Brad Smeele takes out Wakestock UK
22nd July 2007

The rain came down and the floods came up! …but this didn’t stop some of the world’s best riders giving their all in Wakestock 2007 wakeboard competition. Wakestock comes but once a year, and with it brings some of the best riders in the UK together with some of the best riders in the world today including Scotty Broome (US), Brad Smeele (NZ), Robbie Rendo (ARG), and Antz Colling (NZ) it was definitely gonna be a tough competition with some seriously high standards.

Wakestock stands alone as Europe’s Largest Wakeboarding Music Festival with some of the best riding you will see at any UK comp and this year was no different. Brad Smeele (NZ) took the trophy home in the Pro Men’s Final and Kath Moore (AUS) stomped the ladies comp to take home 1st place in the pro event.

Despite the torrential downpour, the water remained flat and the riders were desperate to get out on the water and hit up the rails. The marina as usual features some seriously big rails including a huge Gap Rail and an A-frame. The Mastercraft X Star (the official tow boat) held the ever-important judges and pumped out a big fat wake for the riders.

WOMEN’S QUALIFIERS
This year saw Robbie Rendo come back from Argentina to defend her Wakestock title from last year, as she had automatically qualified to the final, it was between the rest of the women to fight it out for the remaining qualifying places. Standouts were Jenna Mcavoy who hit the sliders with no fear sliding the whole length of the A-frame and narrowly missing the gap slider, Jess Hilbery also made good use of both the sliders but also put down some huge wake to wake tricks which included a Raley, roll to revert and a scarecrow, but the winner of the qualifying was Kath Moore with her smooth style, numerous inverts including a tantrum and a scarecrow, and mixing it up with a frontside 3.

WOWEN’S FINALS
The finals came around and Robbie showed her usual riding style with smooth toeside and heelside back rolls tantrums, 360’s and hitting all the sliders on the course, with Jess and Kath trying their hardest in the finals it was a close call between the top three, but Kath Managed an amazing run, hitting both sliders, toeside and heelside 3’s, tantrum, backroll revert, It was Kath who managed to seal the first place

MEN’S QUALIFIERS
The men’s qualifying this year was an awesome field of riders from the UK and beyond, standouts this year were Eban Escott from Australia, as one of the first guys off the dock he managed to put an amazing run together, sliding the full length of the A-frame gapping the second slider, with some rolls to revert, scarecrow, 5’s 3’s he was one of the standouts of qualifying with no falls. One of the other standouts was Rob Moyle with some huge wake to wake moves including a backside 3 and also a huge raley he demolished the sliders on the first pass and then hit them again the wrong way on his second pass…if you have seen the sliders this was pretty impossible! But with his usual fast and furious style he pulled it off and also secured a place in the finals alongside Eban.

The other 2 riders to progress through were Christian Thom who threw down some huge tricks with Nuclear Tantrums, Krypts, backside and frontside spins. The top place in qualifying was CK, if you have seen this guy ride he is as smooth as it gets, with crow mobes, toeside roll to revert, 3’s and 5’s and absolutely destroying the sliders, with a tweaked out nose slide on the first followed by a front board to backside boardslide to 180 out over the gap rail.

MEN’S FINALS
Then onto the pro event on Saturday for the men, the field was full of the who’s who of British wakeboarding, with Jonty Green hungry for the win after Dan Nott was unable to compete with a broken finger. Throw into the mix Marc Rossiter, James Young, Lee Debuse, Tim Woodhead, The Carne brothers, Nick Davies, Kent James etc from the UK and add Antz Colling and Brad Smeele from New Zealand, Scotty Broome from the US and also the guys from qualifying and you have got one hell of a show.

Standouts were Marc Rossiter with his usual laid back style over the sliders and awesome technical tricks on the wake but a fall after a 720 attempt left him out of the running, Nick Davies also showed some smooth style over the sliders and some big wake to wake spins, but again 2 falls saw him out of the running. James young came out of the dock and threw down, with a whirlybird, off axis spins, crow mobes, kgb’s, and some stylee sliding saw him secure a place on the podium. Jonty Green was another standout, with tootsies rolls, kgbs, method crow mobes, 5’s toeside and heelside, a huge backside off axis 3 off the double up and a frontside boardslide to backside boardslide over the gap, and to finish off a flat water roll to revert right by the start dock, but with one fall during his run the fight for the title was on.

Brad Smeele stepped up to the dock and rode without falling once, crow mobes, seatbelt tantrum, whirly bird, flawless over both sliders, batwing, krypt, 5’s both ways and finishing with a 720 before hitting the dock with dry hair, it was easy to see why he walked away with the title of Wakestock Champion 2007.

Unfortunately the Big Air Comp was unable to run due to rough waters but the monstrous kicker was placed into the marina for the pro comp and with the guys missing out on the kicker on the Friday it meant the riders were even more pumped to hit it on the Saturday.

Despite the unfortunate cancellation of the Saturday’s music event up on the Penrhos site, the prize giving was held down at the marina and the champers was flowing. Congratulations to Brad and Kath and it was just a shame that you didn’t get to revel in your glory up on the main stage!!

Mens Wakestock 2007 Winners
1st - Brad Smeele
2nd - Jonty Green
3rd - James Young

Womens Wakestock 2007 Winners
1st - Kath Moore
2nd - Robbie Rendo
3rd - Jess Hilberry