Date: 08/16/01
Author: Wakestock Press Release

Related Items:
2001 Wakestock World Cup Festival Announced
2001 Wakestock World Cup Video Rewind
2001 Wakestock World Cup Competition Results

"I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s the best event I’ve ever been to for so many reasons. I wish there were more events like this!", exclaimed Shaun Murray, reigning World Wakeboarding Champion and new Wakestock 2001 Expression Session Champion. And so ended WAKESTOCK 2001, the most progressive and largest wakeboarding event in the world.

From August 9-12 the fourth annual WAKESTOCK WORLD WAKEBOARDING FESTIVAL attracted 25,000 wakeboarding and core sports enthusiasts to the tiny resort town of Bala, Muskoka, Ontario Canada for what has become one of the most popular stops on the world wakeboarding tour. Promoted as "Four Days of Boarding, Bands and Bikinis", Wakestock has garnered equal reputations for hard core riding as well as hard core partying. Wakestock 2001 did not disappoint on either account.

Presented by Malibu Boats and Coors Light, and supported by Billabong, Neil Pryde and SBC Wakeboard Magazine, Wakestock 2001 enjoyed four near perfect days of warm and sunny conditions to host the sport’s top professional riders. Reigning world champion Shaun Murray, World Cup and defending X-Games champ Darin Shapiro, US Pro Tour champion Parks Bonifay, Wakestock defending champion Rob Struharik, Australian champion Daniel Watkins, and Wakeskate guru Brian Grubb were the superstar attractions among an elite field battling for $25,000 US in prize money.

Muskoka is Canada’s summer vacation playground to the rich and famous, featuring a series of inter-connected lakes dotted with thousands of islands and encompassed by hundreds of quiet bays and coves. Little wonder, then, that Muskoka is also Canada’s wakeboarding capital with dozens of wakeboard schools and shops, hundreds of wakeboard boats, and thousands of wakeboarders. The party town of BALA, is Muskoka’s wakeboarding epicenter and the summer home of SBC Wakeboard Magazine, the brains behind Wakestock.

Wakestock features four different pro events : Men and Women’s Pro Expression Session, Men’s Pro Railslide (with equal prize money to Expression Session), Pro Wakeskate, and a Nighttime Double-Up Invitational. The railslide event is the biggest in the world, featuring a giant fun box with an upper metal rail that rises 12 feet off the water and stretches 72 feet in length. The rest of the slider course is flushed out with a rainbow, a kicker and smaller funbox.

While the pro events are the main attraction on the water, its all of the crazy stuff that takes place on shore that make Wakestock so unique and so popular. Every night there is a party going on somewhere in town, not too mention private cottage parties all around the lakes. Most of the pros stay at the Bala Bay Inn, which is the official event hotel and party headquarters. It’s a rad old hotel complete with a rustic Canadian small town bar, party deck, dance floor, and even a VIP room, where several NHL hockey players are usually hanging out. The hotel is only steps away from the competition site and the other bars and restaurants in town. The biggest bar in town is the Kee To Bala, one of Canada’s oldest concert halls. It’s a giant wooden party palace with a huge deck overlooking Bala Bay where all of the competitions take place, including the Malibu Nighttime "Big Air" Double-Up event, literally within spitting or beer passing distance of the deck.

The whole main street of Bala becomes a massive wakeboarding festival village stretching from the Competition Park to the Kee To Bala bar a 1/4 mile away, and filled with surf wear, wakeboard and boat displays from over 50 different exhibitors representing all of the leading brands. On top of that there is an 80 foot Freestyle Motocross Jump right in the middle of the street, a Skateboard Mini-Ramp sessioned by top skate pros and several of the the pro wakeboarders, bands playing on roof tops, beer patios, and girls in bikinis everywhere.

On the water, there are hundreds of boats anchored or raft-tied watching all the events. In the Competition Park there is a floating stage where DJs, including a impromptu session by Parks Bonifay, are spinning, and where punk band Sector 7 played, and where the Miss Wakestock Bikini Contest takes place. There is also the Coors Light Beer Garden right on the waterfront so you can watch the top pros perform while relaxing with a cold brew.

Largest Amateur Event in the World

Wakestock first kicked off with its annual Amateur Championship, which this year was sanctioned as a National Team and National Championship qualifier event for up & coming Canadian athletes. The largest amateur event of its kind in the world, the Wakestock Amateur Championship attracted a record 275 wakeboarders, the majority who are cottagers from the Muskoka area.

