All Hail Queen of Wake!

December 8th, 2008 | Articles

2008 marked the inaugural year for the nine event series traveling throughout North America to determine just who is the best Pro Womens rider around. For the first time the king of wake is sharing the throne with a female counterpart, the Queen of Wake, the crowned winner of the world’s most elite pro wakeboarding circuit. For nearly two decades, female wakeboarders have taken a back seat to men in professional contests, with women’s wakeboarding featured in only a few of the events. However this year, female riders will finally have a series to call their own.

Since its initiation in 2005, the King of Wake series has established itself as the most prestigious pro wakeboarding circuit in the world, bringing together the sport’s top events into one ultimate season-long points chase.

During the 2008 season, the king and queen nine-event series each hit the water for the Air Nautique Wake Games, the Tigé Pro-Am Wakeboard Championships, the Air Nautique WWA Wakeboard National Championships, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, FIVE stops on the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour and fianlly the Rockstar Energy Drink WWA Wakeboard World Championships, presented by Supra.

Riders from across the globe, including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States all took part in the series hosted by MONA VIE, the official nutritional drink provider and presenting sponsor of the Pro Women’s Division of the Pro Wakeboard Tour and the presenting sponsor of the Queen of Wake series.

“This is huge,” says 2007 Nationals and World champion Amber Wing. “I’m coming into my sixth year riding on the U.S. Pro Tour, and for all those years women have only been at two stops. When I found out [about Queen of Wake], I felt a great sense of pride, which all women who have been riding on the tour should feel.” Wing has been really pushing spins in the pro women’s circuit while new comer Nicola Butler has been pushing the mobes like crazy, “I am so excited about being included in all the stops”

Says Butler, “and I’m stoked that womens wakeboarding is heading in a good direction.”

Along with the new competition comes a new set of rules: D.R.I.V.E. The judges will look for these five aspects in the run; D for difficulty, R for risk in the run, I for intensity, V for variety and E for execution. Air tricks account for 15% of the score (Raley based tricks, including krypt, blind judge,as well as grabs, straight airs, tweaks, pokes and 180′s).Spins account 20% of the score including all spins 360 or more. Tech accounts for 25% of the score and includes all flips, rolls, mobes and raley tricks plus 360 such as 313 and s-bends. Rails are worth 20% of the score and finally overall impression is 20% of the final score. D.R.I.V.E. was implemented at the beginning of the season 2008.

Throw it Down contributer and Canadian rider, Leslie Sparkes was able to make an appearance at one of the first stops on the tour and described the excitement as overwhelming, ” I was so nervous I was standing on the dock with girls I have looked up to for years.” says Sparkes, “I have never seen girls riding like that, it was amazing. Girls have come such along way. It made me look at myself and say damm I really need to step up my game. All the girls are awesome and so nice, it was so cool to just be there.” Leslie was not the only rider to represent Canada at Queen of Wake.

Canadian Pro circuit competitor Ashley Leugner says that the new points race is good for both womens progression, improves rider consistancy as well as creating a greater sense of community, “I think the Queen of Wake is great. It’s given the girls an equal opportunity to prove who is worthy of the title and not only that but showcasing women’s wakeboarding the way we want people to see it; we are just as hard working and just as competitive as the guys.” says Leugner, “I think even just in this first year of Queen of Wake the event itself has done it’s part in pushing the sport for women. With the nine stops instead of two we trained harder to make sure those runs were flawless and the winner of Queen of Wake was obviously the most consistent rider which proves the quote “Consistency is Key”. Not to mention all the girls had a great time getting to see each other nine weekends throughout the summer instead of just two.”

After six intense months of competition, the two series came to a close, dubbing, 19-year-old Phillip Soven, the King of Wake, and crowned 16-year-old Nicola Butler the Queen of Wake. Butler took home the $10,000 bonus for winning the inaugural Queen of Wake series which is a huge step for women kind in the world of wakeboarding.

UK standout Nicola Butler will go down in history as the first rider ever to win the Queen the Wake series and proved to be a contender for future titles, as she won seven on the nine events in the entire series, including the first six contests. Butler’s six-contest winning-streak is a huge achievement. “All the girls stepped up their riding this year, which pushed me to be better,” says Butler. “It’s honor to be part of the Queen of Wake, it’s the first time us girls have had something like this.”

We are excited to report on this groundbreaking girls series and we can’t wait for next years Queen of Wake as it will only get better with the years to come.

Results:

1 Nicola Butler (UK) 790 points

2 Amber Wing (AUS) 650 points

3 Melissa Marquardt (USA) 640 points

4 Emily Copeland Durham (USA) 606 points

5 Raimi Merritt (USA) 532 points

6 Shelby Kantar (USA) 515 points

7 Laura Lohrmann (USA) 509 points

8 Dallas Friday (USA) 495 points

9 Barrett Perlman (USA) 442 points

10 Shawna Hoffman (USA) 369 points

11 Ashley Leugner (CDN) 309 points

12 Hayley Smith (AUS) 289 points

13 Danni Petraitis (USA) 212 points

14 Andrea Fountain (NZL) 181 points

15 Maeghan Major (USA) 176 points

16 Raequel Hoffman (USA) 137 points

17 Cathy Williams (USA) 134 points

18 Andrea Ensminger (USA) 113 points

19 Kath Moore (AUS) 94 points

20 Gretchen Vedel (USA) 51 points

21 Becky Carter (USA) 43 points

22 Jenacee Jackson (USA) 35 points

23 Tarah Mikacich (USA) 27 points

24 Emylee Wright (USA) 23 points

25 Leslie Sparks (CDN) 23 points

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