| By Southern Boats on Virginia Tech Wake  This past weekend the VT Wakeboard team travelled to Gainesville, GA to compete in the second stop for the Empire Wake Collegiate Wakeboard Series. We sent a small crew towing our awesome EPIC 23V provided by EPIC and Southern Ski Boats of Richmond, Va.
Our initial plan was to ride Friday when we arrived and show off the boat during the competition, and we certainly got our money's worth. Right after the beginner class had ridden, the tow boat for the competition ran into engine problems that prevented it from towing the rest of the competition. We jumped at this opportunity and had our EPIC in the water before the director of the competition could find us and ask us if we would be willing to pull the event. With reporters from Alliance Wakeboard Mag, Empire Wake, and riders from 8 schools looking on, our shiny white EPIC with "VT Wake-Pulled by Epic" branded on the hull drove out of the marina and made a bee line for the competition site. We loaded up the judges, threw the line to the first rider, and never had a problem the rest of the day. We pulled the competition for about 8 hours (women, intermediate, advanced, open, and wake skaters) on less than 2/3 of a tank of fuel. The common theme of the day was how blown away all the riders were by the enormous wake (when we told people they were riding with no ballast they didn't believe us). The Epic shredded through some choppy wake at certain points of the day, but that didn't stop the riders from going huge and laying down some "epic" sets.  What could have turned out to be a dismal day ending with a cancelled tournament ended up to be outstanding and tons of fun for the riders, spectators, and event workers. We were absolutely stoked to be able to promote our club and sponsors in front of such an awesome crowd of riders and high profile personnel. VT Wake made a big impression Saturday but we couldn't have done it without the awesome support of EPIC and Southern Ski Boats.
At the end of the day I was pleased to find that the table we had set up with brochures for EPIC, Southern Ski Boats, and stickers for VT Wake had been all but completely cleaned out. Many people had never seen an EPIC in person before and I had many people asking me about it all night. VT Wake made a strong showing in Atlanta, and not only did we place high enough to put us at 8th in the nation, but we made some great friends and met tons of people in the sport of wakeboarding that we will keep in touch with for a long time. The Virginia Tech Wakeboard Team is traveling to Cincinnati, OH this weekend for the third stop in the CWS. The team hopes to place first and take the top spot away from our good friends at FSU.
Wish us luck!
Josh Settlage-VT Wakeboarding President Photos are property of www.JKellerPhotography.com      | 
No comments:
Post a Comment