Third time was the charm for North Carolina native Adam Fields at Board Up™ Miami, South Florida’s premiere wakeboard festival April 23-25, 2009 in Miami, FL.  In a mild upset with an exciting finish, amid mildly windy condition, Fields bested the final field of 10 professional and amateur riders to win the men’s crown at the fourth annual wakeboard festival. Over 60 amateur riders entered the pro-am competition itching for a chance to take on nearly 20 pro men and women wakeboarders and a chance at a combined prize purse of over $10,000.

An international group of riders that featured three Aussies and two Kiwis (from New Zealand) provided excitement from the preliminaries, including Daniel Watkins, who finished fourth,  but closed out his opening round ride with a rail slide along the starting dock, and move that wasn’t scored, but certainly thrilled the crowd.  

A crowd of 4,000 witnessed the final runs on both the pro men and pro women side, with the final results featuring Adam Fields as champion in his third appearance at the event defeating Dean Smith (2nd overall), and Jeff Weatherall (3rd overall).  On the women’s side, as was expected, it was a case of sibling rivalry, just like tennis has the Williams’ sisters consistently vying for titles, wakeboarding has the Hoffman’s, and at this year’s Board Up™ Miami, big sister Raequel still had a few more tricks than her younger sibling Shawna who finished .  Tennessee native Corrie Dyer finished 3rd.

Inclusive of this year’s festival was a nearly 4,000 square foot skate park that featured the Assailant and Amaxon Clothing best trick contest where Miami local D’Andre Pendergrass took home the $500 cash prize.

The festival atmosphere was in full effect with live musical performances by Kyle Crossland, The Key Rats, Streetkind, and headliner Araka, all of whom rocked the crowd.  There was certainly some dazzle with two swim suit fashion shows that featured the girls from The House of Jackie Brown, and the girls of microkitten.com, me-ow!

For the participant sporting event enthusiast, Saturday morning kicked off the day with the Nike Swim Miami, an open water swimming competition that had over 700 athletes competing in a 10K (the swim marathon), 5K, and mile swim that saw among others, multiple time USA Olympian and 8-time Olympic medalist Gary Hall Jr compete in the mile.  Israeli National Team Member, Michael Demetriev was the overall 10K swim champion in a blazing time of 2 hours and 2 minutes.

For additional information and complete results visit the event website @ www.boardup.net (for wakeboarding) and www.miamisportsinternational.com (for the open water swim)

 

Additionaly, please tune into Sun Sports TV on the following dates and times to view all the action in the Board Up Miami 2009 show:
 
Sat, May16  10:00pm
Tue, May19   5:00pm
Thu, May21   1:00am
Mon, May25  6:00pm
Wed, May27  9:00am
Sat, May30    5:00pm
Tue, Jun2      3:30pm
Thu, Jun4      1:00am
Wed, Jun10   9:00am
Sat, Jun13    4:00pm