(THIS CONTEST ENDED ON 9/1/09)
Riders Choice Awards Archives:
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I love this time of year because it's when we get to hear from our readers and find out what they think about the riders and the products in the wake industry. You made 2009 another record-breaking year for participation in our 9th Annual Riders Choice Awards. We have tabulated the results and now your collective voices will be heard! WakeWorld appreciates your participation and thanks everyone for making a statement about the riders and products that make up wakesports.
In addition to making a statement to the wake industry, each entrant got the chance to pick up some free wake goodies from Company, Remote, CWB Board Co., Liquid Force Clothing, Dragon, Monster and Boardstop.com.
As if it wasn't obvious from the stack of prizes below, you can see that Company, our presenting sponsor, hooked up our winners in a big way with all kinds of gear, while our other sponsors made sure our winners look stylish and have plenty to do when they're off the water! Check your email inbox to see if you're the winner of one of the following prizes...
So what do the results look like for 2009? There were some big surprises and some that will not exactly knock you off your seat.
We've got a new leader in the Top Male Wakeboarders category as Aaron Rathy made one of the biggest leaps in the history of the Riders Choice Awards moving up to #1 from his #7 spot in 2008. Unfortunately, that ends Rusty Malinoski's run at the top after two years, but Rusty still maintains a very respectable #2 position.
We've only got one newcomer to the top ten with Harley Clifford coming in at #8. Two riders that took a break from the top ten last year, but are back for 2009 are Andrew Adkison (#7) and Parks Bonifay (#9). Those three new faces pushed out Randall Harris, JD Webb and Austin Hair.
In the Top Female Wakeboarders category, Dallas Friday maintains her perfect win record, dominating the category since we started nine years ago. The rest of the riders in this category pretty much remained unchanged, but Amber Wing and Nicola Butler switched positions with Nicola moving up one spot to #2 and Amber dropping back to #3.
Last year, Aaron Reed broke Brian Grubb's win streak in the Top Wakeskaters category, but for 2009 Brian has managed to work his way back to the top. Just like in the Top Females category, other than a little shuffling, this category kept the same five players as we had in 2008.
It's no surprise that the one newcomer to the Top Wakeboarders category is also the winner of the the Rookie of the Year category. Harley Clifford was the first rookie rider to with the Pro Tour since Parks Bonifay did it back in 1996, so we all saw this coming.
Our top wakeboarder, Aaron Rathy, picks up his second award for 2009 with his second consecutive Most Improved Rider award. It's also the second year in a row where Aaron will be taking home two Riders Choice trophies.
Shifting from riders to products, this year's Wakeboard of the Year is a newcomer. Rusty Malinoski's pro model, the Hyperlite Marek, topped the voting ending a three-year battle between the Liquid Force Watson and Ronix One. However, the Watson/One battle continues in the Binding of the Year category as the Ronix One has once again grabbed the top spot from the Liquid Force Watson making it four straight years of back and forth for these two binding models.
The Byerly Legacy continued its dominance of the Wakeskate of the Year category with its third win in as many tries. Also maintaining position is the Liquid Force SST in the #2 spot. The #3 spot welcomes back the Hyperlite Catalyst to the top three.
After being the first board to ever knock the Hyperlite Broadcast off the top of the Wakesurf Board of the Year category in 2008, the Liquid Force Custom has repeated as the winner for 2009. The Broadcast came in at #2 and the Ronix Koal makes it's first appearance in the top three at #3.
Boat of the Year again goes to the MasterCraft X-Star, an honor that boat has held since its introduction back in 2003. The Malibu Wakesetter VLX again held down the #2 spot and the Super Air Nautique 230 rounded out the top three.
The Innovation of the Year competition was tight, but went to the new portable cable system, Sesitec System 2.0. Garnering the second most votes was the Epic 23E Hybrid wakeboard boat. Malibu's Maliview digital dash was also a runner up.
Last, but not least, is the Video of the Year category. This year it went to the Billabong team video, Out of the Pond with Rewritten and Global Warning coming in at #2 and #3 respectively.
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 each page 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!
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