Empire Wake: Collegiate Wake Series Atlanta

Last weekend, VT Wake travelled to Lake Lanier outside Atlanta to compete in Empire Wake's Collegiate Wake Series. We brought a solid team of 10-15 riders and 95 riders ended up competing from 11 schools. Some notable accomplishments were Edan Fletcher placing 3rd in Open, Doug Cofer placing 3rd in advanced, and Brian Veasey placing 4th in Beginner (and surviving a crash into the dock). We are now ranked 5th in the nation in the Empire Series and will be travelling to Knoxville, TN this weekend for USA Wakeboard Collegiate Regionals.

http://empire-u.blogspot.com/2012/10/kicking-of-collegiate-wake-series-at.html

http://empire-u.blogspot.com/2011/08/standings_26.html

Raph.

Amazing new video of Raphael Derome. Enjoy!

RAPH from Liquid Force on Vimeo.

New Video: Nationals Roadtrip

Check out Nick Schrein's latest edit. See some behind the scenes clips of our trip to Nationals.


Virginia Tech Nationals Trip from Nick Schrein on Vimeo.

Nationals TV Coverage Information

See all of the action from VT Wake at Nationals on CBS and CBS Sports Network. Here are the TV times: mark your calendar!

Coverage will premiere on Wednesday, July 11 (9 p.m. EDT) as part of The Alt Games Presented by Jack in the Box® on CBS Sports Network. Wakeboarding also will be featured as part of the Alt Games Highlight Show Presented by Jack in the Box® airing on the CBS Television Network on Saturday, July 15 (2 p.m. EDT).

Nationals Recap

2012 Nationals is a wrap-after 3 days, contaminated water, and several storm delays, we managed to get through all 7 divisions by this afternoon.
In Men's D, Nick Schrein did a great job subbing in for us last minute...better than we could have hoped. In the quarterfinals, he battled through terrible conditions and qualified for the finals where he had a better run that earned him 5th place.
In Women's B, Julie Benjamin had a stand up run in the qualifying round that gave her the top spot in her heat. In the finals, she put together an identical run that included a variety of grabs and a Toeside 180 and stood up her two passes. With that effort, she placed 4th in Women's B.
In Wakeskate, the brutal wind chop got the best of Joel Wagner. He fell on some of his big tricks that he has been landing consistently and missed qualifying by a fraction of a point.
In Women's A, Sydney Hobart put together a solid string of tricks in the quarterfinals that allowed her to advance. She wasn't able to land her Tantrum this weekend in either run but still ended up finishing 5th overall.
In Men's C, Adam Van Dyke had a scare when he fell on an Elephant in his quarterfinal run, his second trick. Luckily, he recovered and strung together a good line of tricks that was just enough to win his heat. In the finals, he came out and put together a variety of spins and inverts including four different 360s, a Switch Toeside 540, and an Elephant. He didn't fall until his last trick and was rewarded with 1st Place overall.
In Men's B, Jeff put down a good qualifying run that gained him a spot in the finals. The Men's B finals had some outstanding talent, including Rob Way of Chico State who made finals in Men's A last year. Jeff stuck to his guns and put down his usual tricks including grabbed inverts, a Stalefish late Backside 180, Toeside 540, and a Batwing. Another rider landed a Moby Dick in his division but fell during his run. The judges rewarded Jeff's stand up run and style and he won Men's B!
In Men's A, Joel was matched up in a strong 4 person heat for the quarterfinals. Conditions were extremely windy once again for everyone. Joel started his run with a huge tantrum, right into a rare Switch Tantrum to Revert. He had an uncharacteristic fall on a Toeside 540 and decided not to risk riding conservatively and went the more aggressive route.  He got up and went straight into some hard tricks, landing a Whirlybird before another uncharacteristic fall on a Tootsie Roll which ended his run. Unfortunately, despite being a favorite to win it all, he just missed out on advancing. Luckily, we found out that he should be eligible to compete next year as a 5th year and I would expect him to be hungry for redemption and show what he is capable of.
Some of the other teams at Nationals had some great riders. Chico State and Arizona State both had women riders doing inverts. Central Washington's Thomas Olson had an impressive Men's A finals run that included a Crow Mobe and a variety of stylish spins and inverts. However, John Zdeblick of Wisconsin was definitely the MVP of the tournament. After winning Wakeskate with a 360 shuv it and a few wake to wake tricks, he had the most impressive collegiate wakeboarding run I have ever seen right after Olson's Men's A run. It consisted of a Batwing, a Whirlybird, a Tootsie Roll, two 540s, a Pete Rose, and a wake to wake Heelside Frontside 720! Simply unreal-that level of riding is just about Pro Tour caliber.
The final results had VT making the podium, finishing in 3rd. Wisconsin finished in 2nd, and Chico St came back to take the title. Although we were disappointed that we weren't able to win it all this year, we are happy to make the podium with subs at Men's D and Wakeskate. We are already anxious to start improving and come back substantially stronger next year. With only 1 rider leaving, and lots of young talent coming up, our future is looking bright.
Special thanks to John Zdeblick, Chris Beckman, Adam Fields, and Chris Walker for running another great tournament despite unforseen difficulties. Also a shout out to all of the collegiate riders we met this weekend especially Cam Steiner of UK, the whole Central Washington crew, the Arizona State guys, the Florida riders, and everyone else that made this a fun trip. It's always great to meet and hang out with other collegiate riders. Everyone this weekend was extremely nice and fun to hang out with. It was a good time and we can't wait to see everyone next year!

