Wakeboarding professionally is not easy. Having a long career adds its own set of challenges. But winning events and overall titles over a 10 year span where the field has become more and more elite makes this win for Cory Teunissen that much more special.
When asked about how many total victories this makes for him in his illustrious career, Teunissen joked, “My dad is such a geek about this stuff and just told me that this was my 38th pro win and my 13th PWT event win.”
While one might expect so much longevity and success to manifest itself with ultimate confidence coming into the season, Teunissen’s outlook was not so self-assured. “With the surgeries at the beginning of the year, I felt so far away from top form and I couldn’t prepare the way I wanted to. Battling through the ankle pain on every set throughout the year has been tough and I didn’t expect much out of the season.”
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In a year with four, yes four, separate winners on the PWT series, the sport has shown that the gap from the usual suspects and the rest of the field has closed dramatically. As a judge on the PWT in the late 20-teens it was more often the case that if Harley Clifford, Corey Teunissen or Nic Rapa didn’t end up on the top of the podium, something went awry in their respective runs. This year however, the phrase “the overall level of riding has gotten to such a crazy place” is more true than ever.
“The final was nuts, everyone landed a complete run with everything they wanted to do. I mean, Thomas (Herman) got last in the finals and he landed a double backroll to the flats, double toeside backroll and a KGB 720 off the double up!” shared Teunissen about his good friend and riding buddy.
If Cory’s experience was ever going to serve him well, it was going into an event that he had to win if he wanted to take the overall PWT, but that didn’t stop him for pulling for his friends. “I wanted Shota to win almost as bad as I wanted it for myself.” His love of the sport and ability to battle through a rough set of physical challenges was rewarded with what he will file away as one of the most memorable wins of his career. “This one is one of the standouts for me. You always remember your first big wins, but having so much doubt and uncertainty throughout the year, this one means the most.”
Big congrats go to Camden Marsden who took the top spot at his first ever PWT event in the Jr. Pro division and Noah Bollard winning the overall title for the Jrs. Daniel Johnson earns the prestigious Rookie of the Year for the Pro division and will surely be one that will have the tour vets looking out for in the years to come.
