It’s been
great to have some recovery time away from wakeboarding. Time to focus on my goals, focus on my family
and friends and get my body in peak shape for the US Tour. Last year I achieved most of my goals. I won the Monster Energy Title in Jr Men’s,
and got a Podium at my first Pro Event, I won Moomba Masters Pro Men’s, I won the Australian Pro Men’s Title and I was
selected to represent Australia at the World Titles in Italy. The only goal I missed was going in to the
last stop of the Australian Rail/Cable Series equal leader with my great friend
James Windsor. James won, I finished
2nd. Cable was never my focus but Dad
always told me I need to be versatile in the sport as the sport blends through
the years. At least I lost to an
awesome rider and one of my best mates.
James went on to win the World Title in Junior Men’s later in the
year. I guess the end of the story was
I left for the US Tour with a damaged tendon in my wrist, recurring back issues
and a suspect knee. Not an ideal start
to a long 5 month campaign against the best in the world. This year I have limited my Australian
Schedule, and am currently working on a ‘pre season’ training schedule so I
arrive in the USA in April in peak condition.
My
Australian commitments behind a boat this year will be State Titles, National
Titles, Moomba Masters and maybe a World Cup Stop if I qualify.
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| CTRL Supreme & Dylan Prideaux |
It has
been very pleasing to me to renew my long term commitments with Billabong and
Von Zipper. It's awesome to have such a
close and strong relationship with these awesome Australian companies that also
have interest in the US Tour.
Quicksilver are launching their Moskova Brand in Australia and the USA
at the moment and I am really happy to be the Wakeboard Brand Ambassador in a
tea with so many world class legends including Tony Hawk.
Coming out of the US Tour I knew I needed to find a solid, reputable and
reliable Board Company who can support me in Australia and in the USA. It was really pleasing to me to have the
choice of 4 major US Brands providing me with test boards and boots. It’s a huge job comparing product, because
every day there are different conditions that affect the performance of a board
or yourself. I was overwhelmed with the
approach from CTRL in the USA. As a company
they have established themselves around the world in Cable. I am thrilled to be spearheading their Boat
Campaign for the USA in 2012.
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| The greatest ever - Danny Harf |
I have
chosen the 'Supreme' board from CTRL because it blew me away, the first time I
got on the board I could do virtually every trick I wanted and was so
comfortable on the board. I was blown away by how awesome the board is, so much
pop yet so forgiving. They have a flex
version called the Blueprint which I will use for cable. CTRL is an awesome company and I look forward
to working with them on product development and help take the company to new levels.
The Boardstock event in Penrith was fantastic.
It was great to see international riders such as Daniel Grant, Tom
Fooshee, Aaron Reed, Danny Harf, Erik Ruck, Windy Park and many more. Watching
some of these guys on the cable was insane and it was a lot different to
watching them in videos. It has actually
changed the way I think about cable. As
part of the CTRL Team I was thrilled to catch up with my mates Matty Hasler and
Angie Schriber, they have been living down at Cables Wake Park which is where
the event was held, and you can tell they have been riding a lot because they
are both killing it at the moment! A lot
of riders were over from Korea as well including Windy Park, he is such a good
rider and has brought a lot of his Korean students over for this contest and
put a lot of CTRL riders on the podium, almost every division to be exact,
which is insane!
Another nice thing about being in Penrith was to check out the new Nautique Dealership. Nautique Central has recently opened up in
the old go kart facility. They built an
awesome Quarter Pipe (first in Australia) and hosted a winner takes all Quarter
Pipe Challenge on the System 2.0. I
place 3rd behind Brenton Priestley and Mitch Langfield respectively and I have
to say, hitting a quarter pipe for the first time was the most intimidating
thing ever, but at the same time had more fun than I could of ever imagined I
didn’t want to let go, I just wanted to hit it all day and night. I was so happy to finish in front of so many
awesome riders from all over the world.
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| The Awesome Nautique 1/4 Pipe |
Nautique
hosted a Premiere Screening of DEFY The Danny Harf Project. I had the nicest greeting from Danny and it
was great to catch up. DEFY is the
sickest wakeboard DVD ever and I am so happy that I could contribute to it, ad
that I was honored with a brief cameo riding spot on the DVD.
Being in
Penrith put me back in contact with Carro Djupsjo who lived with me in the USA
last year for a while. Carro has decided
to have a Gold Coast leg to her Aussie Tour and is staying with me at the
moment to shred my 230 everyday and prepare for the US Pro tour this US summer. We are going to house share again this year
and I can’t wait to see how the tour pans out this year.
There was live music and multiple stages where the entertainment never stopped, unfortunately mother nature didn't come to the party and the big event on Saturday night was rained out. All in all, was one of the best contests and best setups I have ever participated in, let alone in Australia. Kirk and Des from GoWake have really raised the bar on this one, and I'm more than excited to see what's in store for this contest next year. 
