Who has good steez in wake!?

Who do you all think has good style? Or who are your favorite riders and why? I want to know because there are a lot of top pros in wakeboarding that personally I would rather not watch them ride just for the fact that their riding doesn’t look good or fun. I’m really interested because some of these riders who in my opinion don’t shred are sponsored by some big companies while other riders that totally rip with buckets of steez are struggling to make it as a pro. I also respect riders that kill it on rails because rails are becoming a bigger part of wakeboarding which is awesome. I was really stoked on the wake lab, especially the pool with the handrail and the down flat bar. Wakeboarding is goin in new directions and im stoked. Check out the new alliance issue and check out all the sick winch photos in the photo annual. Winching is allowing wakeboarding to expand into urban environments just like snowboarding and obviously skateboarding. So back to the question, who is pushing the sport of wakeboarding in all aspects, who shreds legit, who thinks about their riding and makes conscious efforts to make their stuff look and feel good!? Ill start it off with some riders that I think are pushing the sport in the right direction, these guys are killing it!


Collin Harrington- He shreds everything and he’s makin the vid box of fun which looks insane!
Jeff Mckee, Jeff House, Rob Jacques- Crazy legit style from these dudes and flex is soo hot right now….I flex for the babes…
Chris Oshea- goes bonkers behind the boat!
Tyler Killingsworth- Ive only seen one vid of this guy but it looks like he knows how to hit a rail
Benny G, Kevin Henshaw, Watson, shane, lyman- LF slayshers that slaysh….hard

Those are just the first that come to mind. So what does everyone think?

Here I will leave some prime filet shredding from the E-Man and friends….

Jeff House - sooo smoooth
Watson - spins
Shane - Rails/ TS BS spins
Dean Smith - HUGE

Adam Errington goes pretty big and has some of the smoothest style....

All of my favorite riders except for one ride for Ronix. All of the Ronix riders have such different style. And most of them are pushing the sport really hard...

The Schwan - Mike Schwenne, simply because he makes wakeboarding look like a sport that he invented. No one does half the stuff he focuses on. And he's working on the next generation, bringing the kids up through West Coast Camps and bringing em up right!

Best style I've ever seen was a video post my Umali of a guy with 2 first names (I think from Washington). I can never remember the dude's name which is my bad, but I've never seen anyone make tricks look like he did. He might not have the bag of tricks like the top pros, but he makes what he's got look tight.

Anyone know who I'm talking about? I think I asked Joe this once before and he posted the vid again. So sweet.

Gotta love Schwenne's 'tuck knee' indy variations he does. Definitely a fun rider to watch!

Shaun Murray is the KING of STYLE,Jon Prehn is a close second and T-MO is the KING of Slalom.

mike schwenne and ben greenwood

9 posts deep until someone mentions Vandall? Seriously, WTF

gangster, its because everyone knows. haha

Vandall and Lyman. They both take things absolutely HUGE! They take tricks so much bigger than just about anyone

Robby Carter free riding.

If I could ride like anyone it would have to be Lyman. Also really like how much fun Murray has when riding, if you ask me that's a great style.

Randall
Keith
Benny
Dean

Nor*Cal has a long list of steezy riders.
A few off the top of my head are,

Brady Sammons
Aaron Aubrey
Chris Dykmans
Brandon George
Blake Canon
Chad Lowe
Brodie Chaboya
mike schwenne
Trever Maur
Tony Carol
Jason Callen
Brandon George
Derek Cook

harf

Walt we cant forget Brian Towers hes got tons of steeze

Greg Necrrason
Scott Byerly
Rob Struharek

I'm watching Push Process right now, and holy crap, Amber Wing has insane style. She has some of the sickest pokes I've seen, right behind Benny G and the Vandall.

walt how are you gonna put up Nor Cal riders without mentioning Derek Cook? lol
Derek Cook
Chris Dykmans
Matt Winans haha fasho

Hands down.

