary Smith VP of Sales for Epic. I thought I heard Gary say he "owned" Epic, but I may have misunderstood.

As far as I know, this was the first time the venue has been used for a surf contest.

It has always been a wakeboard comp.
They didn't advertise it having surfing and the only ad's I heard was that the cable park was having a competition at their facility.
Jeff, I really wish I had known earlier. Would have liked to met up.
I heard andy got to meet up with ya.
Well maybe next year.

Hey cowwboy, I'm sorry we didn't connect also, it's always nice to put a face with an online identity. Yeah, I did connect with Andy. He spent some time chatting with Judy and James, also. Next time we are out there!

We had a friend that competed in the wakeboard comp and we came out and watched a little. We're from the OKC area were very disappointed that they didn't advertise the event better and especially the surfing. My daughter and I both surf and in fact James is my daughter's fav surfer to watch. I wonder if he even knows he has "fans" but we have watched just about every video of him on you tube and anywhere we can find them. If we would have known he was going to be there we would have made darn sure we got there early enough to watch all of the surfing comp. We thought it was going to be just some local people, and it was early (and really windy) so we got there late and missed him.

Hey NuBu, I'm sorry we missed you folks! James is very aware of his "fan base" and that's one of the primary reasons we travel to some of these areas. The short videos are nice, but not the same as seeing someone ride in person, plus James like to socialize with folks. If you'll PM me your mailing add'y I'll ask James to autograph a FlyBoy T-shirt for your daughter, if you'd like.

The wakesurf component did get shifted around the night before the prelim's. The contest was originally scheduled to start at 9, the organizers were wanting to move the wakesurf component through faster, so gave us from 8 until 10:30am but only the riders knew that! Oh well, it's how contests go!

Here you go NuBu, I'll drop it in the mail on Tuesday. Thanks!