Friday, the day before the competition, I spent my morning unloading product from the Active Team box van that I brought up from our Oregon City store to stock up the pro shop in hopes to make sure every contestant had the gear they needed for the day of the competition. I also spent time setting up sponsor banners and flags. After a productive morning of set up, I then gassed up the boats and took a much needed rail set to relax and get me in the “shred state of mind.” I spent the rest of the evening until even past dark pulling riders who came early to practice their contest runs and camp out for the night. As always, the night before the contest Koppert hosted a campground full of riders and spectators for the event, but this time Koppert had the privilege to help celebrate one of Koppert’s regular shredders, Priscilla Stultz’s birthday! Priscilla is one of our favored women’s division riders known for throwing down huge backflips on her board and is no stranger to the top of the podium.

Saturday, the morning of the competition, I was more than excited to once again wake up to clear skies and fresh “warm” Fall air. We opened our pro shop and registration booth at 9am and by 9:05am I had a line out the door of rider’s anxious to sign up for the event. In all, 57 riders were signed up, matching our Free Rider’s event held in August! I was hugely stoked and surprised to see how many dedicated riders showed up to our event even in the late season. By 10:15am our first rider left the dock being towed by Ned Baker’s 2011 Super Air Natique 210. Our contest held the same format as the Free Rider’s event, but with only one slight change. Rider’s were allowed only 2 falls, as opposed to the previously allowed 3 falls. This helped save time which we needed no thanks to Fall’s early sunset times. Riders were judged on the same format as Free Rider’s, focusing on amplitude, difficulty, variety, and most importantly, their style! Grabs always help score big and going bigger is always better!

The weather continued to stay dry with even breaks of sun in the sky throughout the day. Without a hiccup, the contest ran as smooth as I could’ve anticipated and was confident to expect to get everyone in the water before dark. As the contest came to a close, we finished the day with the Pro level division. Koppert was privileged for the second time of the weekend and we all got the chance to invite long time pro rider and Oregon original, Collin Wright, to shred with us in the competition. For those that don’t know their wake history, Collin was a long time Double-Up and Billabong team rider and also one of the first Slingshot team rider’s. He’s even been in a wakeboarding game, Shaun Murray’s Unleashed, and was featured in Alliance Magazine’s video “Innuendo” riding along side with some of the industry’s best like Danny Harf and Ben Greenwood. So needless to say, it was an absolute privilege to see what true style and smooth riding looks like. Collin placed on the podium third, Brenden Lieb landed second, and Kyler Green, once again looked down at the others from the top and took home $130 cash for first! Kyler had an unbelievable run stomping his whole set landing a backflip backside 3, toeside 720, roll to blind, front roll frontside 180 and I seriously can’t even remember the rest of his run because he threw down so hard. It’s a lot of fun to watch someone at the age of 17 progress so quickly and handle the competition like a pro. For our rail division, I was lucky enough to sneak in a first place podium spot, followed by second place winner Jake Southard, and third place was reserved for Brad Hess.

I will staple this year’s Fall Classic as a huge success and will put it in contention with one of our best Fall events of all time. Thank you everyone who came out to shred and spectate. Huge thanks to Slingshot for the amazing prize donations and for bringing out the new 2012 Slingshot wake gear and awesome tent to hang out in! Thanks huge to Northwest Riders Clothing and O’neill for always hooking us up with the best of threads. Thanks to Liquid Force, Ronix, and Hyperlite as well for the sweet board and product hook ups. Thanks huge to the contest help, Ned Baker for bringing his boat down to shred behind and for representing Active’s newest boat line Super Air Natique. Thanks to the judge’s Brad Hess, Spencer Norris, Nick Korum and Brenden Leib. Thanks again to Spencer Norris for keeping us entertained on the microphone all day and thanks to the Ammon “A-Frame” Markstellar and Ian Markstellar for keeping us in line on the dock and in the pro shop. And without Jake Southard sitting in the captain’s chair of the boat all day, none of us would’ve been able to show off our skills on our boards. If there’s anyone that I missed, feel free to call me up at the Oregon City store and I’ll sign you up to be put on our mailing list and you can then write your complaint to me!

