NorCal INT League Wakesurf - 5/26

The one thing that struck me about this years series starter was the improvement in skills over last year. It was great to see such an increase in participation from last year also.

First and foremost I want to personally thank my judges. Dennis Horton of the Walker Project, Jerry Price of Shred Stixx, Mike Armstrong of Calibrated Wakesurfers and Marlin Clegg of Cybershapes. Thank you gentlemen for your time and commitment to the sport AND for your support of the INT League and the American Wakesurf Association.

Jerry Price and his brand spanking new Stixxmobile. Sweet ride Jerry!

Dennis Horton of the Walker Project and Kit Stocks an Inland Surfer team rider. As always Dennis, thank you for all of your expertise and effort.

Miek Armstrong (in the foreground) of Calibrated and Jerry Price of Shred Stixx. Again, thank you gentlemen for your time and expertise.

Marlin Clegg of Cybershapes in the background and his daughter, Haley, holding up one of his products. Thanks Marlin for taking on the Master's Division judging on such short notice, even though you got the finishing order wrong!

The lineup of the trophies - Billy making sure everything is lined up

Just a couple of prizes from our sponsors - the dbot5 surf rack and a box of Wakesurfing Magazine.

Thanks guys!

And some of the riders! Here is Dennis riding the Shred Stixx Noserider for the first time. In the Master's division it was the first time any of us had ridden this board. Great fun!

A BIG HAND to Eric Pettinger - his first time ever on a wakesurfer. Eric owns the lakes.

The Novice division on the starboard side. Robert Garcia.

Whitney Garcia. I should add, I will get some better pictures of all the contestants from Bree and I will post those shortly.

Justin Payton

Chad Payton

Kit Stocks - Inland Surfer team rider.

Shawna Hoffman - Epic Boats newest team rider, one of the stars in the Chick Fick.

Wakeskate Mike Kozacek airing out the Calibrated Piscus.

Austin Day, this was the only clear picure I had - Austin rips...me...not so much with a camera.

Ryan Fair on a Telum had a great run.

Swapping ballast and sides...Oh shoot...I got stikkep, I'm sure that Brea has sufficiently embarassing pictures of me. Master's division continues with Jerry Price on his newest creation. That was fun Jerry.

Check Mike Armstrong of Calibrated tearing it up with the Longboard!

I believe this is Ashley Garcia. Nice smooth run.

Blake Payton riding a Poly U Calibrated.

Kristen Hinther riding a new Liquid Force Custom.

Judy Walker on the sparkly bass boat board

Lindsey Hinter, winner of the Women's at the AzWA contest.

Raequel Hoffman, also an Epic Boats sponsored rider - you can see her incredible wakeboarding talent in the Chick Flick.

Justim Montgomery from Riverside and second place in the men's at AzWA contest riding the LF Custom he won there.

Billy Bassett, showing off his fluid style.

Chase Hazen on his signature Shred Stixx.

Final rider of the day, James as he landing a surface 7.

On to the awards, first our "most" group winners:
From left:

Most Enthusiastic: Breanne Horton
Most Unique Style: Kristen Hinther
Best Effort: Ashley Garcia
Most Creative Raequel Hoffman
Most Improved: Josh Twelker

Novice Division winners:

First: Josh Twelker
Second: Chad Payton
Third: Justin Payton

Women's Division winners:

First: Lindsey Hinther
Second: Judy Walker
Third: Kit Stocks

Master's Division winners:

First: Mike Armstrong
Second: Jerry Price
Third: Jeff Walker

The best of the best - Men's Advanced winners:

First: James Walker
Second: Ryan Fair
Third: Mike Kozacek

We had some great prizes given away at this first contest. Ashley Garcia gladly accepts the new Cybershapes 5'0" Camo from Marlin Clegg.

Thank you again Marlin and the entire family for your generous support.

Another new board for Kit Stocks, this time a shiny new Calibrated Telum. Mike Armstrong of Calibrated is part of the driving force of wakesurfing.

Congratulations to all our winners and a heartfelt thank you to our sponsors that attended and had product available for our prizes:

Calibrated Wakesurfing
Cybershapes
the Walker Project
XBC - Xtreme Board Company
Wakesurfing Magazine
dbot5
Neptunes Marine Audio

Love the Stixx Mobile

me too, that's a sweet ride.

Isn't that sweet? Jerry was saying this was the first event he's taken the truck too. He has a slightly massaged 350 in it.

Thanx Guys. We for sure, produced the best wake yesterday of all the contest we have had at Villa Lagos. It is a shallow man made pond which makes wake quality difficult. Thanx to Jeff Walker and his Tige' all went well. We had height and steepness but could not quite get enough length for us noseriders to test the new board well. Let us know how it goes Mon. on a deep lake Jeff. Took 2 hours to wash all the "Bug Juice" off my new panel after driving thru the rice pattys on HWY 5 last night!!!!!! I'm sure your boat looked the same. Stupid bugs!!

Just though everyone should see a pic of Jeff Walker showing us all how its done

Yeah, I landed that one too.

I've heard of hanging heels but it was over the nose. Jeff should have got "Most Creative"

A few pictures and thank you's I forgot. Billy Basset went home with the BFH Billy was taking the photos after the contest and we didn't get him receiving the XBC Fish. Rectifying that oversight - Bill and the board.

You mean to tell me that you don't hang heel's over the rail?! All these years I've been doing it wrong.

You're right Jerry about the venue, it's a tough one to get a "great" wake, but we had surfable wakes the entire event. I know we've come away from a few, in the past, feeling bad for some of the kids, but this event was adequate for all of the riders. I think we have learned that 8 foot deep lakes can be used for surf contests.

I know it's fun for everyone, but we are also charting some fairly new territory - the 'out of the box' thinking we are using to throw a sucessful surf contest in shallow water is something I am proud of us in achieving. You, Dennis and Mike are truly pioneers in the sport. Just a little over a year ago most of the pundits were saying we couldn't even do it...that we couldn't even develop a surfable wake at that depth and THIS year, we are holding a longboard division in that shallow water.

On to the forgotten thank you's. A big THANK YOU to Bunny Horton for all of her organizing skills with the riders coming off the boat. Also Annie Clegg for her assistance with getting the prize drawing in order! Welcome to the community. Also to Haley and Holly for their help with drawing the names!

definitely looks like you guys threw a fun contest. wish I could have made it up.

Looks like a good time. I'm sad I missed it. When is the next one?

Bre Horton was our offical photographer and, as usual, did a marvelous job of picture taking. She was also kind enough to resize all of the pictures for me. I'm just going to post the pictures without captions. Thanks Bre for all of your skills and effort. Also thanks to all the competitors!

Sweet Pics