ACTIVE WATER SPORTS

2009 AWS Freeriders Ball Recap
The 2009 Active Water Sports Freeriders Ball presented by Malibu Boats was a celebration of wake sports like no other. Koppert Lake played host to the northwest’s best riders as amateurs and professionals battled for cash and prizes from Malibu, Hyperlite Wakeboards, Slingshot Wakeboards, Oneill Clothing, and Rockstar Energy Drink.
The event kicked off Saturday, August 8th with amateur competition for all ages and ability levels. Current INT national champion Andrew Scheafer threw down some big grabs and smooth 180’s to win the Juniors division. The amateur wakeskate competitors showed some serious skills, and in the end Trevin Sims was victorious with some solid wake to wake airs, and a backside shuv in the flats. The northwest women came out in full force and made the judges jobs extremely difficult. Tennessee transplant Priscilla Stultz edged out the rest of the ladies with big stylish grabs, an array of wake to wake 180’s and an extremely close attempt at a wake to wake 360. Saturday’ s competition concluded with a tough Advanced division. Bellingham local and snow shredder Brendan Lieb was bumped into the Open division after he landed his 10th invert or spin variation. The bump gave top honors of Saturday’s competition to AJ Westlund, who landed a heelside 5, a moby dick, and a tootsie roll. Watch out for AJ in the Open division next year!
The campfires raged well into Saturday night, and AWS played some of the latest wake videos on the big screen in the campground. WIT Productions “Hi-Light”, Scratch Films “The Way”, and Hyperlite’s “Rewritten” got the crowd amped for Sunday’s competition.
Sunday’s festivities got under way with the Open Wakeskate division. Portland local Andy Harris came in third with some smooth wake to wake 180s and grabs. Oly Rider Sean Cebell looked solid with some wake to wake grabs, a lipslide 270 shuv, and a 3 shuv, but went down on a toeside shuv-indy attempt. The fall left the door open for Hyperlite rider Ryan Potter, who took home first place with a number of shuv variations and some super tweaked wake to wake airs.
The Rail Competition was intense with a $500 prize purse put up by Slingshot Wakeboards. The riders were loving the rail course with a new 85’ long rooftop rail for their grinding pleasure. Slingshot and AWS team rider Mike Cardoza landed in third place after a super stylish run but an unfortunate early fall. Slingshot rider and Koppert Lake Head Coach Quinn Silvernale took second place with some dirty presses and a 270 down the double kinked A-frame that got the crowd stoked, but an early fall took valuable time out of his four-minute contest run. Koppert Lake’s Eric Sund made the most of the home court advantage and put together a stand up run highlighted by a backside tailslide on the flat rail, a nosepress on the rainbow rail, and a frontside lipslide down the double kink to take home first place for the second year in a row.
The Open Freeride division was the highlight of the weekend with some of the most progressive riding ever seen at Koppert Lake. The best of the northwest were on hand including Robby Carter, Alex Scagliotti, Nick and Mike Cardoza, Zach Schneider, Dan Klopp, Thomas Olsen and many others competing for a $1000 prize purse. The 21’ Malibu Wakesetter VLX was throwing out a meaty wake on the buttery Koppert Lake water, and the crowd was pumped as they watched the Open riders throw down some stylish and technical riding. The competition was extremely close as third place actually came down to a ride off between Robby Carter and Zach Schneider. Robby’s HUGE toeside off axis indy backside 180 and pete rose were probably some of the most stylish moves of the day but Zach put together a stand up four minute run that included regular and switch heel and toe 540’s, a toe back 3, and a huge heelside melan 5 off the double up. Each rider got 3 double ups in the run off, and the best trick would win. Robby stuck a toeside 720 and just popped the handle on a toe 9 to edge out Schneider who couldn’t ride away from his heelside 7. Second place went to Slingshot and AWS team rider Nick Cardoza, with a tantrum to blind, backroll to blind, melan crow mobe, and a toeside 720. The top spot at the 2009 Freeriders Ball went to Hyperlite and AWS team rider Alex Scagliotti, who put together a crazy stand up run with tricks like heel and toe 5’s, moby dick, crow mobe, front mobe, dum-dum, and pete rose. That’s right, it was a Hyperlite sweep at the top of the podium on Sunday!
Active Water Sports would like to thank Malibu Boats, Hyperlite Wakeboards, Slingshot Wakeboards, Oneill clothing, and Rockstar Energy Drink for their support of the 2009 Freeriders Ball. Also, special thanks to all the judges and drivers who helped make this event possible, and of course all the riders and spectators who made this event one of the best ever! See you all next year!