Thorpe Ladies Morning Season Ender Competition

JBSki’s Wednesday Ladies Mornings have been a phenomenal success this year with week on week increase in numbers and a far greater volume of ‘new trick stories’ than ever before. Such has been the surge of enthusiasm for all things ‘women and wakeboarding’ for all ages down at the Thorpe, that the ladies requested a small informal ‘end of season’ competition… and so it was.

The format was simple; enter your name and in the final hour of the women only session, a Wide-a-Wake goodie bag would be awarded to the rider showing most progress, giving the greatest effort and pushing their comfort zones the most. As the ladies signed up, more followed and before we knew it, almost the entire morning’s session were having a slice of the action!

Over the season, we’ve loved seeing how the girls encourage one another and spur each other on in the Ladies Mornings, but this particular Wednesday 23rd September, the ladies really pulled out all the stops… the lure of the goodie bag with treats from Shewee, Surfdome and Vitabiotics and WAW merchandise roused a competitive edge in all the ladies and they even surprised themselves!

Without exception, the ladies tried a new trick, whether it was riding switch for the first time, 180 off the kicker or gapping the roof top, they all left the session trying something they’d never done before and they’d go to bed this evening with a sense of achievement.

We began the session with a small ‘ollie masterclass’ where more joined in as they heard what was going on. In no time at all Sally Lomax, Diana Sands and Kirsty Richards were all ollie-ing, steadily increasing their height as the confidence grew. Kirsty took it a clear step further mastering her ollie 180 effortlessly. Not content with that she impressed everyone by learning dock starts and riding switch all the way around in only her third cable session this year!

A regular to the Ladies Morning sessions, Diana, also made great progress nailing her dock starts, and ollie-ing with greater determination and improved body position, minor adjustments paying dividends to the confidence of her riding.

Slalom skier, Elaine Cater had been struggling with her switch riding all summer, but brought it all together this session to comfortable alternate between regular and switch riding, even trying to make the corners switch as well. A few concentrated adjustments to her body position and Elaine was exorcising her summer demons demonstrating huge leaps in progress.

The ladies were making massive progressions on the obstacles too. Jane Trevithick was close to her 180’s off the big kicker, but Emily Heffernan stood out in her gutsy determination to dominate all the obstacles. Recently mastering her tantrums off the small kicker, she moved them onto the large kicker and in one session developed them into a strong, laid out, definite invert. She also learned how to progress her 360 on the flatbar to a 540. In less than half a dozen attempts, she’d mastered her handle positioning to ride away cleanly and determinedly! But Emily didn’t stop there! She then moved onto the roof top where she built up her cut to attack the rail with such force that she gapped the top of the down slope. A great day’s progress for Miss Heffernan!!

It was a very tough call to decide which of the ladies displayed the most progress, determination and effort, but after deliberation, two ladies were awarded goodie bags, Elaine and Emily. It’s been a fantastic year for all the Ladies attending JBSki’s Ladies Morning this Summer and we hope that they’ll all be back again next year thirsty for their next challenges.

JBSKi Ladies Morning will next be on Wed 30th September at 10am. We hope to run a KASA (kicker and slider award) proficiency course for those wanting to hit the obstacles for the first time. Please register your interest with James Murphy (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Please contact JBSKi for further Ladies Morning dates and winter opening times.

Tuesday 29 September 2009 | Permalink