February 16th, 2008 is a date to remember for those of us who enjoy remembering dates. The Adrenalina store in Miami held it’s official grand opening on this special Saturday afternoon, with $2.000 on the line for the winner of the flow rider contest.  You see, Adrenalina is so extreme they have an indoor surf machine called the flow rider, which basically allows you to surf and get worked in the middle of a mall.  Sure enough several wakeskaters were invited from up north (yes, when you live in Miami just about every wakeskater is from “up north”) and made the journey down to enjoy in the festivities.  The wakeskater lineup included Nick Taylor, Matt Manzari, Ryan Lemons, Stef Tor, and Brandon Thomas.  Several other notable riders were also there including Tino Santori and Jimmy Watson.

The event kicked off with a live band rocking out while customers shredded the artificial wave on the flow rider.  The store was jammed packed all day and there were people lined up outside watching what was going on.  Multiple skateboard demos went down right in the middle of the store, including some skating action by Ninja the skating bulldog.  Several autograph signing sessions also took place and many customers were thrilled to receive a Adrenalina poster signed by their favorite riders.  Stef Tor, who was still injured due to an unfortunate accident at the Dallas boat show, also made an appearance and spread the stoke with a UGP product giveaway.  Shortly after, the crowd moved towards the glassed-in flow rider to watch the wakeskaters put on a fun demo.

The demo quickly transitioned into the flow rider contest as store employees brought out a dry erase board with the contest lineup.  The four heats of four riders was quickly narrowed down to the final three, which included a local ripper Cody Morrow and wakeskating’s own Nick Taylor and Matt Manzari.  It was a close call, but the judges came back and said that there was a tie between Matt and Cody.  An intense head-to-head best trick heat took place, and somehow the young local Cody Morrow squeezed by and took first, leaving Matt in second and Nick in third.  Some might suspect a little unfair judging, but that’s the way it always seems.  At the end of the day, everyone who attended had a great time celebrating the opening of this new extreme store, which now calls Miami home.

 Be sure to check back to the pages of Alliancewake.com and Alliance Wakeskate for even more coverage of the action at Adrenalina coming soon!