Big 5 Progression Session Review

The Big 5 Progression Session Wakeboarding and Wakeskating contest took place at StokeCity Wakepark on Saturday Afternoon (8th March). Cloudy and rainy weather scared away some spectators but had no effect on the insane riding that took place.

The unique and exciting format of this contest saw the invited riders have the chance to learn 5 new tricks during the week before the contest. The tricks included variations of Frontflip Tricks, Backroll Tricks, Railey Tricks, Toe Side Tricks and Kicker Tricks. On contest day the riders wrote down the 5 new tricks they had been working on and put them into their individual boxes that were placed by the judges. In each round the riders were called up to choose a trick out of their box which they had to throw down in that round.

The 15 riders that competed were Arno Theron, Craig Eygenberger, Candice Bacon, Devon Nassif, Jan de Lange, Jacques Labuschagne, Marius Labuschagne, Matti Buys, Nikolai Coetzee, Melissa Coborne, Perfect Dube, Ryan Durhan, Reed Watson (USA) and Sean Bacon. Jason Colborne unfortunately injured himself the day before the contest so he sat out and joined the judges.

The contest was action packed with some great attempts, some not-so-great attempts and some awesome first timers. Riders that landed or came the closest to landing their new tricks made it through to the two 5 rider semi finals with the top 2 riders in each heat making it through to the 4 rider final.

The final saw Wakeskater, Matti Buys go up against the Wakeboarders of Jacques Labuschagne, Marius Labuschagne and Craig Eygenberger. Matti Buys was going for a very technical 270 Shove to a Frontside Boardslide to a Backside 270 out on the Wedge which saw him get close but go down on each attempt during the final and he ended up on 4th place overall. Matti did however land the trick just after the finals were called. Jacques Labuschagne landed a clean Frontflip and earned himself 3rd place overall. Marius Labuschagne pulled off a Frontflip to Revert putting him in 2nd place for the day but it was Craig Eygenberger who landed his first ever Toe Side Railey, a super technical trick, to take the overall.

15 Riders, 5 New Tricks, 1 Winner was the idea behind the Big 5 contest which was a hugely successful format seeing the riders push themselves to learn and attempt tricks. They did just that and now have new moves in their bag of tricks. It’s all about the Progression.

Shout out to StokeCity WakePark, Liquid Force, Hyperlite, ION Cameras, LW Mag and Red Bull for making this event possible. The idea is brilliant and the contest heated, we cannot wait for the next one.