Pro Tour Preview
Well, wakeboarding season is officially beginning this weekend with the first stop of the 2000 Pro Wakeboard Tour in
Fort Lauderdale, FL. If you haven't heard by now, the Pro Tour has made a big change this year by adding a kicker,
launch slider, and a rainbow slider to the wakeboard competition. The change has pleased some, and others feel that
the Tour is going about adding sliders in the wrong way, but no matter what your take on it, the competitions
will be different this season. In case you haven't been paying attention, or you just want to know what we think,
Wakeboarder.com takes a stab at predicting who will do well this season.
The Classics
There are a few things you can count on now with the Pro Tour.
Darin Shapiro is a great competitor and will be near the top.
Parks Bonifay is the most talented rider and will blow the competition away making us wonder why he doesn't do that
at every stop.
Brannan Johnson is consistent and will never fall.
Shaun Murray will be the crowd favorite.
And no matter how bad he's wrecked, Zane Schwenk can pull himself out of it.
This year, with the addition of the sliders, you may think that these classic rules won't hold true. Well, don't
bet on it. Shapiro is simply a great competitor, and extremely talented wakeboarder. Although he's older then most
of the guys he's competing against now, he is probably in better shape then any of them. Not only that, he has the
most competition experience, and he's excellent at knowing what the judges want to see. He hasn't really been
known as a guy who does a lot of sliding and jumping off of kickers, but back when wakeboarding had the expression
session event he did do some crazy stuff off the jump ramp on occasion. It'll be interesting to see how Darin
handles the sliders and kickers this year.
Parks is Wakeboarder.com's odds on favorite to win the tour this year. He simply is too talented to not win it now.
He can do more tricks then anyone, can go as big as anyone, he can spin, he can be technical, he can slide, he
can go off kickers, he simply is the best wakeboarder in the world. Last year he was a little inconsistent, but the new
competition format should suit Parks more then anyone. He's very good on the sliders, he knows how to please the crowd,
and he do incredible tricks off the double-up that most riders can only dream of. Look for Parks to be standing on the
winners stand a lot, without even having a board sponsor.
Brannan Johnson is another guy who should have a good shot at the title. He barely missed out on it last year when Murray
got him at the last stop of the year, and many people disagreed with the judging at that event. Johnson was the most
consistent rider all year, and that should help him again this year. He's another guy who is a bit of an unknown on how
he'll deal with the new format, but knowing Brannan, he'll be ready. He's a smart guy who will know what the judges want, and
he learns incredibly fast. So we'll be looking for Brannan to come on strong from midseason on.
Well, the new format won't keep Murray from being the crowd's favorite again. He's a great guy who rides super smooth, and
he should do well this year again. It's hard to repeat on the tour, but Murray could pull it off. He's good on the sliders and
kickers, and like Parks, he can please the crowd and take advantage of the course. Look for Murray to be in the top three this
year.
Wakeboarder.com is predicting a resurgence from Zane Schwenk this year. He's a guy who can pull himself out of anything, and he's
quite good on ramps and sliders due to his show skiing experience. Even if Zane doesn't do that well, he'll be fun to
watch this year.