Nick Carter Reports on the 2007 EAME Championship Success

It was important for the riders to get some time on the water before the competition started, so a fully loaded X Star had been organised with Top South African Rider Clayton Krause at the helm. He wasn't passing on too many tips for obvious reasons, but his knowledge of the river and excellent driving skill meant the team had fantastic flat water, superb scenery, and a monster wake to train with.

The day before the start of the Championships there was a chance to run the course set out, and try the 'Sensations boat ' sponsored slider and kicker. The team coped well with the slider, but the kicker had been built by Buzz Lightyear and sent a few riders to infinity and beyond!

The opening ceremony was held in the evening, in the hotel’s indoor swimming pool complex. The opening speeches were cut a little short by the most amazing electrical storm, with hail stones like golf balls raining down on the domed roof making it was impossible to hear what Colin Hart was saying, so he gave up and jumped in the pool! The music was cranked up, and Colin was swiftly joined by 100 wakeboarders intent on doing the biggest inverts and spins into the pool.

Day 1 of qualifying got off to a slow start whilst the organisers removed all the logs that had washed down the river in the storm. They did well to clear the river as quickly as they did and get things underway. Starting with the masters Stew Mackie put down a solid run to qualify 1st in his group. He set the benchmark and over the next two days all of the British Team riders had qualified in the first round, through the semi finals and before we knew it everybody had made it through to the finals. This put us in a strong position with 8 scoring riders.

The 'Trolls' were the first to go, this is the under 10 category and although this group does not contribute to the overall team scores, it is important to encourage the younger boys and girls into competition, with a field of 3, French rider Bryce Corrand came out on top with Dylan Lodge from South Africa in 2nd and our own Will Young just not making it to the end of the slider to finish in 3rd place.

The Junior Girls final was won by Italian Gentile Gineura, with British rider Tor Young just missing out on a medal in 4th place despite having the best obstacle score. Next group out was Junior Ladies, No British riders in this category, but we were pleased to see Sian Hurst from Ireland come in 3rd place. Sian, a novice on the slider nailed it end to end making her day complete.

The Junior Boys final was going to be a tough one. Italian rider Massimilian Piffaretti and French rider Nans Petetin were the boys to look out for. Freddie Carter rode a safe run and his cable experience paid off with him scoring well on the obstacles, whilst Sam Weinstein in his 1st International competition showed what he could do with a solid run of big inverts including a Tootsie roll and spinning a toeside 5, finishing up with a huge stalefish grab on the double up. Nans Petetins run was not good enough to beat Sam who took 1st place leaving Nans in 2nd closely followed by Freddie. Italian Massimilian put all he had into his run but fell twice putting him in 7th place.

It was now time for Masters Stew Mackie who had tirelessly spent most of the week in 30 degrees of heat on the dock preparing the British riders, to get out on the water and show what an experienced rider can do. He didn’t disappoint, putting some big inverts down, hitting all the obstacles, just falling on a whirly at the end of his pass. Not put off by this he went on to land a huge grab 360 on the double up, securing a 2nd place position and a silver medal.

Junior Men were out next, a strong group for us with the technical riding style from James Young, solid predictable riding from Johnny Carne, and the totally unpredictable, but most entertaining Nick Davies. James was the first of the British riders out with his big bag of technical tricks unfortunately falling on a 313. James got straight back up to land the 313, but the fully loaded X Star took a long time to get back up to speed, and James left a little short on momentum across the wake, fell again putting him in 6th position. Johnny Carne followed with a good solid run giving him 3rd place and a bronze medal. By now word was out that Nick Davies was on the water... Anything can happen and the crowd had doubled in size. Nick laid down some of the biggest tricks you could imagine, his cable background showed with a huge 313, blind judge and several more boned and tweaked tricks ending his first pass on the kicker with the biggest switch 911.Realising he was still flying high, there was still time for a frontside 3 on the way down. Nick, on his return pass had some time on his hands to wave to the crowd, launched in to a switch toe 7 but popped the handle on landing. He got up again for the regular 7 and but did the same again...had he done enough? It seemed he had, his obstacle score was huge, putting him in 1st place.

Open Ladies was next, 15 year old Brit Nicola Butler who rides and competes against the very best in the USA was the one to watch in this group, starting with a huge raley hitting the slider with style, laying down a frontroll, scarecrow and tantrum on her first pass, and returning to seal an unquestionable 1st place with a backroll, a beautiful bat wing followed by the whirly, just falling on a toeside 5, but finishing the double up with a comfortable 360.

Finally it was time for the big boys, Open Men. First British rider out Sam Carne did not have the run he was looking for and finished a little down the field, leaving it up to Marc Rossiter and Dan Nott. Marc was cool and relaxed on the dock before going out and completely killing it ..Nose roll to revert, backlip on rail, batwing to blind, roll to blind, crowmobe, heelside 5, tantrum on kicker,..return pass..switch front to fakie, kgb, toeside 7, boardslide on slider to 450 out, tantrum ,off axis 180, then to finish a 540 off the double up. And in Marcs own words...Sweet as a Nut...

At this stage Marc’s was the winning run, with Dan still to ride. He put down a superb run but fell on his signature trick The Big Worm (scarecrow into an ole 360). Dan is one of only a few riders in the world that can land this but today wasn’t the day. He restarted but all he had left was the double up, which only meant one thing - Dan would have to throw a 900. Unfortunately he just didn’t get the handle on landing, so this left him in 3rd position behind Clayton Krause in 2nd and Rossie in the all important 1st place.

There was no doubt by this time that the British Team, with 4 gold medals, 3 bronze medals and a silver had taken the all important EAME title and would be coming home with Team Gold with South Africa and Italy behind them.

After the presentation we had to leave the celebrations, and head to the airport leaving the rest of the team to enjoy the superb spread of food laid on by the organisers and the cheap drink.

Thanks must go to The South Africa Wakeboard Authority for hosting a superb event in one of the best settings in the world, Graham Creedy from wakeboard UK, Colin Hart and all of the officials and judges, Ralph and Sharon Young, Stew Mackie, Annette Weinstein.

But most importantly.. THE BRITISH RIDERS Who were amazing!.

Words: Nick Carter
Photos: Wakey Wakey

Browse the 2007 EAME Championships Photo Gallery, courtesy of WakeyWakey.