Nationals Day 3: Finals

Today is the last day of Nationals. CBS is here in full force to cover the event. Currently we are sitting in 4th place after advancing riders to the finals in 5/7 divisions. Julie already had her finals run and placed 4th in Women's B. Next up is Nick in Men's D. We have pretty good seeds for most remaining divisions, and will need to put together our best runs to try to break into a podium position. Stay tuned for results

Nationals Day 2: New site and Rain Delays

We got started this morning at a new site-a private ski lake 30 minutes north of OKC. The site is great, a little short but good protection from wind and nice area for spectators. Julie started off the day for VT wake with a stand up run that earned her first in her heat. Adam rode next in Mens C and fell on his second trick. Luckily he recovered and strung together some strong tricks before falling on his last hit. Shortly after Adams heat we got a bolt of lightning so we are now waiting while this storm passes. It has been cool and rainy all morning but still better than yesterday's wind. We will continue to post results on twitter as we receive them. Stay tuned

Nationals Day 1/2: Dirty Water

So most of day 1 was postponed. After Mens D and half of Wakeskate, officials stopped the event due to water testing that revealed high levels of bacteria in the river due to recent storms. Before that, Nick rode for us for Mens D. The conditions were very challenging with high winds. The other two riders in Nick's division fell quickly, but Nick strung together a solid run of clean, grabbed, fundamental tricks that earned him the top spot in his heat and the highest score in all of Mens D. Unfortunately, Joel had a few falls in his wakeskate run and missed a qualifying spot by a fraction of a point. Right now that leaves us tied at 6th place going into tomorrow. Women's B is first tomorrow. We are looking forward to a strong day-stay tuned to this blog and twitter for up to the minute updates and pictures.

Nationals Day 1: Heats and Seeding

The heats have been announced and VT's heat is as follows:

University of Florida
Arizona State
Virginia Tech

Top 2 riders advance

Nationals Day 0: Roadtrippin

We are on our way. 5 riders (plus one flying), 1100 miles, and 20+ hours from Blacksburg to Oklahoma City. After some mechanical difficulties we are now well underway (huge thanks to former VTWake President Josh Settlage for letting us use his truck). We hope to arrive at a decent hour this evening for check in and registration where we will receive all info on seeding/heats/TV coverage dates, etc. We will keep you posted

Countdown to Nationals

In less than 1 week, VT Wake will be headed to Nationals (CBS Alt Games) in Oklahoma City, OK. Stay tuned to this blog as well as VTwake's Twitter (@VTWake) for daily updates as we compete for the title.

Friends of VT Wake killing it!

Liquid Force rider Gordon Harrison and Integrity wakeskater Andrew Fortenberry with 2 impressive new videos this week. Check it out.

Gordon Harrison from Robby Holihan on Vimeo.

New officers

Our new officers have officially gone into effect. It has been fun being president for the last 2 years and I am excited to see what Grant will do with the club in the coming year.
-Adam

2012-2013 officers
President-Grant DePhillips
Co-VPs-Patrick Wynne/Joe Cofer
Treasurer-Adam Van Dyke
Members at Large-Sean O'Toole/Peter Beegle
Secretary-Julie Benjamin
Recruitment Chair-Sydney Hobart

Michael Dowdy

Wow.

VT Wake riders take it to the snow

VT Snow and the Blacksburg Boarders Club put a ton of work in to make a snowboard rail jam on the drillfield, right in the middle of campus. VTWake riders Edan Fletcher and Brian Steele are competing in the event. Hopefully the success of this endeavor will lead to a similar event for wakeboarding in the near future...

Alaskan Wakeboarding

Check out this awesome trailer featuring some creative cold water riding...




Alaska Wakeboarding Teaser from Catchin' Air Tv Show from UpDown Productions on Vimeo.

Monster Tower and Defy are in!

It's a late Christmas for VT Wake. Our Monster Tower just arrived and will be making its way onto the club boat soon. And from what I hear, another club member, Jeff, will be adding some sweet new mods to the boat soon as well.

Also, we will be having a viewing of Defy within the next couple of weeks. I just checked out the video last night and it is amazing! Awesome job by Sean Kilgus and Danny Harf. Check it out for sure. Order Defy