The event season at TSR comes to a close each year with the TSR Fall Festival. This year’s event included wakeboard competitions on both our cable lake and boat lake, the second annual Texas Pit Bike National, a bikini contest and a regional skateboard tournament. Once the rain cleared away Saturday afternoon we were left with ideal conditions for the Mini Motocross race and remaining wakeboard events. The action was intense, but the atmosphere was laid back as always at Texas Ski Ranch.
The action began Friday evening with the regional skateboard competition that was forced inside due to rain. The less than ideal conditions were not enough to stop the entire field of riders from coming inside the TSR main building for the biggest game of S-K-A-T-E Texas has ever hosted. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, it is based off the classic basketball game of P-I-G or H-O-R-S-E. One skater hits a trick and the next must also stick it or be awarded the letter S. Once a skater has been awarded all 5 letters he or she is out of the competition. The game of S-K-A-T-E was a great way to get things started for this year’s event!
Saturday morning came around pretty early as the cable wakeboard and wakeskate tourney began at 9 a.m. After narrowing the competitors in five different divisions, with local favorites Tom Fooshee and Brett Little sitting on top of the leader board for pro cable and wakeskate respectively, we headed to the boat lake for some more incredible riding. On a glass calm lake with a beautiful MasterCraft X2 ready to go, riders in four divisions rode for the better part of five hours, eliminating close to half the field.
Once the qualifying rounds for wakeboard were complete, the focus shifted to one of the largest pitbike races in the country. For the second annual event, TSR again partnered with Classic Honda Performance to put on a race that included divisions for both amateurs and pros. The top mini riders in the country showed up to fight it out for the $10,000 purse split between two divisions (10-inch and 12-inch wheel). Willy Browning, the winner of both pro classes at last year’s event, was the favorite going into the event. Willy was able to retain his title in the 12-inch class but was upset by Derek Costella in the 10-inch pro division.
With the action sports completed for day one, the focus was shifted to TSR’s main stage for the days most anticipated event — the bikini contest. This year 12 lovely ladies competed for the Fall Festival title. While you can see many beautiful girls sunbathing on the beach at TSR, there is only two times a year when they will all be in one place. (Cablestock also has a bikini contest each year.)
After an evening of fun, Sunday morning came around way to early for many of our riders that qualified for the finals. On the cable, local favorites Tom Fooshee and Bret Little proved to be too much for the rest of the field as they won the wakeboard and wakeskate divisions. Both were pushed and had to perform flawlessly to win the titles. Josh Rice and Keith Lidberg made things difficult for Tom who hit a switch heel side 900, pete rose 5, slim chance, backside hs 7 and more to win the event. Collin Gee, who made two kick flips as well as two varial flips, pushed Bret. In the end, Bret’s mastery of the rails distanced him from the competition. Many wakeboarders dream to ride rails like Bret does on a skate.
The boat finals were the final event of the weekend and lived up to the billing. Tom Fooshee proved to be unbeatable as he walked away with both pro titles, a feat that has never before been accomplished. Tom is following the same path that Keith Lidberg had before him in mastering both the cable and boat venues at TSR. Tom is no stranger to first place finishes on the cable, but as his boat riding becomes more and more consistent, he should become accustomed to the same in boat-pulled tournaments. “Tom lookeed more comfortable than I have ever seen him behind the boat,” said tournament organizer Blake Hess. “As he starts converting more of his tricks from the cable he should be scaring a lot of the nation’s top riders. He’s that good.”
In the wakeskate division, Brandon Thomas was again in town and looked to improve upon his finish at Cablestock. Texas’ own Jessie Landry, 2006 Cablestock Champion, was not going to just hand the title over to BT, the Toe Jam triple crown winner. While Jessie threw down a run that was very impressive, BT was able to edge out the win with his diversity of wake-to-wake, flip and shove it tricks.
In the end the level of riding on the water was extremely better than 2005 in all of the wakeboard and wakeskate divisions. You can’t ask for more than that. And now we head into the off-season and begin planning for the 2007 events! TSR would like to thank those who supported us for Fall Festival and all of our 2006 events! MasterCraft Boats, NKE6.0, Liquid Force, CWB, No Fear, Wakeboarding Magazine, Wakeworld.com, Reef, JP, Spy & Monster.
For more images please log onto Swami Studios at swamistudios.com
Results
Pro Boat Wakeboard
1. Tom Fooshee
2. Dustin Swafford
3. Mitch Bergsma
4. Keith Lidberg
5t. Joey Bradley
5t. Brian Sasser
5t. Brett Hickey
5t. Danny Sherrill
Pro Boat Wakeskate
1. Brandon Thomas
2. Jesse Landry
3. Collin Gee
4. Jerry Lafferty
Pro Cable Wakeboard
1. Tom Fooshee
2. Josh Rice
3. Keith Lidberg
4. Josh Wright
Pro Cable Wakeskate
1. Bret Little
2. Collin Gee
3. Jesse Landry
4. Tom Fooshee
Advanced Boat Wakeboard
1. Robert Moore
2. JB Oneill
3. Luke Cordes
4. Lucas Snider
Advanced Cable Wakeboard
1. Travis Putnam
2. Witt Finley
3. Brian Hambrick
4. Mason Federstein
Junior Boat Wakeboard
1. Kelsey McClintick
2. John Powell
3. Holland Finley
4. Chase Wappler
Junior Cable Wakeboard
1. Davis Griffin
2. Nathan Kneuper
3. Zak Saunders
4. John Brooks
Girls Cable Wakeboard
1. Louise Sawyer
2. Holland Finley
3. Danille Coney
