You can hear the buzz at Wakestock headquarters down the phone. It’s a matter of days before the sixth wakeboarding-music extravaganza and the news is just in that Dallas Friday, the world’s best female wakeboarder, is jetting in to compete.
She’s only 18 and she’s amazing,” says Jasmine Rutter, Wakestock’s press and media manager. “We’re all really excited that she’s coming along. It’s a really big achievement.”
For an event tucked away in the wilds of north Wales, it’s certainly a coup, but snagging Dallas Friday (she’s American, would you ever have guessed?) isn’t the half of it. Among the 20 international pro-riders gunning for the Wakestock title are Australia’s two-time champion Craig O’Meara, Nikita Martianov of Russia and Ben Greenwood from the US.
According to Rutter, what reels in the big names is the chance to show off in front of a massive audience. “We attract bigger crowds than most events because it’s a music festival as well,” she says.”
Wakestock started out as a forum for wakeboarders to get together and try out new tricks away from the rules and restrictions of the UK Pro Tour. Faced with the mission of attracting decent riders to Abersoch, a town whose ‘nightlife’ consists of four pubs and a yacht club, organisers realised they’d need to step the evening entertainment up a gear. What started as a handful of DJs playing a marquee in a car-park, is this year a four-arena, 35-strong line-up with acts including Seb Fontaine, Scratch Perverts, Hundred Reasons and Norman Jay.
By appealing to the mainstream through big names like these, Wakestock has the capacity to introduce the sport to new punters. In this way, the so-called Glastonbury of wakeboarding is invaluable in helping broaden the horizons of the sport in the UK.
Matt Crowhurst, a British pro-rider, has been competing (and MC-ing) at Wakestock from the beginning. Last year, while driving through Birmingham in a car that had his name and ‘pro-wakeboarder’ written on the side, someone pulled up by him at the traffic lights and hollered, Oi, are you going to Wakestock?”.
“So it’s got to be good for the sport,” he explains.
During the nine years he’s been riding, Crowhurst has witnessed wakeboarding’s steady rise in popularity, though this year’s cancellation of the UK Pro Tour due to lack of sponsorship shows the sport isn’t without its troubles.
The reason it’s much bigger in places like Australia, South Africa and America, says Crowhurst, is that there are much more facilities for using your own boat than in the UK.
“Whereas in Australia there’s a million and one public boat ramps, here all the lakes are invariably private,” he says, adding that the situation isn’t getting better. A speed limit introduced on Lake Windermere in March this year has made wakeboarding there impossible. But it’s not all doom and gloom. The lack of public lakes means the pressure to sustain the growth of wakeboarding in this country lies with watersports centres.
According to Crowhurst, they’re more than rising to the challenge, and places like John Battleday Waterski and Princes Club are not just the best spots for wakeboarding in the UK, but also up there with the top centres in the world as far as facilities go.
Both venues attract their fair share of pros from around the world, particularly those from Australia and New Zealand who come over to escape their winter.
Brant Hales, a semi-pro from Auckland, is currently doing a season in the UK. When TNT Midweek catches up with him it’s a blissfully sunny day and he’s filling up his boat with gas, about to take a spin on Storm Lake, Surrey.
Having spent the past couple of seasons in Florida, he’s come here for a change of scenery and a chance to enjoy the close contact with other riders that England’s “ski-school” wake-boarding scene affords.
“We’ve got some good riders back home but there are more here,” he says. “I wanted to ride with better riders so I can learn more tricks and different ways of doing tricks.”
The practice is obviously paying off. Unlike last year, where he attended Wakestock as a spectator, this year Hales has been selected to compete. With such a large crowd there, a good performance could bring him the sponsorship he needs to turn fully professional, though if this doesn’t happen, judging from his reaction to Wakestock 2004, Hales will still have a good time.
“It was awesome,” he says. “There were 20,000 people there, it was insane.”
• Wakestock takes place at Abersoch Bay, Penrhos, Pwllheli, Llyn Peninsula, north Wales (01758-710 000; www.wake stock.co.uk). July 22-23. £25 per night/£40 for a weekend ticket. Watching the wakeboarding is free.
WAKEBOARDING IN THE UK
• John Battleday Waterski, Thorpe Rd, Chertsey, Surrey, KT1 (0870-606 1270; www.jbwaterski.com)
With a cable lake and one of the best kicker and slider parks in the world, JBski (as it’s known) is a favourite with UK pros.
• Princes Club, Clockhouse Ln, Bedfont, Middlesex, TW14 (01784-256 153; www.princesclub.com)
Only 35 minutes from London, Princes has two lakes for wakeboarding as well as a cable lake and, if you need help, resident pro and coach is Kiwi Hayden Maguire.
• Offaxis Wakeboard and Surf Academy, Abersoch, north Wales, (01758-713 407; www.offaxis.co.uk)
A specialist wakeboard and surf centre that will even arrange a stag wakeboard weekend if you prefer flipping to stripping.
• Grendon Lakes, Main Rd, Grendon, Northamptonshire
NN7 (01933-665 303; www.grendonlakes.co.uk)
Home to the largest wakeboarding and waterskiing school in the Midlands, Grendon Lakes is the venue of choice for the Air ’05 competition in August.
• Sheffield Cable Water, Rother Valley Country Park, Mansfield Road, Wales Bar, Sheffield S31 (0114-251 1717; www.sheffieldcablewaterski.com)
With a cable lake dotted with kickers and sliders, this northern watersports playground is a great place to start from scratch or perfect your Hasselhoffs.”