Ryan Potter and I had been heading up to Koppert lake every Wednesday in the fall, and I always brought my camera but never had decent weather. The sun parted for a few hours and I snapped off a few good shots from the tube! enjoy. — Bryan Swarm

The event kicked off Saturday, August 8th with amateur competition for all ages and ability levels. Current INT national champion Andrew Scheafer threw down some big grabs and smooth 180’s to win the Juniors division. The amateur wakeskate competitors showed some serious skills, and in the end Trevin Sims was victorious with some solid wake to wake airs, and a backside shuv in the flats. The northwest women came out in full force and made the judges jobs extremely difficult. Tennessee transplant Priscilla Stultz edged out the rest of the ladies with big stylish grabs, an array of wake to wake 180’s and an extremely close attempt at a wake to wake 360. Saturday’ s competition concluded with a tough Advanced division. Bellingham local and snow shredder Brendan Lieb was bumped into the Open division after he landed his 10th invert or spin variation. The bump gave top honors of Saturday’s competition to AJ Westlund, who landed a heelside 5, a moby dick, and a tootsie roll. Watch out for AJ in the Open division next year!

The campfires raged well into Saturday night, and AWS played some of the latest wake videos on the big screen in the campground. WIT Productions “Hi-Light”, Scratch Films “The Way”, and Hyperlite’s “Rewritten” got the crowd amped for Sunday’s competition.

Sunday’s festivities got under way with the Open Wakeskate division. Portland local Andy Harris came in third with some smooth wake to wake 180s and grabs. Oly Rider Sean Cebell looked solid with some wake to wake grabs, a lipslide 270 shuv, and a 3 shuv, but went down on a toeside shuv-indy attempt. The fall left the door open for Hyperlite rider Ryan Potter, who took home first place with a number of shuv variations and some super tweaked wake to wake airs.

The Rail Competition was intense with a $500 prize purse put up by Slingshot Wakeboards. The riders were loving the rail course with a new 85’ long rooftop rail for their grinding pleasure. Slingshot and AWS team rider Mike Cardoza landed in third place after a super stylish run but an unfortunate early fall. Slingshot rider and Koppert Lake Head Coach Quinn Silvernale took second place with some dirty presses and a 270 down the double kinked A-frame that got the crowd stoked, but an early fall took valuable time out of his four-minute contest run. Koppert Lake’s Eric Sund made the most of the home court advantage and put together a stand up run highlighted by a backside tailslide on the flat rail, a nosepress on the rainbow rail, and a frontside lipslide down the double kink to take home first place for the second year in a row.

The Open Freeride division was the highlight of the weekend with some of the most progressive riding ever seen at Koppert Lake. The best of the northwest were on hand including Robby Carter, Alex Scagliotti, Nick and Mike Cardoza, Zach Schneider, Dan Klopp, Thomas Olsen and many others competing for a $1000 prize purse. The 21’ Malibu Wakesetter VLX was throwing out a meaty wake on the buttery Koppert Lake water, and the crowd was pumped as they watched the Open riders throw down some stylish and technical riding. The competition was extremely close as third place actually came down to a ride off between Robby Carter and Zach Schneider. Robby’s HUGE toeside off axis indy backside 180 and pete rose were probably some of the most stylish moves of the day but Zach put together a stand up four minute run that included regular and switch heel and toe 540’s, a toe back 3, and a huge heelside melan 5 off the double up. Each rider got 3 double ups in the run off, and the best trick would win. Robby stuck a toeside 720 and just popped the handle on a toe 9 to edge out Schneider who couldn’t ride away from his heelside 7. Second place went to Slingshot and AWS team rider Nick Cardoza, with a tantrum to blind, backroll to blind, melan crow mobe, and a toeside 720. The top spot at the 2009 Freeriders Ball went to Hyperlite and AWS team rider Alex Scagliotti, who put together a crazy stand up run with tricks like heel and toe 5’s, moby dick, crow mobe, front mobe, dum-dum, and pete rose. That’s right, it was a Hyperlite sweep at the top of the podium on Sunday!

Active Water Sports would like to thank Malibu Boats, Hyperlite Wakeboards, Slingshot Wakeboards, Oneill clothing, and Rockstar Energy Drink for their support of the 2009 Freeriders Ball. Also, special thanks to all the judges and drivers who helped make this event possible, and of course all the riders and spectators who made this event one of the best ever! See you all next year!

Come join the best Novice Skiers and Riders in the NorthWest at the Novice Championships August 29th at Koppert Lake.

Have questions?
Email: eric@koppertlake.com
Phone: (360)864-4137