10th Annual Byerly Toe Jam

Time flies when you’re having fun and over the past ten years the Byerly Toe Jam has been a blast. A huge crowd turned out for the two reasons this Toe Jam was extra special: it was the tenth one and it was also Scott Byerly’s 40th birthday. Talk about some serendipitous shit going on in the world of wakekskating… Whatever the reasons to celebrate though, the sport and the contest have come a long, long way in that decade, both thanks to and because of each other. We have gone from pool gaps made with hay bales, plywood, and  “I think this will work” measurements towed by jet skis, to pools made using Bobcats, concrete, and towed by state-of-the-art System 2.0 cables. Toe Jam 2013 marked the first stop of the four-stop Wakeskate Tour and if the riding in this first event was any indication, the Wakeskate Tour is set to explode in even bigger fashion than last year. Put it this way: in practice there were ten different riders kickflipping onto the rails at the pool and the first ever wake-to-wake kickflip in a contest was landed in the boat contest. Progression is a beautiful thing, which is what Toe Jam has always been about since its inception.

Pool gap podium: 1st – Andrew Pastura / 2nd – George Daniels / 3rd – Daniel Grant

While this might have been the coldest Toe Jam ever, the riders didn’t let that stop them from absolutely sending it and putting everything on the line from the get go. Kickflip boardslide, kickflip front board, kickflip back lip, 360 flip, backside bigger spin, varial heel flip, big spin boardslide to fakie… the list goes on and on and on… and those were tricks being thrown out in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. In the end the six-man super final came down to Reed Hansen, Daniel Grant, Andrew Pastura, Austin Pastura, Keaton Bowlby, and George Daniels and they kept the fans and their fellow competitors entertained, despite needing a fire at the start dock to help stay warm.

Trying to stay warm at the start dock during the final round

Keaton Bowlby made the trek from Cali and turned some heads in a serious way with his consistent and technical riding. His kickflip boardslide helped him earn his way into the six man super final round.

GD had a good time

Some of the crowd enjoying the view for the final round at Toe Jam

Austin working his way through the final round

Riding at Toe Jam isn’t as easy as the guys make it look sometimes…

No Thai teenagers were harmed in the making of this Toe Jam… but there were some close calls

Andrew – 270 shuv on

The look of a winner

The Wake Babes came out and swept another podium. 1st – Zuzana Vrabalova / 2nd – Jen Gilanfarr / 3rd – Cassandra Scott

Toe Jam Boat podium: 1st – Andrew Fortenberry / 2nd – George Daniels / 3rd (tie) – James Balzer & Reed Hansen

The 10th Byerly Toe Jam was the perfect way to kick off the second season of The Wakeskate Tour. Be sure to check out thewakeskatetour.com for more info on the upcoming events. Next up is Retention at the Horan compound in Nahunta, GA May 30 – June 1. If you’re gonna be in the neighborhood you definitely need to check it out. If you’re not gonna be in the neighborhood you need to start planning a trip to get yourself into the neighborhood so you can check it out.