Red Bull Wake Open Results

All Canadians (whose names start with R) take the boat final with Raph leading things off and Rathy and Rusty in second and third respectively! See the results, photos and video at http://www.wakeworld.com/news/featur...-1-of-3-2.html.

Originally Posted by wakeworld

All Canadians (whose names start with R) take the boat final with Raph leading things off and Rathy and Rusty in second and third respectively!

Sorry to rain on your July 4th parade: Canadians owning it right now. Should they just give the overall title to Raph right now?

Wow, these guys are boosting off that wake. Bob Soven does the biggest backside 5 i've ever seen.

I just hope the park portion isn't won by the person who just spins the most amount of times again, or a copy cat double fest. Also amazing some of the same old riders still get invited when their runs have been the same for years (not talking about the winners)

Bob Soven wins the Big Air kicker contest with Aaron Rathy and Daniel Grant in second and third respectively. Looks like Rathy is the favorite for the overall title now!

Photos and video from the Big Air event are available now at http://www.wakeworld.com/news/featur...--big-air.html. Enjoy!

If you stop the boat video at the 5 second mark it looks like a completely new system binding.

My lord the wake off that BU is immense!!JD Webb was hitting it hard today.

def a new binding.... its weird they cant make the toecaps work properly. def a ton of retooling needed.

Anyone notice the board Lariche was riding in the park portion? Looks like a new Hyperlite flex board. Plus he had some different systems.

Is there a complete recap video somewhere for us non US citizens?

The TV show isn't online as far as I know, but we have four videos (one for each event and one for overall) that you can check out. Go to http://www.wakeworld.com/news/featur...--overall.html for Park and Overall and then follow the links to the first two events.

Originally Posted by wakeworld

The TV show isn't online as far as I know, but we have four videos (one for each event and one for overall) that you can check out. Go to http://www.wakeworld.com/news/featur...--overall.html for Park and Overall and then follow the links to the first two events.

Thanks!

How does Phil Soven, the most consistent boat contest performer of the last decade, not even make the finals behind his own boat?

The big air down ramp thing is kind of a joke. Maybe the riders are going bigger than they would off of a normal kicker, but the landing ramp is so huge that it makes the gap and the jumps look small. Also, the riders certainly weren't doing any better tricks off the "big air" than they were doing off the normal kickers in the park. So what's the point? The "big air" tricks don't look bigger--they look smaller. And the tricks are less technical--less rotations, no doubles, etc. So why even have it? If the point is simple a matter of actual height or distance, then get a measuring tape out and incorporate that into the judging and the show. If the riders really are going bigger than they would off a normal kicker, give us the numbers so we can appreciate it because you just can't see it by eyeballing it.

Even without the landing ramp (like last year), I still don't see a reason to have big air be a separate category from park. The park includes kickers. If big air and park are separate categories, then boat and double up should be separate categories.

Honestly I think wakeboarding could do without big air altogether. It's not like snowboarding where bigger air means more time to get in more rotations. No one's doing 1260s or double mobes in big air. No one's even doing 1080s. Or even 900s! And I don't think the riders do big air for fun...I think it's pretty hard on their ankles and knees. Which is probably the real point of the down ramp--to give the riders a softer landing. But on the other hand it defeats the only point of big air which is looking like you're going huge.

I do think it's kind of neat to get a bunch of boat and cable riders together and have them compete in each other's categories, but it is kind of like putting a bunch of apples and oranges together and crowning the best applrange or orangple. It seems a little strange to call the winner of this competition the "best wakeboarder in the world." I personally think it's more impressive to win King of Wake than to come out on top of a single contest--especially a contest as unique and strange as this one.

Feel like a great opportunity was missed, as watching this event was straight boring. Features were too elaborate and packed in there, riders weren't pushing it at all, the interviews were just plain uncomfortable, there was no excitement at all, copying tricks from someone who complains about people in Florida copying tricks, and the waste of using a quarter pipe yet again. That stall wall was silly, the quarter pipe was off to the side, not sure how or why anyone would hit it, which is disappointing because there are some guys out there doing unique stuff on them that never get played because it's never set up correctly. Last year I was excited to show people the Wake Open on the dvr, this years was just boring. Did JD just automatically qualify or something, can't believe they even showed those runs.