Kaesan.
Robby J.
Jeff House.
McKee.

something about slingshot drips style.

Benny G.
Murray.
Schwenne with those crazy knee tuck mcgees for sure.

Oh yeah, Harrington, and O'shea are super steezy for sure.

By Randy Scagliotti (wakedad33) on Thursday, December 04, 2008 - 5:56 pm:

Robby Carter free riding.

I would like to toss Colin Ryan in the mix too, he kills it. I agree! Randy but here's my issue.

*there was supposed to be a HUGE rant here about how I hate Style threads and judging riders style but I will bite my tongue unless you all want me to go off....*

Nor Cal's Back water hidden secret (but not for long) Joel DeRoche has SERIOUS STEEZ.

You wana check it out pick up the Nor Cal Faction Video.

Benny G and Kevin Henshaw for some style and being smooth.

I really like Mikey Marsh spinning.

Randall and Dean Smith are Masters at going huge.

Delta homegrown Joel & Ryan Deroche.

So who are the riders that are undeserving, and in your opinion don't "shred?"

That Jimmy Wolf guy they did a wakeworld feature on has the absolute best style I've ever seen.

J Rod- agreed. All the riders out there have their own great style. They're all shred-worthy!

Easy E makes everything look smooth and,well, easy.

Benny G.
Lyman for sure. He makes 5's look so fun.
House of Style. obviously.
Robby Jaques is smooth.

Ricky G. Guy has steeze.

this is in no particular order but the riders I think have the best style are:

Randall Harris
Colin Harrington
Keith Lyman
Jeff House
Ben Greenwood
Ricky G
Jeff McKee
Erik Ruck
JD Webb
and dont forget, Adam Fields

Besides all the ones we've already mentioned, which I agree with all of you on most of them, but a sorta new comer who is SICK on the rails, is Oliver Derome. First time I saw or heard of him was at nationals in OK city. This guy kills it. Nick Davies is known more for cable riding but he is soooo much fun to watch at the cable.

But Benny is still the king!!
Lyman is AMAZING
Randell, is there anything I really need to say about this guy?
Those are my favorites but there is so many guys out there right now that are so stylish that I believe it is taking wakeboarding in the right path. I think you can't be part of the slingshot crew unless you have huge steez.

J.Rod, not that they are bad wakeboarders obviously, but people I don't enjoy watching are people like Phil Soven. Even when he freerides there's something that's a little stiff about it.

I really wanna see some footy of Rob Jacques gettin loose on some rails with the reflex! Some wake stuff would be sick too, I havnt seen any footy of him in forever. I saw him ride at projects a while back and he's one of the best free riders ive ever seen.

Brent, you ready for the road trip of a lifetime?

Vandall, big, clean, smooth and grabbed
Benny G makes everything look easy
Shane Bonifay has a unique style that I love to watch
I'm starting to appreciate Rusty Malinowski's style more each time I watch one of his video parts

Randall is my fav, i would give my left nut to ride like that.

He gets all that air time due to the rope length and speed he rides. I've never ridden with him but i understand he's at 90' and 28 miles an hour. That's insane in my world.......

Yeah... Randall goes pretty big

tyler killingsworth kills it..randy shreds..cook and aubrey are up there..best thing ive watched on water is nicky t wakeskate though..kid has so much fun and more board control than he knows what to do with

what's up paul? i see you're in sd. when'd you move here? do you film wake down here?

Joe, Dude skype me or email me- I been here for almost 5 years. (did u know u have over 14k posts on ww? Damn son!)

Also, since I am here I want to talk a bit more about style, progression and pushing wake.

Action Sports starts with the rider. When a company is operated primarily by riders it can progress quickly in a healthy way - see Snow/Skate/MotoX

When it is operated by corpo's, the tenancy is to grow the company as fast and as scalable as possible and then exit, dropping the riders who pushed the initial technology to the curb in lieu of profits. Basically taking their ideas and selling them out to wholesale outlet, pocketing the cash - not reinvesting the funds into more progressive innovation. This has happened over and over in wakeboarding. It’s no wonder why wakeboarding is currently stagnant???

