Less than 5, an event focused on style and the basics (no tricks over 360 and no inverts) was created to see how the best riders in the world could do the basics stylishly. But in order to know who wins you would need to have judges that know the subtleties of every move and what is stylish. Who Judged the event you ask? A couple of guys who have been around the block a few times – Scott Byerly, Parks Bonifay & Gregg Necrason. Think about that for a moment. You go to toss your rope to the boat and Scott, Parks and Gregg are staring at you. Better bring your A game.

Even with the most tenured professional wakeboarders in the boat, there were still challenging moments. Including a judges discussion about how you even judge John Dreiling’s run as the approach is so different. Parks called it out as needing to be considered very carefully as it is a lot harder to go out and do something completely different than everyone else. Similar comments for the West Side boys, Trever Maur and Josh Twelker as they bring their non-homogenized style to the event. This is why we do Less Than 5, style does not mean you do it the same way as everyone else.

Ultimately, Tyler Higham, Luca Kidd and Ulf Ditsch held it down for team La Familia and swept the podium … again. With a $15,000 purse this was a pretty productive day for that household, I’m quite sure it all went into their 401Ks.
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