DCIM103GOPRO

SURF GATE Firsthand is an extraordinary event that evolves and unfolds organically as the day moves along, pretty much those involved just run with it. Day two brought more good surf in the ocean in the morning and then a run back to Lopez for the official competition day. Now when most think of competing you think man on man, you against yourself. Well the folks at Axis and Malibu had something else in mind. They decided to take all of the individual wake surfing talent and clump them into teams. Now I know those reading this might be going what!? Well, thats exactly what happened but something else happened well beyond what they had anticipated. The teams created turned into real teams with personalities, leaders and actual names, like Team 1, Team Go Boating, The Minions, and my team the Silent Assassins. Who would of thought this would of evolved into that but when you got a bunch of creative individuals and one group starts something the others follow.

Now this story could be about the other teams involved but what Team Go Boating did was take a competition and spim it into an all out party, good times, and everything else that any team named Team Go Boating would do. We all had a course set up to follow and these guys broke every rule known to a competition; they ran off course, they took extra time, they just went boating. As the rest of the teams hung on the beach watching you could hear this team bumping beats loudly, playing in the water and even brought Shamu along for a ride.

As untied as this group was, this is exactly what made the Surf Gate First Hand event in my eyes. The brand that started it all with surfing from one side of the wake to the other was letting it all hang out by encouraging people be creative and be themselves. It showed their ability to be outside the box and letting humans be humans and get creative with their technology on all kinds of levels. Whether Team Go Boating was on the beach, in the water, or on the boat. Every one watched and had to listen in amazement as this team took things to another level and all the other teams scrambled to figure out what to do to one up them. At the awards night, Team Go Boating took the cake and won the second annual SURF GATE Firsthand team award. I do believe we have witnessed a shift in wake surfing competition and its called go boating. One will lead and all others will sit scratching there heads asking themselves what just happened? I could go on to the ones each team picked for the man on man wakesurfing final but then again that would just take away from the qua lit of the boating that was achieved on this one day. Check the photos of the teams below and be amazed, enjoyed and realize this gang of wakesurfers know how to go boating! – JS