Meanwhile wakeskating - which by the way, is taking the sport in a totally different direction than wakeboarding, as Jackob correctly mentions, the urbanization of the sport, among other things - is kicking ass all over the planet! It’s not surprising the kids today look at wakeboarding like I use to look at slalom skiers.. mad old school bra!
Often this is why companies like Nike tried for decades spending ten'$ of million$ trying to break into Action Sports and failed miserably. Only after brands like Red Bull showed them it is about the rider and promoting grass roots efforts everywhere did Nike create a totally new brand called Nike 6.0 - and now they are 'cool'. Why? Because they are at every action sports event they know about and all over ASR, EXPO, everywhere with that funny looking logo and strange tandem axle station wagon...

It isn’t that Nike didn’t make cool shoes? Most everyone has had a pair of Air Jordan’s! It’s that they didn’t ‘Get it’. Red Bull got it from day one and continues to kick the crap out of most other brands in their space because they actually ask the riders what they want to do, and then do it better than anyone.

I could follow up later if anyone wants to know what it would take to turn wakeboarding around… or I may just post it to WakeSites.com/word

Here are some more STEEZY riders:

Colin Wright
Randall Harris
Kyle Murphy
Scott Byerly
Thomas Horrell
Steve Wahlman
Darin Razor
George Daniels
Melissa Marquardt
Ben Greenwood
Keith Lyman

Great post Jakob! You just won a copy of AUTHENTIC from WakeSites! DM me and I will get u a copy.

You nailed in one post, what is wrong with wakeboarding today and why it hasn’t progressed (maybe 1 inch) in 10 years, meanwhile in terms of style, innovation and participation, snow, moto, skate and wakeskate are kickin the crap out of wakeboarding... across the board (no pun intended)

I’m with Jakob, I would rather watch paint dry then half the vids out there.

But there is good news Jakob! There are many of us (like you) who believe steezy is the only way to ride! That is to say ride for fun, ride for style and most of all, RIDE FOR YOURSELF!

I want to give mad props to Team WakeSites for holding down the fort while many others have been flip-floppin all over the place and making no real progress. Same riders doing the same u know what forever!


1. Josh Smith - OG - Has been pushing the sport everyday since 1986. He owns and operates NorCal Wakeboard Camp and is still riding every day.
2. Rich Facciano - OG - Kills it on the Wakeskate, wakeboard, moto track, and everywhere else he rides! Always has been one of wake’s original OG’s
3. Aaron Aubrey - 1% Rider 99% Genius! – I think AA invented technical style! Dub/Trip/grabs/spins! Did I mention he can count??
4. Derek Cook – Balla! ‘nuff said!- DC has so much style he has already been mentioned several times in the above thread!
5. Jamie Eddie - Winch Sk8ter - Clearly one of the sickest most steezy hommies in wakeskate! Look how big he goes on the dubs!
6. Barrett Perlman – Our East Coast killa! – BP has been riding and showin her style all over the world from S. America to AU, NZ, and everything in between!

paul you are going way back to the late 90s and early 2000 with steve wahlman and darin razor. steve wahlman along with byerly invented the super smooth make everything look easy style and now watson and benny g have taken over that category. as far as my favorite steez goes i love watching the vandall, dean smith, lyman, anyone in pointless, benny g, ricky g, jeff mckee, colin harrington, henshaw and the list goes on. pretty much every pro out there has steez so it is hard to break it down into only a few riders. oh yea and robbie carter, robbie jacques, oli and raph derome along with the other quebec kids at the projects, shane, parks, henshaw and last but not least mr. watson absolutely slay rails. not many riders kill it on rails as much as these kids

Yo those snowboard vids that r put up r legit.

