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

At the turn of the century we came up with the idea for the WakeWorld Riders Choice Awards Presented by O'Brien. Now we have the honor of bringing you the 16th set of results from this industry-leading opinion poll. As the most-read wake publication in the world, we have our readers to thank for the incredible success of our vote-driven survey. The WakeWorld Riders Choice Awards presented by O'Brien not only puts a cherry on the top of another great summer of wakeboarding, but they also allow us some insight into the minds of our readers.

After running our algorithms on the database of votes, we came up with the winners in each category and handed out some glass hardware at Surf Expo in Orlando to each one. However, before we reveal the riders and products that you voted as the biggest deals for 2016, let's talk about all the prizes we are handing out to the voters (that's you) just for participating.

As great as it is to have your voice heard by the industry, we like to add a little extra incentive to get as many people voting as possible in the WakeWorld Riders Choice Awards Presented by O'Brien, so we asked our presenting sponsor, O'Brien, as well as Kicker and Nectar Sunglasses to give up some goodies for our readers. Check your email inbox to see if you're one of the lucky winners of the following amazing prizes...

• O'Brien Wakeboard of choice
• O'Brien Bindings of choice
• O'Brien Wakesurf Board of choice
• O'Brien Life Vest of choice
• O'Brien Handle and Mainline of choice
• 3 Pairs of Kicker Cushblu Wireless headphones
• 2 Kicker KPw Bluetooth speakers
• 5 Pairs of Nectar sunglasses

So how did things shake out for 2016? Well, it depends on what category you're looking at. We had plenty of movement and we had some unchanged categories as well. Be sure to click on each category to see who took top honors and who got honorable mention.

The top of the Top Male Wakeboarders category changed for the first time since Harley Clifford started his domination back in 2010. There was quite a bit of shuffling throughout the top 10 as well with half of the riders from last year's rankings getting replaced. That means we've got five fresh faces; two that have been in the top 10 in previous years (Steel Lafferty, Shaun Murray) and three that made the grade for the first time ever in 2016 (Tony Iacconi, Jeff Langley, Nic Rapa). In fact, Nic has his name mentioned in three different categories for 2016, more than any other rider. 

In the Top Female Wakeboarders category, we also had a change at the top, with a former #1 making her way back to the top after taking some time off to have a baby. The rest of the top four are all returning from our 2015 rankings with a few minor movements.

In only the third year of our Top Wakesurfers category, we ended up with a Flegel in the top spot once again, so that family continues to dominate the category. We had two new riders added to the mix as well.

In the Top Wakeskaters category, the top rider from 2015 is back for another year in the #1 position.  Reed ceded the top spot to the guy he took it from five years ago. We had two new faces joining the line-up, one former winner and one first-timer.

As mentioned before, Nic Rapa not only appeared in our Top Male Wakeboarder category, but he also picked up a trophy for Rookie of the Year and a runner-up spot in the Most Improved Rider category. The winner of the Most Improved Rider category, Tony Iacconi, was also the #2 finisher from our Top Male Wakeboarder list.

We had another brand new face show up in the Rail Rider of the Year category when Aaron Gunn grabbed his first trophy ever. Aaron also was a second runner-up in the Cable Rider of the Year voting. An old face with many Riders Choice trophies sitting on his shelf, Tom Fooshee, picked up another by topping 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. In fact, the same Danny Harf pro model also leads the way in the 2016 Binding of the Year category. In fact, Danny's pro models have probably spent more time in position #1 than any other product in the history of the Riders Choice Awards.

The top of the Wakeskate of the Year category has flip-flopped between the same two boards over the last couple of years, so you know the voting has been close. 2016 Will have the Liquid Force Obscura Tao back in the top spot over the Ronix Boomstick. The Wakesurf Board of the Year remains unchanged with the Liquid Force Happy Pill again garnering the most votes.

Rounding out the equipment categories, we award Malibu with the Innovation of the Year for the second year in a row. Our readers told us that Malibu's Integrated Surf Platform was the coolest product introduction over the past 12 months.

It's great to see that the full-length video category is still alive and kicking (unlike 2013). Even better is that Trever Maur is the one keeping it alive with Dog Dayz taking the Video of the Year win. When it comes to the Web Video of the Year, the readers spoke and they gave the award to Seasons by Remedy Films.

This is our third 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 four years in a row for Wakeboarding Boat of the Year and three years in a row for Wakesurfing Boat of the Year.

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