Toe Jam finally came back home to the Projects after a year of gallivanting around the country. September 20th marked the invite only boat finals for the entire season. Invites were either earned by winning or placing well at the other stops, winning a past Toe Jam, or getting a coveted wild card spot. The sixteen riders definitely represented the best of the best of wakeskating.

Since it was a boat comp, it should come as no surprise that Brian Grubb finished the day victorious. It wasn’t easy for him though. Wildcard Ben Kaiser was matched up with Grubb in the final and threw down a solid run, bailing only on a kickflip. It was completely fitting that as Grubb took off from the dock for the final run of the day, Queen’s Under Pressure was blasting from the towboat. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Brian Grubb, he thrives on the pressure, and threw down and equally impressive run capped of with a gigantic wake to wake shuv indy off the double up.

After the boat comp, it was over to the pool jam, where the rails had gotten a complete facelift from last year. Two mellow, perfect planter boxes went down each side, and a wide box was in the middle. The set up certainly lent itself to progressive tricks, and the riders did not disappoint. I’ll admit I don’t have complete results, but I promise I will post them as soon as I do.  Some highlights included Ben Horan’s frontboard shuv and back board front big out, Danny Hampson’s 270 and boardslide front big and John Ruark’s kickflip attempts down the gap. But the real man of the hour was former rail champion Clint Tompkins, who only fell once (that I remember) and managed to stick a front lip, back lip, shuv down the gap and a frontboard shuv on the rail.  

Day one made for some good wakeskating, and things are only going to get better. Check out the pictures and be sure to check back for complete results.