riders like josh smith, collin wright and the wakesites team riders style cross-over from other action sports like skate and mostly snowboarding. these guys ride all winter long in tahoe and up and down the west coast - then in the spring they take that snow-style and implement it into their wakeboarding and wakeskating - could this be one reason the West$ide 'seems' to have more "steez" than in other places??? josh says its mad style when it looks like you are snowboarding on the water - almost as if that is what these guys are going for.

another note jeremy - isnt that when snowboarding started to catch on?? i know DR, JS, and many of those others u mentioned were up in tahoe all winter straight shreddin the pow as much as possibe in the late 90's and early 2k's -

So this post could possibly answer some more of Jakob's questions in terms of why some sick riders are not being recognized for their skills while others are getting paid to ride like a robot... perhaps the wakeboard industry is slow get the 'shaun white' aspect of action sports, meaning many of the riders who are the most fun to watch also straight KILL it on other boards hitting rails, flat bars, and anything they can grind whether the water is warm or frozen; it's all the same style - grab and poke everything!

One more thing: Which Josh Smith reminded after an hour and a half conversation last night about how wakeboarding has gone south basically since it's inception - due to... i will likely go a lot deeper into this on the wakesites.com/word blog soon - but, point is big floaty spins, grabs, pokes, and style are WAY harder to learn (and teach) than the variable gymnastics flips u can do on a wakeboard - they are essentially the same back-roll, front-roll, tantrum, and back-flips with a little change here or there to make each a 'different' trick... like anything else, most can be learned by a decent wakeboarder in 10 or so attempts - a collin wright style back-side mute -to- front side 360 takes years to perfect - then throw it off-axis - now thats steezy - the stinky steez

sorry to tripple dip here - but i hardly ever post on ww and i feel this is very important to me and also to the sport - part of what is VERY RIGHT and VERY GOOD with wakeboarding today is truly one of the only new innovations in ten years - initially coming out of Kiteboarding, Slingshot brothers Tony and Jeff Logosz bring to the table flex technology patented by SLINGSHOT WAKE – You can learn all the facts you want to know about Flex on the companies bran new website which will be launching this Monday 12/08/08! I highly recommend you check out the difference between what SlingShotSports.com form of FLEX and the ‘other’ brands supposed flex… the difference is critical in your decision to invest in the newest technology wakeboarding has seen in 10 years… trust me there is a reason the SlingShot wakeboard is the patented real deal, while all the other brands just offer a ‘flexy’ board!

Paul, no disrespect for your passion of what looks good in your eyes, but I seriously doubt that "a decent wakeboarder" could learn mobe's, mobe 5's and Whirly 7's in 10 attempts. If those tricks don't float your boat, that's cool but don't make them sound easy because there really not.

Randy - no worries - sorry I wasn't clear, what i meant was the basic back-roll, tanny, front etc can be learned in a few sessions... my bad.

Clearly anything with a 5 or 7 attached to it is a different story.

It's all good Paul, it's all about having fun anyway.

Exactly Randy! and inviting as many new people into the sport as possible to help spread the stoke of wake !!!

along with the Derome brothers, Olivier and Raphael, Yan Thibault is another you'll eventually hear alot about on rails...tons of style from that crew.

no disrespect paul, but what's the point of trying to separate the 2 different styles of riding? i think everyone knows that they're different styles from one another, but does one really define wakeboarding more than the other? the way i see it is, at the end of the day, whether you like one style or the other, it's still wakeboarding.

as much as i love watching poked out stalefish to bs180s, i also enjoy watching someone do mobes and even raley based tricks.

why is everyone trying not to disrespect me? FFF-orgetu guys if u dont know what REAL style is and who brings it! W$R or DIE !!!

jk Joe! seriously guys - its true, at the end of the day it is still wakeboarding and the bottom line is DIVERSITY!!! in style, in progression, and that is what will bring (back) wakeboarding closer to the front of action sports - are we in disagreement Joe, that wakeboarding has lost a lot of traction in the past several years in terms of technology, progression, and innovation?

