The 2008 NWL Ohio Wakesurfing Championship was held on Eastwood Lake, in Dayton, Ohio on July 13th. The wakesurf competition was run in conjunction with the NWL Ohio Wakesurf Championship.
Big thanks to our Sponsors, Phase 5 and Stripes. Also big thanks to Joe B for bringing out not only his boat but a grill and some tasty Macaroni salad.
The wakeboard tournament was run on the east half of the lake and the wakesurf tournament at the “Jet Ski” beach on the west side. There’s excellent viewing of both competitions. Dayton is very supportive of this event. They closed the lake to all other boat traffic. They also trimmed some small trees and brush, added power drops, and installed a temporary dock at the jet ski beach for the wakesurf event.
The day started out very wet. There were a few sprinkles as we launched my boat and set up the course. As the morning drew on the cloudy ski was replaced with a nice sunny one, though it was a little windy.
We set up a boat to shore video link. We converted the back half of my truck in to a video booth. We put a tent over the back of the truck and wrapped a tarp around the sides of the tent and my truck. We ran my TV off of a battery and an inverter. We put an antenna and transmitter on each boat. The video system is independent of the boat electrical system. We only have one small sealed lead acid battery that we move from boat to boat.
We had two boats at the competition. My Enzo was set up for the regular side and Joe’s Avalanche was set up for the goofy side. We sacked out my boat with ballast that’s roughly equal to an Enzo sack. Only one goofy stance rider chose to surf the starboard wake.
We sacked Joe’s boat and we set his Switch Blade to 2. Actually during the first test with Joe’s boat I didn’t know the Switch Blade was on so I didn’t set it. This was my first experience running a wakesurf boat with a Switch Blade. We actually used this same boat last year for Nationals but we ran without the Switch Blade.
With the Blade in the wrong position the wake wasn’t very satisfying for our tester. We did one more test with the Switch Blade at 2. The wake was much better. It had a nice curl.
I had heard that the Switch Blade sometimes throws a spray in the rider’s face. I didn’t see a spray. Our tester and our surfer did not report a spray. I had also heard that with a left hand prop that you couldn’t get a decent wake on the goofy side with the Switch Blade. I think that we’d all say that the Enzo wake was better but the Goofy – Switch Blade – However, Avalanche wake looked good. I didn’t ride this wake so I don’t want to speak too much for the tester and sole goofy rider.
In 2006 I started organizing wakesurfing competitions. When we started working on promoting the event we talked about the art we’d use and what we’d call the first event. Someone suggested “Surf Ohio”. However, one of my friends recalled that “Surf Ohio” was trade marked by Ron Kaplin 30 years ago. He developed a line of “Surf Ohio” T-shirts that sold nationally. So we started using the Kokopelli figures and named the 2006 event the Scioto Wakefest. Last year we repeated Wakefest and added Nationals. I tried to contact Mr. Kaplin last year, but ended up finding a T-shirt company on the west coast.
This year Mr. Kaplin, Ron, contacted me. Turns out that his wife read about the Ohio Wakesurf Championship at Eastwood Lake. Ron dropped by our little competition. I showed him around our wakesurf boats, described a few of our boards, and got him on board during I think Kayley Gordon’s ride. Ron donated two Surf Ohio base ball caps to our raffle. Thanks Ron.
Ron and I are going to talk about how to incorporate Surf Ohio with the wakesurfing competitions that we’ve been holding. Ron is working on bringing Surf Ohio back online so to speak. His web site just came on line here:
http://www.surfohio.com/ We ran two men’s divisions, two women’s divisions, and a master’s division. We made our awards, did a little clean up and started our long board competition. Some of the surfers that had a long drive to Dayton left before the long board comp. During our break the jet skiers started lining up and launching. Everyone started asking me what I was going to do. We just started pulling the long board competition. Eventually the state park police came out. I think he gave some of the jet skiers souvenirs. I hate to see that at a competition but the lake was clearly marked closed for the day event and no jet skier asked us if we were done.
Little Kayley gave the long board a try. The long board is very different from our normal wakesurf experience and just a lot of fun. Robbie Gordon had a wild ride. We thought that he was going to crash and burn a number of times but he kept pulling it out.
Kayley gave the long board a try too. At first Noelle and Kayley tried together, but it was to windy to manage two riders and navigate the boat. So, Kayley tried the long board solo. The long board is about twice at long as Kayley is tall. Kayley stood up on the board before we even got a rope to her. The wind was pushing her at a pretty good clip. Without the rope and not under way with the boat’s wake she started pulling tricks like shoot the duck, a coffin, and a fire hydrant. That was too funny.
Men’s
1 Kory Klosterman
2 Nicholas Carone
Men’s Open
1 Corey Snyder
2 Robbie Gordon
3 Chad Brown
Women’s
1 Michel Metzger
2 Ali Lausch
Women’s Open
1 Kayley Gordon
2 Noelle Snyder
3 Rachel Brown
Master’s
1 Ed Sullivan
2 Jim Gillam
Longboard
1 Robbie Gordon
2 Ed Sullivan
3 Corey Snyder
Prizes:
Phase 5 Oggle Robbie Gordon
Phase 5 Drew Danielo Chad Brown
Stripes Jim Gillam
Surf Ohio Hat Kayley Gordon
Surf Ohio Hat Michel Metzger
( I do not have the ability right now)
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