The Mountain Dew WWA Wakeboard World Championships caps off the largest wakeboard series in the history of the sport, the 2003 Vans Triple Crown of Wakeboarding, October 2-5 at the Orlando WaterSports Complex.
An estimated $100,000 in cash and prizes will be given away over the weekend as pro riders compete for the title of World Champion and Vans Triple Crown Series Champion all televised on Fox Sports Net, November 20 at 4 p.m.
The World Championship carries a hefty price tag of $50,000 for pro riders. Add incentives of a new Ford Ranger awarded to the men's Triple Crown Champion, and two Sea Doo personal watercrafts to the women's Triple Crown Champion and the men's Sea Doo watercraft Pro Wakeskate Series champion and this huge event gets even bigger.
The event itself will be on the most challenging wakeboarding setup ever imagined. Orlando WaterSports Complex, in the backyard of the majority of the world's top professional riders.
Wakeboarding is much like skateboarding or snowboarding and Vans Triple Crown events make a nod to Vans' skate heritage by turning the lake at the Precedent into a floating skatepark. Kickers, short ramps that send wakeboarders as high as 20 feet in the air, dot the water. Rails reaching 70 feet invite riders to slide their way to victory.
The most intimidating piece of apparatus on the water is the Ford Ranger Cage. The Cage is a 50-foot long, 15-foot high slider that challenges the riders to slide across a Ford Ranger FX4 without landing on it.
The riders who earn top honors in the pro men and women's divisions will put together a run that combines excellent riding on the apparatus in addition to great tricks off the wake created by the CorrectCraft Super Air Nautique towboat.
The sport of wakeboarding has grown tremendously over the last ten years, making it the fastest growing sport on the water with nearly 3 million participants. The World Championships draw the top competitors from around the world in 13 divisions ranging in age from 8 to 50.
The Vans Triple Crown of Wakeboarding, the largest wakeboarding series in the sport, consists of three championship-caliber events:
Vans Wakeboard Pro April 24-27 FSN - June 12 / 4 PM Local (Fort Worth, TX)
Built Ford Tough WWA Wakeboard Nationals August 21-24 NBC - Sept. 27 / 5:00 PM EDT (Indianapolis, IN)
Mountain Dew WWA Wakeboard Worlds October 2-5 FSN - Nov. 20 / 4 PM Local (Orlando, FL)
The Vans Triple Crown of Wakeboarding* and the Built Ford Tough WWA Wakeboard Nationals presented by Mountain Dew and Vans are made possible through the support of the Xbox™ video game system from Microsoft, Right Guard Xtreme, Fox Sports Net and NBC Sports. The Vans Triple Crown™ Series features the world's top athletes participating in premier venues throughout North America for the top prize purse in each of six Core Sports™ disciplines: Skateboarding, Wakeboarding, BMX, Freestyle Motocross, Surfing and Snowboarding.