The Northwest is a funny place. One day it can be snowing, and the next seventy degrees. Travel 50 miles north, south, east or west and the weather will be totally different. And of course in April, those changes are magnified exponentially because well, the seasons are a-changin’. So the Active Water Sports Spring Classic could have gone either way, being held on April 13th.

A week prior to this event I personally was riding knee deep powder at Mt. Hood Meadows, so the thought of wakeboarding seemed a little silly, but then on Saturday it was 80 degrees and sunny, so it looked like things were going to work out. But Lake Koppert is a solid hour north of Portland, and Sunday was one day later. As it turned out, it wasn’t particularly warm, but at least the rain held off until the event was almost over.

Despite the weather, riders from allover Washington and Oregon came out to ride in full suits, dry suits, or for the very brave and/or stupid, just trunks. There were divisions for beginner through advanced, sliders and wakeskating. Things started off a bit slow, with a lot of fashion airs and one female rider setting out for her first time wakeboarding, ever.

But the riders in the advanced category definitely put on a show for the crowd. It was announced fashion airs would earn you an automatic DQ, but these guys had real tricks under their belts. The winner, Justin Meyers, rode three stand up passes and nailed a nice variety of spins and flips to win it all. Oregonian Donovan Sipple was also riding well, and was rewarded with second, while Jeff Olson came in third.

Wakeskating was up next and saw some solid riding with 270s and 270 shuvs out, a body varial and a neat water breakdancing maneuver from Aaron Huntley from Olympia, WA who took home the win.

The spring classic didn’t turn out to be very spring-like, and everyone riding in it definitely showed the fact that most people hadn’t been riding all winter, but it was just nice to be out on the water again.