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(THIS CONTEST ENDED ON 9/1/17)

Riders Choice Awards Archives:
2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016

It's one of my favorite times of the year. There is something special about hearing from our readers in the industry's ultimate opinion poll, the WakeWorld Riders Choice Awards Presented by CWB Board Co. Letting the world know what you think only makes future products and riders that much better. Plus, there's no better way to end the summer than to give away some great free gear to our readers.

We've combed through the data and come up with the winners in each category. Those lucky winners, both riders and companies, have been awarded with some pretty cool trophies. However, let's first address the awesome stuff that our readers will get for doing nothing more than submitting their ballots.

The WakeWorld Riders Choice Awards Presented by CWB Board Co. are well known for hooking up our voters handsomely, and 2017 is no different. Our presenting sponsor, CWB Board Co., as well as Kicker and Nectar Sunglasses have given up some goodies for our readers to enjoy. Check your email inbox to see if you're one of the lucky winners of the following amazing prizes...

• CWB Board Co. Wakeboard of choice
• CWB Board Co. Bindings of choice
• CWB Board Co. Wakesurf Board of choice
• CWB Board Co. Life Vest of choice
• CWB Board Co. Handle and Mainline of choice
• 5 Kicker KPw2 Bluetooth Speakers
• 10 Pairs of Nectar sunglasses

Ok, let's get down to it! In some categories, we had some new faces and in others we saw more of the same. Be sure to click on each category link below to see who took top honors and who got honorable mention.

The top of the Top Male Wakeboarders category changed for the second year in a row by re-installing the guy that's won the award six years in a row back to the top of the heap. We also saw a couple new faces in this category with Massi Piffaretti and Noah Flegel joining the group at the expense of Rusty Malinoski and Tony Iacconi. Nic Rapa made the biggest leap in this category moving up to #5 from #10 in 2016. Nic's name can also be found on another trophy that comes later in our survey. 

In the Top Female Wakeboarders category, the same five that represented in 2016 are back for 2017, but the order has been shuffled, including a change at the top.

In the fourth year of our Top Wakesurfers category, we managed to keep a Flegel in the top spot, so that family has pretty much owned this award since its inception. We also added a couple of new surfers to the mix.

In the Top Wakeskaters category, we had two newbies arrive and two veterans check out. We also had a change at the top as Brian Grubb and Reed Hansen continue to fight over the top spot year after year.

In the one category that will never have a repeat winner, the readers installed Cobe France as the Rookie of the Year. Last year's Rookie award winner not only appears in our Top Male Wakeboarder list, but he was also elected to receive the Most Improved Rider award.

Young gun Guenther Oka picked up his very first Riders Choice award by taking down the Rail Rider of the Year category, pushing last year's winner down to runner up status. Guenther also was a runner-up in the Cable Rider of the Year voting. An old face with many Riders Choice trophies sitting on his shelf, Tom Fooshee, was again at the top of the Cable Rider of the Year category.

Moving on from riders to products, this year's Wakeboard of the Year is Danny Harf's pro model, which has seen it's share of time at the top of these ranking. The same Danny Harf pro model ended up as the runner up in the Binding of the Year category. Topping that category is a newcomer from Liquid Force, the Trek 4D.

The Wakesurf Board of the Year remains in the hands of Liquid Force, but the model has changed from the Happy Pill in 2016 to the Pod this year. The top of the Wakeskate of the Year category has flip-flopped between the same two boards over the last few years, so you know the voting has been close. 2017 Will have the Ronix Boomstick back in the top spot over the Liquid Force Tao, which dropped down to the second runner up position.

Rounding out the equipment categories, we award Tige with the Innovation of the Year for their first trophy in that category. Our readers told us that Tige's Alpha E2 Powered Tower was the coolest product introduction over the past 12 months.

Although it seems like the choices are getting fewer by the year, we did have a couple full-length videos this year. The one that ended up winning the Video of the Year category was The Magic Carpet from Reach Films. When it comes to the Web Video of the Year, the readers spoke and they gave the award to Full Send by JB O'Neill.

This is our fourth year of bringing you two boat categories; Wakeboarding Boat of the Year and Wakesurfing Boat of the Year. However, we continue to see the same name on both of the trophies as the Super Air Nautique G23 won them both again. That's five years in a row for Wakeboarding Boat of the Year and four years in a row for Wakesurfing Boat of the Year. The Malibu M235 came in as a close runner up in both categories.

Be sure to click on the links below to see the full results for every category and jump on the links at the top of the pages if you want to see the Riders Choice Awards for the previous years. Thanks to everybody that submitted a vote and to all the sponsors that provided such great prizes!

• Top Ten Male Riders
• Top Five Female Riders
• Top Five Wakesurfers
• Top Five Wakeskaters
• Rookie of the Year
• Most Improved Rider
• Rail Rider of the Year
• Cable Rider of the Year

• Wakeboard of the Year
• Binding of the Year
• Wakesurf Board of the Year
• Wakeskate of the Year
• Video of the Year
• Web Video of the Year
• Innovation of the Year
• Wakeboarding Boat of the Year
• Wakesurfing Boat of the Year

 

Riders Choice Awards Archives:
2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016