So-Cal stepped up the world of wakeboarding competitions this past Sunday. Actually, they ran up a whole flight of stairs. The Black Top Oasis slider competition, held at California Correct Craft and the Green House Ride Shop in Norco, was crazy.
    Take a 50-foot pool, raise it 20 feet off the ground, build three different rails out of it, add another 50-foot pool at the bottom, and you’ve got the playing field for the Black Top Oasis. Riders from all over the country came to take a shot at the $3000 first place prize, including Parks Bonifay, Nick Ennen, Keith Lidberg, Brian Francis, Tino Santori, and Jimmy Wolf, not to mention SoCal’s own Kyle Murphy, Cody Hall, Tyler Killingsworth, Ricky Gonzalez, and Melissa Marquardt.
    When you a get a group of riders like this together with this kind of set up, let’s just say you’re gonna see some serious shit go down. The three slider options out of the pool were a flat, fun box shape on the right, a hand rail down the middle, and a kinked rail on the left. Once the riders got the winch dialed in and had a feel for the rails, the competition got under way.
    The crowd was entertained all night long, by both the successful slides and sketchy crashes, as well as the free shwag being thrown out by the event’s sponsors who were on hand to support the event. No Fear, Hyperlite, DVS, DSO, Oakley, DaHui, Utopia Optics, Fusion, and even Wahoo’s Fish Tacos were all on hand to make the contest happen. Some of the favorite tricks of the night were Cody Hall’s front lip gap over the kinked rail and nearly riding out of the pool, and Jimmy Wolf’s spin combos on and off the rails.
    After killing the rails all night, then nailing a sick transfer from the kinked rail to the hand rail, Keith Lidberg walked away with first place. Third went to local Tyler Killingsworth who was one of the most consistent riders throughout the entire event. The best part of the evening was the riders themselves got to decide who walked away with the money.
    All in all it was a sick event, and one that should definitely be repeated annually. Of course, Alliance was there to cover it, so be on the lookout for magazine content and video clips soon.