Australia has its own Pro Tour, has played host to the WWC Worlds and has produced some of the biggest names in wakeboarding, but until two kids wrote a letter to Boarder magazine earlier this year, Australia had never held a wakeskate competition.
That letter, written by Aussie teenagers Dale Plant and Adam Munro, piqued the interest of clothing company Underground Products, which signed on as the lead sponsor for the first UGP Wakeskate Nationals, held Aug. 13-14 in the 57 degrees F water of Stoney Park in New South Wales.
But Plant and Munro weren’t content with just helping to launch the first wakeskate comp in Australia – they won it too. Plant took first in the Jam Session, a four-hour comp in which riders could skate for as long as they could bear the cold; and the highest ollie contest, which he won by clearing the 20-inch bar on his first attempt. Munro won the slider contest with a series of frontside board slides, and narrowly beat out Aussie icon John Henson to win the free-ride contest.