I submit that is has and would be interested to hear your thoughts... and I would also be somewhat interested in knowing if other action sports are having these same discussions///

i think wakeboarding, in the public's eyes, have grown tremendously the last couple of years, with the emergence of the winch. it brought wakeboarding to the urban environment. does winching define wakeboarding? no, but it's just another piece of wakeboarding.

another thing to take into consideration is that riders are now landing 1080s and harf w/ his 1260. sure, you see it as "just adding another 180." but isn't stale-to-blind "just adding another 180" as well. it may not be your cup of tea, but it's still progression.

aside from those 2 things (winching and 10s), yes, wake had definitely lost its momentum. it will pick back up though. all board sports have gone through them.

i agree all board sports have had ups and downs. I really believe you are right and wakeboarding will come back! The winch and the Slingshot flex-style board are pushing the sport! It is exciting to see these innovations (which clearly came from frustrated riders taking the industry direction into their own hands - or companies merging other board technologies with wakeboarding to create what appear to be new innovations!)

I attest to this based on the fact that (joe &) I have been in this sport over a decade now and we have see what was totally new in 1996 with the bi-directional boards and killer line handles, towers, fat sacs (an on-board ballast)and dry-suits, and the list goes on... my point is that I can only think of two (actually) new technologies in wakeboarding over the last 10 years which have actually helped to advance the sport. - in my opinion (mind u) closed toe bindings, cool hardware, etc dosnt count - it mostly came from 10 year old snowboarding technology - and wake was forced to use it based on how progressive snowboarding has become... so how come snow and skate didnt need new technology to bust out so big?? mostly their stuff is the same especially skate... is it perhaps the 'people'? i would be interested in discussing that as well...

I think skateboarding is just the rawest one out there. Companies don’t try to sell their product with crazy gimmicks or new technologies, but rather they focus on building teams with sick riders to ride and promote their product. This makes the most sense to me because personally every board I have bought snow, skate, or wake has been influenced by the pro that rides that board, not so much the new tech. Skateboarding is not focused on new technologies or whatever because a skateboard is too simple, its just a deck of wood with trucks and wheels. In skateboarding its all about the riders, and most of the companies in skate are rider owned and operated. Another really cool aspect of skateboarding is the idea of riding and proving yourself as an am before you become pro. Snowboarding is just now starting to pick this up from skateboarding and it is so healthy for the sport. And going back to wake, slingshot is the biggest breath of fresh air! Take it in, take it in….ha. But seriously the way that company has grown and developed is really inspiring. One of the best things slingshot did was sign Jeff Mckee, one of the best freeriders in the sport, and then allow him to handpick riders who he thought were right for the team. That to me is a company that truly has faith and trust in their riders. When it comes down to its about the riders, at least that’s what companies should put their focus on. So I would say to everyone go shred anything and everything you can, go buy a camera and make some sick edits of your crew, just have fun and be thankful your alive well and shredding!

kaesen suyderhoud, robby carter, nick ennen, ben g, shane B

Got to throw my little list out there:

Randall Harris: Because he has ridden the same since he rode for waketech and Sound wakeboards.
Mike Schweenie: Pushing the next generation as hard as the current generation
Gregg Necrason: When the pro tour told him they would kick him off for doing 180's he still did.
Matt Staker: The guy just made wakeboarding look so fun.
Jimmy Wolf: Fun to have in the boat and a sick rider to watch. Still the only guy to jib a basketball hoop on a wakeboard.
Robbie Carter: He can do it all.
Greg Nelson: King of Style. Started Double up which in my opinion was the start of a revolution.
Scott Byerly: The Hook.
Danny Harf: Always progressing. His new Wrapped backside rodeo 7's are insane.

Evan Miller...he rips period.