The Tournament of Champions and Stars on the Water can only be one
thing — The Masters. I have been watching The Masters since I
was seven years old. It's a tournament that spans the decades, "The most
prestigious tournament in the world."  The worlds best waterskiers and wakeboarders gather every year at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Ga., all with the same dream … "To be a Masters Champion."

It's unacceptable not to give the Masters a good introductory build up.
So now I can start my story. This year at the 48th Masters it was an
all out battle for the title. All of us Master competitors usually
drive up from Orlando on Friday to get there for registration and a
mandatory meeting Friday night. Everyone had to be at registration at 6
this year. When we got there and saw the heats that we would all be
riding in on Saturday everyone was quiet and all you could hear were a
bunch of little butterflys flying round in everyone's stomach. (When I
say everyone I mean everyone except for Phillip Soven, he doesnt care who he's against) This is how it broke down:

Heat 1

Daniel Watkins
Chad Sharpe
Morgan Krouse
JD Webb
Andrew Adkison
Rusty Malinoski

Heat 2

Erik Ruck
Brett Eisenhaur
Shaun Murray
Me
Jeff Weatherall
Danny Harf
Phillip Soven

On Saturday, wakeboarding was scheduled for aound 3 o'clock. So we had
some down time to kill.  I took that opportunity to take Kaley (my
girlfriend) and Danny Turner to the Callaway butterfly garden. It's a
pretty awesome time. You just go in this building where they have the
temperature set at 95 degrees and let butterflys fly around and land on
your head. Its great. Right after we did that I got a call for an
emergency meeting for all wakeboarders. It wasn't really an emergency,
but wakeboarding was being pushed back in the schedule to an undecided
time because the trick ski scoring took like three hours to finish or
something like that. So Shaun Murray stepped up to the plate with an
idea to keep us all occupied for a few hours. KICK BALL! Alright, now
the games were on. We all went back to the grass in front of the hotel
and had an all out war. We played for a few hours until we got the call
around 6 o'clock that we were going to be riding soon. The tournament
was on and everyone was wearing their game faces. Saturday resulted
in some of the sickest contest riding so far this year. Everyone rode
well but only six could advance. The finals looked like this:

Rusty Malinoski
Brett Eisenhaur
JD Webb
Me
Chad Sharpe
Phillip Soven

The finals were extremly exciting, with no room to hold back. Everyone
was just going for the gold. I had one of the best first passes that I
have ever had which I followed up with a slightly less impressive 2nd
pass that landed me in 3rd place for the tournament. In second place
was the big guy from the north, Rusty Malinoski, and winning the
tournament with a once agian flawless run was Phillip "Froggy" Soven.

It was an amazing event as always, with lots of spectators and good
times had by all. I would have to say that the opening cerimonies are
one of the coolest things about the Masters. It happens right before
all of the final rounds on Sunday. All the riders and skiers that made
their finals get to hold their country's flag and be paraded by boat
in front of the whole crowd. It is really awkward and I never know what
to do with my hands so I usually just throw a shaka. None the less I had a
good time. I know that I enjoied myself and cant wait for next year.

God Bless America

Trevor Hansen

PS — Thanks to Wayne Soven for the pictures of Phillip beating everyone.