Obrien Pro Wakeboard -Tour Stop 2

Germiston, one of the industrial hubs of Gauteng, is most probably more famous for Fast and Furious reruns, hosted the second stop on the South African Pro Wakeboard Tour. The weekend of the 20-21 of February, Victoria Lake was descended upon by the country’s top wakeboarders and the Germiston Aquatic Club was the venue.

Arriving at the Germiston Aquatic Club on Saturday morning was a sight every wake boarder wanted to see… a fully loaded Mastercraft X-Star waiting to roll, a brand new flat bar slider floating on the lake, an impressive Obrien stand selling all kinds of wakeboard equipment, Red Bull’s Betty jamming the tunes, and lots of activities for young and old!

Saturday qualifying rounds ran smoothly and all the riders were competing hard for a spot in the finals. Devon Nassif and Jono Joseph throwing a spanner in the works and finishing second and third respectively in the Pro Men division, forcing some of the favourites to rethink their runs for the final. Sundays riding was one not to be missed.

The Pro Men’s division was what everybody was waiting for, watching the top riders in South Africa go at it against each other! Since the riders were forced to change their runs due to the new judging criteria it was an open ball game. The riders were even more excited when they heard about the big prizes that were up for grabs! Jono Joseph who had a flawless run in qualifying unfortunately didn’t have the hammers in the finals seeing him place 5th. Morgan Krause a previous World Champion did not ride as well as everyone was expecting, even though he went big on some tricks it would not be enough for a podium and would place him in 4th place. Shaun Faccio opened up with a big Front Mobe scoring him some intensity points and his toe side nose grab batwing was really unique but unfortunately his rail skills let him down, placing him 3rd. Devon Nassif had one of his best runs to date in the finals and showed off everything the judges wanted to see laying down a flawless run, grabbing everything and absolutely smashing the rail scoring him a near perfect 8.5. His toe side back side nuclear 180 into the flats was an absolute monster putting him in 2nd. To top all of the other competitors was not going to be an easy task. You had to be really unique, go big, stylish and ride the rail really well, this was exactly what Clayton Krause did. The highlights of his pass had to be a 50/50 fsbs 180 off the rail, followed by a slow ball front roll, big nose glide, huge half cab 180, Dum-Dum and to end his run on the rail with a tsfs board to fs 270 off, narrowly giving Clay the overall win.

3rd
Shaun Faccio
•    Rail, Fsbs 100%;
•    Front Mobe;
•    Off-Axis Indy 180;
•    Whirly Bird;
•    Toe Side Nose Glide;
•    Moby dick;
•     Toe side off axis 540;
•     Glide;
•    Back side board slide bs 270 out

2nd
Devon Nassif
•    Rail, Switch 270 to top bs 90 out;
•    Front flip Tail Grab;
•    Half cab 180;
•    911 to blind;
•    Toe Side Back Side Nose Grab180;
•    Heel Side Back Side 180;
•    Bee Sting;
•    Nuclear Glide;
•    Toe side  540 Shifty Indy;
•    Rail, Back Side Board on to top back side 90 out.

1st
Clayton Krause
•    Rail,50-50 on to top bs 180;
•    Slow ball;
•    Whirly Bird;
•    Toe Side Mute 540 ;
•    Roll to Blind;
•    Heel Side Crail Glide;
•    Half Cab 180;
•    Back Side Melon 360;
•    Dum-Dum ;
•    Rail, Toe Side Front Side Board to Front Side 270 off.

As far as a rider and an organiser I would like to thank all the sponsors and riders who made this event such a memorable event.

•    Obrien Water Sports South Africa
•    Germiston Aquatic Club
•    Broderick Marine, Mastercraft
•    Premier Auto Germiston, General Motors
•    Red Bull
•    Leisure Boating Magazine
•    Supersport
•    Germiston City News

South African Wakeboard Open, 23-25 April 2010, Millerton Aquatic Club,
Riet Vlei, Cape Town.

www.wakesa.com