South Florida’s premiere wakeboard festival hits the beach April 23-25, 2009 in Miami, FL.

Board Up™ Miami is back for its 4th annual competition as one of wakeboarding’s signature events and this year, some new additions, including a skateboarders dream and a BMX Stunt Show.

Board Up™ Miami is a pro-am wakeboard competition that allows the world’s best pros to compete against some of the top amateurs looking for a chance to score their first professional contracts and the glamour that comes with it.  This year’s prize purse will be over $10,000 with competition for both male and female riders of all divisions.  Board Up™ is the signature event of a weekend that begins on Thursday April 23rd and Friday April 24th with the Pan Am Wakeboard Championships.  Amateur winners of the Pan Am (one of the sport’s largest competitions) automatically get a shot to ride with the pros on Saturday April 25th at Board Up™.

Inclusive of this year’s festival will be a 4,000 square foot street course for skate demos, a best trick contest, and an amateur contest, all presented by Dunkelvolk, winner of Surf Expo’s 2008 newcomer of the year in apparel!  There will also be live musical entertainment presented by Don Q Rum throughout the event with some South Florida’s best DJs and two live bands will perform, including up-and-coming performers Streetkind, it’s a chance to jam to their fresh sounds of reggae, funk, and rock.

Board Up™ also features swim suit fashion shows with the Florida Marlins Mermaids, MLB’s hottest dance team, and the girls of microkitten.com, me-ow!

For the participant sporting event enthusiast, Saturday morning starts the day off with the Nike Swim Miami, an open water swimming competition for over 700 athletes that features a 10K (the swim marathon), 5K, and mile swim that in the past has featured current and former Olympians, collegiate and high school All-Americans, and plenty of weekend warriors of all ages and gender.  Additionally, this year, Saturday’s festivities will also showcase a Dragonboat paddling competition with over 500 competitors.  Dragon Boat racing is one of the oldest and most popular forms of paddle boat racing, with its origins in Hong Kong, China.

Rider registration ($150) and tickets ($15) are available on-line via the event website, www.boardup.net .  Swimmers can register via www.miamisportsinternational.com for $50.  All competitors receive a participant pack and free admission to all festivities.

A portion of the event’s proceeds will go to the H2O’s Foundation, Helping Others Swim, www.h20swim.org.