Toe Jam at the System 2.0

Action returned to The Projects for Day 2 of the 8th annual Byerly Toe Jam. This year marked the first time ever the competition utilized a System 2.0 two-way cable. That didn’t prevent the riders from throwing down some hammers though. In all 30 riders entered Thursday’s contest in an attempt to make the prestigious Byerly Toe Jam podium. It was definitely an encouraging sign to see a lot of new faces putting it on the line in what has become the most iconic contest in the sport’s history. Each rider was given three minutes or four falls per round, whichever came first. Riders like George Daniels, Andrew Pastura, and Brandon Thomas came out strong, but the semifinals featured a very diverse group of wakeskaters: Ben Horan, Bret Little, Daniel Grant, and Andrew Fortenberry.

Grant, the kid-wonder from Thailand blew some minds with his consistency and crazy bag of tricks, but a couple untimely falls against an on-fire Bret Little cost him a shot at the finals. Up to the semis Ben had been killing it in the System 2.0 park all day long, but he couldn’t match up against Fortenberry, who mixed in a variety of rail hits and flats tricks with big kicker hits. That put Fortenberry, the Ana Maria Island native, up against Bret Little, who made the journey from Texas. The final gave each rider five minutes in the park and unlimited falls — a chance to truly showcase some of their unique skills. Both Andrew and Bret gave it their best and put down some serious riding, but neither will find out the results until Saturday at the final podium. You guys are just gonna have to tune in then to find out…

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Results:

Qualifying Results – Top 2 Advance to Semis
Heat 1
Andrew Pastura
Brian Grubb
James Balzer
Collin Gee
Aaron Reed

Heat 2
Bret Little
Leo Labadens
Reed Hansen
Travis Belsito
Jennifer Gilanfarr

Heat 3
George Daniels
Stu Shinn
Nick Robinson
Danny Hampson
Pierre Atruz

Heat 4
Ben Horan
Yan Lecomte
Steven Campbell
Grant Roberts
Kyle Hyams

Heat 5
Brandon Thomas
Daniel Grant
Dieter Humpsch
Nick Harlos
Joe Philips
Edgar Perez

Heat 6
Matt Manzari
Andrew Fortenberry
Austin Pastura
Clint Tompkins
Travis Doran
Danny Robbins
Semi-Rounds – Top 1 Advance to Semis
Heat 1
Ben Horan
Brandon Thomas
Leo Labadens

Heat 2
Andrew Fortunberry
George Daniels
Matt Manzari

Heat 3
Bret Little
Brian Grubb
Stu Shinn

Heat 4
Daniel Grant
Yan Lecomte
Andrew Pastura

Final Four Head-To-Head
Bret Little
Daniel Grant

Ben Horan
Andrew Fortenberry

Head-to-Head Final
Andrew Fortenberry
Bret Little