Amateurs competed in Novice, Intermediate and Advanced divisions, as well as in separate age categories for $15,000 in prizes. "One of the most exciting developments at Wakestock this year was the growing number of new and young athletes attending Wakestock", enthused Jarrett. "Novice was the largest of all competitor divisions, and the 12 & Under category grew by over 400% attracting 54 riders, the youngest of which was seven years old."

The top three male amateur riders, including up & coming Muskoka local, Austin Ball, qualified through to the Wakestock Pro Championship. "Muskoka is truly becoming Canada’s hotbed for developing our next generation of top world class wakeboarders, and Wakestock is where they get showcased and are given a chance to see and compete against the world’s best", said SBC Wakeboard Magazine Editor, Bryan Gardner, a local Muskoka cottager and former pro rider himself. "The level of competition in the Men’s Amateur Advanced Division was incredibly high. We’re going to see a lot of new talent break into the pros in the next few years from this group."

Pro Railslide

After missing last year’s event with a knee injury, 2001 Pro Tour champ, Parks Bonifay of Lake Alfred, Florida, re-captured the Wakestock World Cup Pro Railslide title he had earned in 1999. It took three long rounds of elimination,starting on Friday to narrow the field to a mere eight riders for the final. Stiff competition came from world champ, Shaun Murray, Wakestock 2000 champ, Rob Struharik, Malibu Boats team rider Gerry Nunn, and top seed, as well as little brother to Parks, Shane Bonifay. Parks rarely fell in his five minute final session, nailing some of the toughest and most exciting tricks ever seen on floating obstacles.

"The highlight of my run had to be the 270 frontside boardslide transfer on the big funbox. I had been trying it in practice all week and it came together in the finals. The guys did such a great job building it. I think it’s the best rail slide I’ve ever had the chance to ride," Bonifay offered after his finals run.

When asked about competing against his brother he said, "It’s such a different world when I’m on the water. When I was out there I knew I had to step it up because he was riding so well this weekend, but when I’m on the dock, I just want to see him ride as well as I know he can. We’re great friends and ride together at home so it’s more about being pumped on good riding than the fixation of winning."

Brother Shane finished just behind Parks in a close second after holding the lead in qualifying up to the finals. "I was stoked that Wakestock had someone with a snowboard judging background in the boat judging sliders, instead of the water ski judges we usually get," commented Shane. "I just want to look like a snowboarder when I ride sliders. I want to be like JP Walker."

Local Muskoka pro rider, Chris Guard, who spent most of his winter in Florida training this year, shocked spectators and top pros alike by earning a spot in the finals as the only Canadian. He took home a very respectable 8th place.

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Pro Expression Session

In the Pro Expression Session competition, Canada was, once again, treated to a look at it’s young future hopefuls with the performances of Winnipeg rider, Neil Brown, and Muskoka local rider, Austin Ball. The two Canadians finished 8th and 7th respectively. Ball is the first Amateur rider to ever climb the competition ladder all the way to the top in Wakestock’s 4-year history. In order to do so he rode in Amateur qualifying competition on Thursday morning then in the Amateur finals in the afternoon earning a spot in pro qualifying that evening. The eighteen-year-old Liquid Force rider then followed his Thursday performance with the same high quality riding in Friday’s semi-finals to ride in the eight-person finals Saturday afternoon. In all, Austin Ball competed against 75 riders to achieve this goal. Local Muskoka rider, Scott Duke, had been the best Amateur prior to Ball when last year he made it to the Pro semi-finals before being eliminated.

At the top of Pro Expression Session results it was reigning world champ, Shaun Murray, who took top honors. Murray, a two time world champion and, arguably, the most popular rider among kids today, was forced to step up his degree of difficulty after falling halfway through his first pass while performing a Blind Judge. The maneuver is one of the most difficult in the sport but one that the 24-year-old Floridian has perfected in contests over the years. He came down the course in pass two with a Wrapped KGB and Frontside 540 before going after the Blind Judge one more time and riding away flawlessly. He finished out his run with a Tantrum to Blind, Whirlybird and Frontside 540 from the heelside on his Double-Up.

"Most people don’t know this, but I get so nervous before I ride in contests", said Murray. "Seeing how many people were in this crowd watching today just blew me away. I felt like I was going to throw up when I looked up before I left the dock. I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s the best event I’ve ever been to for so many reasons. I wish there were more events like this. Thanks for having us Bala."

