New Aussie Champion - Stoked

It was a crazy week leading into Nationals.  As usual Mum and Dad rolled put the red carpet and turned our house into a hostel.  I was so pleased to have so many of my mates from all over Australia cruise through and chill with us.  Mum & Dad are pretty cool like that and always make my mates feel welcome.

Photo Shoot - Sunday Mail

The week was full of media opportunities photoshoots, video shoots, radio interviews and more.  I just wanted to ride, but Dad was busy organising the comp so we had to schedule everything.

I filmed some great sequences with Adam Dodd for Wake Trick Guru which I had to script and then do the voice overs for which was cool.

It was a very social week with the Nautique of season party on Saturday welcoming all riders and families to the coast. I chopped off all my hair at Nautique before the party and turned a lot of heads that night wondering who I was? We took the boat in to put on display along with the Team Ronix Boat and another 210 Team Edition and they looked awesome.

I stayed away from most of the social nights as wakeboarders tend to party pretty hard and I really had my eyes on the prize.   Most nights usually ended with cars and taxis back to ours anyway, but I kept a pretty low profile which was smart.

Open Mens Podium

Going in to the final ride I felt I had enough tricks to cover everyone but was really worries about Sam Thomson.  Sam is a great rider and can throw down some hammers so I expected it would be close.

At the end of the day, my pass was enough to get me through and my gamble of bypassing Junior Mens and going straight from Under 14’s to Open Mens paid off.   I was the new Australian Champion and that was a pretty cool way to end the season.   After coming 2^nd in the Cable Park Series I set a goal to win the last 3 big events, Moomba, Monster and Nationals.  Inning all 3 just made it so much better.

Dad gave the boat to Steve from Nautique to have an Easter with the family and told me to enjoy being a 16 year old for a few days now the pressure was over.   I fly out Sunday Morning to start another summer on the US Pro Tour finally realising my dream of chasing the endless summer.

The Aussie Season is almost over

Coming back from Grafton feeling pretty pumped about my riding and my switch to O’Brien from Liquid Force, I knew I had a couple of huge weeks ahead of me.

Danny Harf, Shane Bonifay, Shawn Watson, Kevin Henshaw and Daniel Watkins had asked if they could take my Billabong Edition Nautique 230 out to film some sequences for Danny’s new movie Defy.  All up they did 3 solid days in the boat and I was stoked to have a chance to ride and get some video down for them too.

Dylan Prideaux - Qld State Titles

The Qld State Titles were on, and I had to ride alone.  No point claiming a victory as I was the only rider in Open Mens but had to ride that category to for Nationals and needed to qualify.

Once that was wrapped up, it was back to training for Nationals and helping out a couple of cable riders make the transition to boat.  Jaimi Oxlade from Singapore and James Windsor from the Sunny Coast.  Both shredded behind the boat and got themselves ready for a huge comp ahead.

I snuck back down to Grafton for a Free Ride Friday and had an awesome time.  The Clarence River must be one of the best rivers in Australia, compared to the Gold Coast I don’t know whether they realise how lucky they are to have so much good water.

Wrapped up our final Free Ride on the Nerang River in perfect conditions.  Broke my perfect record though with one rider who just couldn’t progress.  Prior to that I had coached all 25 riders to a new trick.  From backrolls, to scarecrows and just good clean wake jumps, every Free Ride Friday winner went home feeling pretty pumped.

Free Ride Friday time - In the drivers seat

My good buddy Damo Cox filmed a few sets and made a little video for me to upload before I head to the States.  Feeling pretty good about my riding seeing i spent almost 4 months off the water over Summer.

I was really stoked when Adam Dodd called to say he wanted me to film some sequences for Wake Trick Guru and I got contacted by a very cool company associated with Surfing in Europe that wants to sponsor me.   It’s going to be a hectic week ahead.