Wakestock Abu Dhabi

by Sim Bradley
08 / 03 / 2010

The last weekend was without doubt one of the best and most surreal contest's i've ever been to, as 20 of the worlds best wakeboarders descended upon the United Arab Emirates for the first ever Wakestock Abu Dhabi. The setting for the event on the Al Sahil beach was stunning, with elaborate sky scrapers, a huge domed mosque and the worlds biggest flagpole lining surrounding the lagoon where the contest would take place.

With the help of Sensation Group (Wakestock UK organisers), Sesitec and Alliance there were two System 2.0 rigs, an awesome pool gap rail jam and the boat course with three rails, an M-Frame and mini rooftop from Sesitec and the Leviathan rail from Wakestock UK. The set up for the riders was perfect, the only thing that caused any problems were the strong winds that came in on the second and third days of the event. Unfortunately this meant the qualifying for the men's Pro Final was postponed on Friday and instead they held an impromptu Best Trick Jam on the System 2.0, which was a perfect way to keep the beach crowds entertained. After an hour of fun with all the riders making the most of getting to play on the cable, it was Adam Errington, JD Webb and Padiwat Jaemjan from Thailand who won $500 each, with a Double S-Bend to blind, Pete Rose and tail grab Frontroll to blind, respectively.

After a fun night of music from London based DJ, Goldierocks, headliners Maximo Park and a host of local bands and singers, the main contest started early on Saturday morning. The conditions were far from ideal, with a strong wind blowing onshore which made it hard for the 'freeriders' amongst the group like Parks Bonifay, Marc Rossiter, Danny Harf, JD Webb, Dean Smith and Scotty Broome, so it was the seasoned contest pro's of Rusty Malinoski, Philip Soven, Aaron Rathy and Harley Clifford who made it look like a glassy flat day throwing down some insanely technical tricks like mobe 5's, backlip transfers and 900's to makeup the 4-man final. The final took place late in the day under flat light which made it a little tricky for the guys, but when all was said and done it was Harley Clifford to took home the first ever Wakestock Abu Dhabi win and a giant cheque for $10,000.

In the women's event, the conditions were the worst they'd been all day. But the ladies still gave it their all and it was Dallas Friday who edged out Amber Wing and Nicola Butler to take the win. In the Women's Rail Jam however it was Amber who took home the cash with an unbelievable performance on the rails. Each of the girls rode great, but Amber really was something special.

Finally, the Men's tournament on the Alliance Pool Gap was without doubt the best rail-riding i've ever seen. Right from the qualifiers the level was unbelievably high, and when it came to the quarters and semi's the tricks were already getting silly. Marc Rossiter met with the legendary Parks Bonifay in the first semi which was highly entertaining as the guys battled fiercely while kicking up some friendly banter along the way! It was awesome to see Rossi shine in the pressure of the event and take on the person responsible for progressing the level of rail riding to what it is today, and even better to see him come out on top! This meant Marc would take on the winner of Semi 2 between Aaron Rathy and JD Webb which was intense to say the least. I personally felt Rathy had done enough to take it, but the judges deemed JD the winner which meant for a final with the 2-time Rail Rider Of The Year and the best rail rider to come out of Europe - this was going to be good!

As a photographer an equipment failure can be terrible, but when my flash stopped working two tricks into the final I could not have been happier as it meant I could step back and watch this epic battle unfold and enjoy it to the fullest! After five hits each nobody had a clue who had one, the guys had thrown down so hard that Matty C and Dean Smith struggled to call out what they were doing over the PA system. It was truly incredible. A couple hours later ahead of a performance by hip hop legends De La Soul which everyone was looking forward to, the presentations took place in front of the 10,000 plus crowd and it was JD Webb who walked away with a $5,000 watch from Nixon. Still, Rossi was amped as he'd beaten Parks to come second to the official best rail rider on the planet, so not a bad effort by any means!

The whole event was a tremendous success and all the US, Canadian and Australian riders are keen to come and experience the original version in Abersoch this July 2-4 for an even bigger party. This event was a big deal for our little sport, to be shown off in the glamourous city of Abu Dhabi to thousands of people who had never seen it before, and have already booked up lessons to give it a go for themselves. Who know's, in a few years we could be seeing a special helmet complete with Shora for all the muslim riders queuing up to enter Wakestock!
Thanks to Flash Entertainment and everyone at Wakestock for a fantastic three days in the sunshine, I can't wait to go back next year.

To see all the action in moving form, check out the videos here