Colorado River News

1st Annual Wake Boarding Magazine
Wake Awards Set for Friday Night

Winter Park, FL – Consider it the Emmys of wakeboarding. This Friday night at the Orlando Convention Center, Wake Boarding magazine, the nation’s leading publication in the sport, will present its first annual Wake Awards. The honors highlight the past year’s most outstanding performances by riders, photographers and videographers.

The Wake Awards ceremony starts at 6:00 p.m. on Sept. 17 at Surf Expo, the industry’s largest trade show. Forty nominees are competing in these 10 categories: Best New Rider, Best Wakeboarder, Best Wake Rider, Best Wakeskater, Move of the Year, Best Video, Rail Master, Photographer of the Year, Legend and Readers Poll. An elite panel of 32 experts voted for the winners in all but the Readers Poll category, which is based on a poll of Wake Boarding readers on their favorite rider.

"It’s every aspiring wakeboarder’s dream to get the respect due,” says Matt Hickman, editor of Wake Boarding. “We always showcase the sport’s talent in the magazine, but we wanted to take it a step further. The Wake Awards will acknowledge the true stars of wakeboarding in front of their peers and give them legit bragging rights for the year."

Top categories and their nominees:
Best Wakeboarder: Shaun Murray, Danny Harf, Parks Bonifay, Shawn Watson
Best New Rider: JD Webb, Phillip Soven, Mikey Ennen, Rusty Malinoski
Best Wakeskater: George Daniels, Danny Hampson, Aaron Reed, Brian Grubb
Legend Award: Shaun Murray, Scott Byerly, Parks Bonifay, Darin Shapiro

Wake Boarding, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, is published nine times a year by Winter Park-based World Publications.