Boat Finals And Winch Qualifying At Day One Of The Byerly Toe Jam Presented By O'NeillDate: 09-20-2007
Author: Wakeskating.com Staff
The first day of the Byerly Toe Jam, which was out at the Projects, saw the bros get jiggy behind the boat and the winch. The first day would be monumental, as Brian Grubb would claim his fourth consecutive wake title from the 2007 Toe Jam wakeskate series.
Joining Grubb in the wake finals was youngblood Ben Kaiser. Grubb, winning the coin toss, decided to sit back and let Ben hit the water first. Mr. Kaiser did well behind the boat, but once again, Grubb took his time to shine and had another amazing set behind the boat, with a personal highlight being his attempt at his toeside wake to wake frontside big spin.
The winch qualifiers would also take place on Thursday evening. This event was very entertaining, seeing as though the entire crowd was right up next to the action and the riders could feed off of the energy from the crowd. It was also cool because a different group of riders were allowed to compete, so you may have seen some faces that you weren't necessarily expecting to see (but, of course, were most definitely welcome additions to the event). The pool set up had a ledge down each side, with a flat box set up in the middle, but the kicker is that the drop from the end of the box was close to seven feet.
Riders in heat one were A.Reed, Drew Danielo (who was riding his new Gator board), Drew McGuckin (who was wearing an amazing hat), Matt Hooker (who wasn't wearing any flair at all), Steven Campbell and finally, Matt Manzari. Stand out tricks from heat one included Aaron's flawless back lip on one of the ledges, Drew Danielo's boardslide, frontside 270 out on the box, and Steven Campbell had a nice shuv onto the box.
Heat two had Ben Kaiser, Reed Hansen, Nick Taylor, Ben Horan, Silas Thurman, and Kyle Hyams taking their shot at the rail set up. Ben Kaiser carried his momentum over from the boat finals and had a stand up performance that included a front board, shuv out on the box, as well as a shuv on, shuv out on the box. Reed Hansen tried to take some of his Hioppodrome magic and land a varial flip over the gap, but it wasn't meant to be, and he pounded his board into the mud in the process. Nick had a solid back lip that turned heads, and Kyle Hyams had some admirable front board, 270 shuv out attempts off of the box (remember the seven foot drop, people).
Now, I forgot to mention that as the heats went on, the riding only got better. So with heat three came some entertaining wakeskate maneuvers from Stu Shinn, Clint Tompkins, James Balzer, Byerly (because we don't need to use his first name anymore), and Ross Gardner. Clint Tompkins was definitely the stand out of the lot, and pounded out some maneuvers that included a back lip, a front lip, a frontside boardslide shuv out and a shuv down the gap. Mr. Balzer also earned the admiration and cheers of the crowd after he landed a shuv to front lip down one of the ledges.
Finally, heat four's action came from the likes of John Ruark, Brian Grubb, Bret Little, BT, Chase Gregory, and one Danny Hampson, aka DJ Dan C E. (Holla!) John Ruark was riding with his fin additions, which allowed him to pull off a nose manual (no nose drag, what!) and a number of kickflip attempts off of the box. (He'd try these into the night after the winch event was done, but the attempts proved to be unsuccessful. Keep your ears to the ground though, because they are not out of reach.) Bret had a nice shuv to boardslide on the box, and Chase made his last hit count with a beautiful noseslide, courtesy of two side by side Byerly locks on the bottom of his deck. But it was DAN C E who had a song in his heart and, letting that spirit shine, landed a backside boardslide, frontside bigspin out and a boardslide, frontside 270 out, each on their second attempt. Danny easily had the loudest cheers from the crowd during the entire evening, and they were well deserved.
So, after that run down...I don't know who actually qualified for the finals. But check back, because we'll definitely cross that bridge together...when we get there...
Friday, September 21 will see day two of Byerly's Toe Jam out at The Projects. The day begins at 9 a.m. with the rail qualifying, and the evening will once again play host to the winch finals. And don't forget, the Toe Jam will pick up its stakes and caravan out to OWC on Saturday for the Cable event.
For more information, check out www.byerlytoejam for more information.
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