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2008 Cablestock at Texas Ski Ranch
The 6th annual TSR Cablestock is now over and we can all take a minute to take a breather and reflect on the best TSR event ever. Things started to get hectic on April 15th when TSR received the winning design in Liquid Force's Design a rail contest. The dedicated team of cable operators then began construction of what is now known as "The Iceberg." Brett Hileman from Phoenix, AZ won the design contest with a double-sided banked wall ride with a center rainbow. It's been done at snow parks and just took Brett's inspiration to get us to build at TSR. The structure was finished Monday before Cablestock, just in time as Don Wallace and 6 of the LF team members (Shane, Collin, Henshaw, Tom Fooshee, Aaron Reed and Danny Hampson) were arriving and ready to session it. After being picked up in the LF RV and a helicopter ride at TSR, Brett and the LF team experienced a private night session that may have been the most fun in the entire weekend. Mad props to the LF guys and Bret for making this contest turn out better than anyone expected!
The anticipation grew, as the largest and most talented rider base arrived in Texas all week. The only event on Friday was the Nike 6.0 Mini Ramp Contest that let regional skaters (and some wake athletes) hit it up in a jam format and take away prizes in 5 different categories. This event was perfect to kick off the many competitions in store for this weekend.
Nike 6.0 Mini Ramp Skate Contest
Saturday morning started off with the Cable Wake Park competition, which had four different open divisions: Pro Wakeboard, Pro Wakeskate, Junior WB and Womens WB. The Junior division was dominated by Max Bialick who was close to landing his first 7 ever. In the womens division, Holland Finley upset 2-time defending champion Heather Johnson and last year's Wake Park Series overall champion Anna Hajek.
The Cable Wakeskate division was narrowed to six riders for the finals. The 2 heat winners from the preliminary round received byes in the first round of head-to-head competition. As always it was going to be hard to beat Bret Little (Defending Byerly Cable Jam Champ) on his home turf. Oury Yarbrough also won his preliminary heat and made it to the finals where the two fought it out again. This is a sight we are used to seeing at TSR events. In the end BretÕs diverse riding that showed his mastery of the rails, a big spin and mute 3 off the kickers, and an ever growing arsenal of water tricks was enough to regain the Cablestock title for 2008.
The Cable Wakepark Pro Wakeboard division had more entries (18) than ever before. With riders such as Nick Davies, Andrew Adkison, and Jimmy Lariche coming in from out of town, it was going to be difficult for 3 time defending Cablestock champion Tom Fooshee to defend his title. While Tom had to be the favorite, there was a lot of speculation going on about a possible final matchup that would pit Tom Fooshee, 2007 USA Wakepark Series overall Champion, versus the European King of Cable Nick Davies. However local Josh Rice threw down a run in the semi finals that was possibly the best run of his career and ended all discussions about the Fooshee/Davies matchup and started a new debate. Josh was on his way to the finals with a strong chance to beat Nick Davies. The final turned out to be everything it was built up to be, just not the expected riders. Josh through down the most technically difficult run with tricks like a huge TS BS 720, switch HS 720 and OC (90210 with an extra 180) but after a long debate the judges were split and with the majority of the vote Nick Davies took home the title with an intense and stylish run that was just enough to edge out Josh Rice. After landing his OC & TS 720 twice in the semis and the finals Josh Rice proved that his name can not be left out of the debate for best cable rider in the world.
The MasterCraft Boat competition was not going to be overshadowed by the Cable. In the womens semis there was no doubt that Holland Finley and Anna Hajek would be advancing to the finals. Anna had a pass that was more diverse than Holland's with a multitude of difficult stylish spins and was the top seed heading into the finals. Holland was driven to be only the second womens rider to win both the cable & boat competitions in the same year. (Heather Johnson won both in 2006) Unfortunately Holland hurt her knee early in her finals run and Anna took home the title. Holland had some minor damage but won't need surgery and will be back on the water in two months. Everyone at TSR wishes her a speedy recovery. The junior division saw Florida rider Ben Prizer take down John Brooks, two names that I expect to see a lot more in future box scores.
LF team members Danny Hampson and Aaron Reed helped judge the Cable comp, but unfortunately for the rest of the field there was no way they were going to sit out of the MasterCraft boat comp. Aaron won his preliminary heat and got a bye in the first round of head-to-head. The other bye went to local Oury Yabrough who also advanced first in the Cable Wake Park comp. Again just as in the cable comp both top seeds made it to the finals where Aaron Reed took home the title. However the trick of the day had to go to his long time friend and training partner Danny Hampson, who landed a couple wake2wake front side big spins.
The anticipation had been building all weekend long for the boat finals. Eight riders would be matched up head-to-head, a format started at TSR back in 2003, long before any other wakeboard tournaments adopted the format. Since the first tournament Andrew Adkison has a record of 23-1 (Jeff Weatherall beat Andrew in 2006) in head to head matchups at TSR. He is always a consistent rider but at TSR seems to step up when needed and never chokes under pressure. While Andrew had to be favored as much as Tom Fooshee on the cable, he too would have to settle for third place this weekend. Andrew was beat by England's Nick Davies to create the final matchup that everyone had expected on the cable: Tom Fooshee vs. Nick Davies. These two "cable riders" worked their way through a field of riders that included Andrew, Gabe Lucas, Jimmy Lariche, Jeff House, Kevin Henshaw, Trais Propst, Jimmy Trask, Julian Cohen and more. In the end Tom Fooshee kept his Cablestock win streak alive by earning his first ever boat championship. Both finalists now have earned one title with the structure only comp on the cable still to come.
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