Colorado River News

Aussies Sweep Top Three Spots in 2005 Indmar Pro Tour Standings
Sanders Takes Indmar Performance Award as Top Rider

Orlando, Florida – 2005 is the year of the Aussie on the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour as top three places in the final Indmar Marine engines Pro Wakeboard Tour Season Standings were taken by riders from Australia.

In a breakthrough season, Josh Sanders from Nowra, Australia became the first-ever foreign born rider to win the Indmar Pro Wakeboard Tour Season Championship and the $5,000 bonus Indmar Performance Award as the Pro Wakeboard Tour’s top rider. Sanders accepted the Indmar Performance Award in Portland, Oregon at the last stop of the 2005 MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour.

Sanders was the most consistent rider on the Pro Wakeboard Tour in 2005, making it to the Pro Men’s finals in all five events. He finished in the top five in all five events, making it to the head-to-head finals in three events.

Sanders, 23, is in his seventh year on the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour. His previous top finish in the Indmar Pro Tour Standings was a fifth-place finish in 2003. He finished in 14th place in the 2004 Indmar Standings.

Right behind Sanders in second place in the final Indmar Standings is fellow Australian Daniel Watkins. Watkins is no stranger to success on the Pro Wakeboard Tour and the Indmar Pro Tour Standings. Watkins has finished in the top 10 in four of the last five years and finished in the top three, three years in a row. The highlight of Watkins year came at the Pro Wakeboard Tour’s event in Kelowna, BC where Watkins took home the victory.

Going into the final Pro Wakeboard Tour event in Portland Sanders led Watkins by only 10 points. It was Sanders performance over the weekend that earned him the Indmar Performance Award as the top rider. Sanders made his way to the Pro Men’s final in Portland, before taking second place in the event to Danny Harf. Watkins was defeated earlier in the event by Harf in the Final Four of the Pro Men’s finals.

In their final 2005 Indmar Marine engines Pro Wakeboard Tour placings, Sanders was first with 445 points, Watkins was second with 430 points and the third Australian of the group, Brett Eisenhauer was third with 385 points.

The highest ranked American on the list is Phillip Soven (370 points) in fourth place. The 16-year-old out of Longwood, Florida won the first event of the 2005 Pro Wakeboard Tour season in Orlando on April 1.

Americans hold the fourth thru seventh spots in the Indmar Standings. Defending WWA Wakeboard World Champion Andrew Adkison (365) finished behind Soven in fifth place. Harf (354), the only rider to win two events on the Pro Wakeboard Tour in 2005 finished in sixth place. Tino Santori (335), the defending WWA Wakeboard National Champion finished in seventh place.

Rounding out the top 10 in the Indmar Standings are two Canadians and another American. Finishing in eight-place is Canadian Chad Sharpe with 310 points. Erik Ruck, the 2002 Indmar Performance Award winner finished in ninth place with 301 points. Canadian Rusty Malinoski who won the Pro Wakeboard Tour’s stop in Reno, Nevada on June 5, finished in tenth-place with 280 points.

Parks Bonifay who had claimed three of the last four Indmar Performance Awards finished in 12th place with 220 points.

This year Indmar Marine engines gave $20,000 to the athletes competing on the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour. The $20,000 total is distributed between elevated prize purses at each event and the Indmar Performance Award bonuses. Earlier this year, Dallas Friday was won the Indmar Performance Award as the top female wakeboarder on the Pro Wakeboard Tour.

Indmar is also instrumental in growing the sport of wakeboarding through contributions of prize money to the MasterCraft Junior X Series, a five-event developmental tour that provides the Pro Wakeboard Tour’s future stars with a proving ground before the jump to pro competition.

Indmar Marine engines are the power behind the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour and a leader in the water-sports industry, sponsoring events around the world. Indmar Marine engines power the MasterCraft X Star and MasterCraft Pro Star class, the exclusive tow boat of the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour.