Presented by the Toronto International Boat Show

The Canadian wake sports community came together as it does every
January at the Toronto International Boat Show to check out the latest in
wake boats, boards and more, except with an exciting new twist on the
Show’s closing weekend: a pro indoor wake contest!
 
Flooding a professional hockey stadium within the Boat Show’s expansive
building created the world’s largest indoor lake featuring over a million
gallons of water!
 
For the past several years the Show has been running wakeboard demos on
the indoor lake in conjunction with Canada’s Boarder Pass wake park crew.
More recently the Boat Show contemplated taking the next step to host a
major contest for 2019 to further support wake sports!
Once the Show announced its plans to create the Toronto Indoor
Wakeboard Championship, it didn’t take long for the wake community to
rally behind it!


 
The Championship quickly attracted some of world’s best pros to battle for
$10,000 cash! Canada’s best ams were also invited to compete for $3,500
in product prizes and a chance to ride against the pros. Worth noting, the
Championship provided equal “top five” podium prize money for girls and
guys!
 
The event set-up featured a double sided kicker and a flat-down rail with
transfer wedge with riders pulled by a Sesitec System 2. With a best of 3-4
runs format (one kicker and one rail hit per), the contest featured fast-
paced "pass-the-handle” 30-40 minute sessions that kept the thousands of
spectators stoked. For the prime time pro rider heats, the hockey stadium
was packed with boating and water sports enthusiasts, many seeing pro
wakeboarding up close for their very first time!
 
T-shirt tosses, lights, music, lively play-by-play announcing and pro autograph sessions kept the audience engaged and provided a very cool
contest vibe!


 
The Pro Men’s Finals stacked up with Guenther Oka and John Dreiling
qualifying first out of their qualification heats, followed by Mickey
Henry,  Derek Pontoon, Quinn Silvernale, Riley Dillon, Oli Derome and Cole
Wojtek. The Women’s Finals was just as tight with Meagan Ethell in the
pole position followed by Kaitlyn Adams, Kelsey Chiappa, Michela Phillips
and Dani Brown.
 
The best of four run finals was an extremely tight fight with everyone
stepping up their game for the cash! The rail in particular saw full-pull style
combined with big transfers and technical spins on and off! 
 
See full results below.


 
The story of contest has to be John Dreiling vs Guenther Oka! On John’s
first run of the finals he clipped his forearm on the rail during a hand drag
transfer attempt. As it turned out he hit his arm hard enough to require 4-
5 stitches. With blood starting to drip out of his wetsuit sleeve and waiving
off medical attention, John made his second run count. He stomped a bs
540 transfer onto the rail followed by a perfect double-grabbed mobe off
the kicker. That ended his contest with the medics shuttling him off for
medical attention, but it was enough to nose out Guenther for the win!
After getting stitched up, John made it back from the hospital just in time to
climb to the top of the podium and hoist his $1,500 winners cheque!
 
Huge thanks to the Toronto International Boat Show for their leadership
and support to make this awesome event a reality. And thanks to the wake
community and industry for getting behind what will hopefully be
an annual highlight of the winter off-season. Lots of ideas already
percolating on building on this year’s great event!
Presented by the Toronto International Boat Show and supported by
Boarder Pass, Wake Canada, Alliance Wake, SBC Wake, Ronix, Humanoid,
Follow, Boardsports Canada, Connelly, Sesitec, Windmill Wake Park, Ontario
Wake and EZ-Dock!

PRO WOMEN
1. Meagan Ethell, USA – $1,500
2. Michela Phillips, CAN – $1,000
3. Kaitlyn Adams, USA – $800
4. Kelsey Chiappa, CAN – $700
5. Dani Brown, CAN – $650

PRO MEN
1. John Dreiling, USA – $1,500
2. Guenther Oka, USA – $1,000
3. Riley Dillon, CAN – $800
4. Mickey Henry, CAN – $700
5. Derek Pontoon, USA – $650
6. Oli Derome, CAN – $550
7. Quinn Silvernale, USA – $450
8. Cole Wojtek, USA – $350
———–
9. Derek Brown, CAN
10. Nick Nagribianko, CAN
11. Wake Purdy, CAN
12. Joey Braden, CAN
————
13. Tristan Weber, USA
14. John McTavish, CAN
15. Gavin Fisk, CAN
16. Nick Prehn, CAN

AMATEUR MEN
1. Wake Purdy, CAN
2. Joey Braden, CAN
3. Tristan Weber, USA
4. John McTavish, CAN
5. Gavin Fisk, CAN
6. Nick Prehn, CAN