Murray joins Jeff Heer (1998), Darin Shapiro (1999) and Rob Struharik (2000) as the four winners to be crowned Wakestock Expression Session champions. Heer, Shapiro and Murray all have world titles under their list of achievements. Shane Bonifay took the runner up position for the second time this weekend and Australian Daniel Watkins, currently ranked 4th in the world, stood on the podium in third.

Malibu Night Big Air Double Up

In the other Wakestock pro events it was team Australia who took top position in the Malibu Boats Night Big Air competition. For the first time, a team competition format was used in the event which pitted Team Canada vs. Team Australia vs. Team USA for $1500 in prize money. Teams consisted of four riders receiving two jumps each with the best two making up the final score. On team Aussie, it was the Front Mobe of Daniel Watkins and Honorary Aussie Rob Struharik’s Method Crow Mobe 540 that the sealed the win. Top jumps from Team USA were provided by Shaun Murray with a massive Blind Judge and Gerry Nunn with a 313, giving them second place. Team Canada finished third with the jumps of Jamie Rizzuto and Kris Killick.

Pro Wakeskate

In the Pro Wakeskate event, it was the riding of Brian Grubb, possibly the best in the World, that took the win. Grubb was one of the only riders to incorporate railsliding into his run, upping the level of difficulty category, as there are no bindings used on a wakeskate. Grubb also finished in the top eight in the Pro Railslide competition earlier, pitting his "skateboard on water" against riders using the traditional board and bindings set-up. This is the first time a wakeskater has ever made it to a final in Pro wakeboarding competition. "I really liked how the sliders were a main emphasis of the contest - and they were really big sliders for a contest," enthused Grubb. "Wakestock is an amazing contest as well as party. I’ll definitely be back next year." French Canadians Thomas Rinfret and Alan Ayoub finished second and third respectively.

Festival Highlights

There was almost too much to see and do at Wakestock, but several highlights stood out:

• Two days of free wakeboarding demos behind their pro wakeboard boats had non-stop line-ups, and some of the boards available were next year’s prototypes.
  
• The Freestyle Motocross Exhibition starring Jason Thorn, one of Canada’s top jumpers, had the crowds screaming.
  
• The Malibu Boats "Meet The Pros" reception at their local dealership, Sun & Ski’s showroom was a big hit with the amateur riders who got a chance to get autographs from the likes of Gerry Nunn and Aaron Lepin.
  
• The Kee To Bala had two concerts that were sold out. The first was with Canadian alternative rock band Treble Charger, the second was with a disco band called The Travoltas. The Travoltas night was really more of a massive, crazy party than a concert, and has become a Saturday night Wakestock tradition, right after the Malibu Nighttime Double-Up, which is, itself, one of the biggest highlights of Wakestock.
  
• Then there’s the . . .

Miss Wakestock Bikini Contest

Perhaps the most popular of all the Festival activities was the annual Miss Wakestock Bikini Contest presented by Coors Light and Billabong Surf Wear, which, along with the Pro Men’s Expression Session drew the largest crowds of Wakestock Weekend. Local cottager, Miranda Fratton took top prize in the Bikini Contest winning a spot in the Miss Canada Bikini Pageant, as well as a photo feature in an upcoming issue of Urban Male Magazine. Naomi Walter of Thornhill finished second, followed by Vivian Leeparks of Ottawa.

Bikini judges once again featured a line-up of local and national celebrities, including: Miss Toronto Universe; Pro Freeskier Phil Belanger of Quebec City; Senior Writer of Urban Male Magazine, Chris Tessaro; Freestyle Motocross Pro, Jason Thorn; defending Wakestock Champion, Rob Struharik; Much Music celebrity, "Ed The Sock", and local Bala celebrity Bob Sutton, who won the Coors Light Bikini contest judge draw at the Bala Bay Inn.

Wakestock Attracted National and International Media

As the largest wakeboarding event in the world, Wakestock attracts media from all across Canada, as well as internationally. Wakestock will air later this fall in Canada on OLN TV, and in the USA on Fox Sports "Blue Torch Rush Hour." Canada’s Much Music and Musique Plus (Quebec) music video networks will also feature Wakestock. Wakestock will also be featured in Wake TV’s upcoming video release.

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