Boardfest may have started the whole wakeboarding/ snowboarding crossover event genre, but Jose Cuervo took it to a new level. A total of four teams, each consisting of world-class snowboarders and wakeboarders, competed for $30,000 in prize money in what’s become known as the largest crossover event in history.
Wakeboarders Shaun Murray, Dean Lavelle, Scott Byerly, Sonja Scheffler, Gregg Necrason and Sarah Cline joined a world-class field of snowboarders that included Adam Hostetter, Morgan Lafonte and Mark Fawcett for the competition in Hood River, OR, July 26-27. The teams appeared to be evenly matched, but Hostetter of Tahoe City, CA, and Lafonte of Breckenridge, CO, catapulted their team into an early lead with strong runs in the snowboarding competition. However, it was Shaun Murray who electrified the crowd with a dazzling wakeboarding session that cemented the victory. Their two-day team total of 339 points earned them $12,000 in prize money.
Based on the success of the event, Jose Cuervo Tequila announced plans for a second event to be held on the 13,796-foot summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano and Ho’okipa, Maui, in April 1998.
