Pearls Dollars’ that were being branded tantalisingly and handed out for entertainments sake only fuelling the festivities. The heavy morning always follows good times the night before and this was very much the case come Saturday. We arrived to the ‘arena like’ set-up of Pinneberg Cable, Hamburg with open practice on both water and ramps already underway. Qualifying for the boarding would kick off shortly and be tantamount to almost any final at any event I’ve ever paid witness such was the level of riding on show. First it was down to the boarders to impress and make there way through the first rounds where an unprecedented number of entries were lined up ready to go. The wakeskating was where the big upsets lay with just four spots available in the final. It was to be Daniel Grant fronting against 2010 Playgrounds winner, Tariek Ghoniem, in their head to head that gave the judges the hardest call. With both schooling every part of the tight, ‘non stop’ course that Pinneberg offers Ghoniem only just came through on top to make the Sunday’s final alongside Hansen, Kissman and the youngster in the pack Moritz Thiele. Daniel Grant had his say however in the wakeboarding, the only rider to be competing in both strapped and strapless disciplines, making it through to the head to head knock-out stages. Stand outs of the qualifying were most definitely Felix Georgii and local boy Daniel Bagrowski. Georgii proving his skills were not restricted to just rail mastery and Bagrowski revelling in front of his home crowd shaking off any contest inexperience nerves to come good. Sunday would level the playing field yet again and after the official riders party in down town Hamburg, where each athlete picked their head to head rival on the main stage, the line up was set. Tensions were running high come Sunday for both water-bound and two wheeled athletes. This atmosphere only heightened by the droves of people marching through the door ready for some of the best action sports and musical entertainment to be found anywhere. NOFX and Rise Against would see the late afternoon through as live national TV coverage of the finals commenced, before this however 14 wakeboarders battled it out, so that only 8 remained. No big shocks here other than the very tightly fought contest between Georgii and Van Straten, the Dutchman coming off worse only to have found friends across the live web stream and in Germany too, getting voted back in through the lucky loser system. Rocco Van Straten had this reprieve through a ‘text your favourite rider back into the contest’ set-up that Extreme Playgrounds has conceived, getting yet more interaction between the crowd and the sport. Only thing with this second chance of Rocco’s was that he would be pitted against the man of the moment Freddy von Osten so the reprieve would seemingly be a short one. Rocco grabbed on to this lifeline with both hands however and played his part in the biggest upset of any wakeboard contest on the world scene in 2011. No one would have thought that the 2010 champ and outright favourite would miss out on the finals least of all take a fall on the first straight of his run. It was just not to be for Freddy von Osten, and Rocco rode solid against the falls of Freddy to make the last four alongside Sofer, Fooshee & Guehrs. It was finals time in Hamburg and with it came the live TV with the one of the biggest crowds I’d ever seen at a wake event on the ground to make those watching the TV coverage realise what they were missing. Wakeskate was up and yet another local hero found himself unable to retain the title for a second year. Tarik Ghoniem could not fight off the non stop flipping of Reed Hansen who’s first run was enough to take the win, or Moritz Thiele who stepped it up come his second run dropping a backside big spin to round off his weekend and take second. Jan Kissman unfortunately just couldn’t pull it together and while laying down some impressive moves, that higher end of technicality was missing and so was his podium finish. After the excitement and drama of the qualifying rounds and semi’s, it would be hard for the final showdown to continue with the same momentum. It seemed that the three riders against Tom Fooshee were also feeling inevitability knocking on their door because the American was a cut above in his first run and there was no catching him. Not wanting to take anything away from Guehrs, Van Straten or Sofer because these guys are world class but none of them really laid down what we know they can do. The Dutchman, Van Straten, with his third place finish had quite a turn around from being knocked out, to lucky loser and on to the podium so all in all the drama was non stop all weekend. Seeing as the wakeboarding made up only half of what the weekend was about, we all just had to check out the BMX and it was the enigmatic charger that is Mark Webb who stole the show in Hamburg. The highlight of his performance, apart from taking the win most definitely being his leap of faith into a front flip from a rolling start off the top of the midi ramp on to the transition and out with teeth and shins still in tact. A never-before-seen manoeuvre from a guy that continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible on two wheels. The Telekom Extreme Playgrounds will have now been and gone and we all lie in wait for Europe’s ultimate action sports and music extravaganza to continue in 2012.
The 2011 WWA Wake Park World Championships hosted by Al Forsan International Sports Resort (wakeparkworlds.com) was the final stop of the WWA Wake Park World Series 2011 season and the 1st “cable� wakeboard contest in the Middle-east. Wake Park Worlds was open to all ages and abilities. $50,000 USD was up for grabs, with $30,000 USD cash paid onsite allocated to this single contest and an additional $20,000 USD allocated to the World Series overall champions. There are places in this world where the craziest ideas are imaginable and where everything is possible. Abu Dhabi is one of those places. It is for this reason that in the last two years, wakeboarding has really taken it true place in the Emirates. Firstly with the organization of a boat competition, and this year with the organization of the WWA cable world championships in the complex of Al Forsan. How could I describe a place like this apart from telling you that in the Emirates, immensity rhymes with normality. The complex contains two artificial lakes that are set up on pool liners with a cable on each side, as well as a system 2. But the cable is just the beginning of the experience as you will also find a karting track, a dune buggy circuit and two paint ball zones, all of which are spread out over almost 2 million square meters. Just Insane!
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