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By Dawn Tay
Water conditions were rough at the Singapore leg of the Wakeboard World Cup yesterday - but that didn't stop the favourites from emerging as champions.
Held for the first time at the Marina Bay, this year's competition saw defending champions Phillip Soven and Dallas Friday storming home with convincing victories in their respective pro men's and women's category.
Aside from fending off a strong showing by black horse Nick Davies from Britain, Soven also had to contend with choppy conditions - he had to make three attempts before launching into a stunning air flip on his third try. But his strong repertoire of gravity-defying aerial flips and tricks - including a Whirlie bird 540 - was more than enough for the judges, earning him US$15,000 ($22,250) in winnings.
Yesterday's win also marked the 19-year-old American's fifth consecutive Wakeboard World Cup trophy in Singapore.
In yesterday's women's finals, 27-year-old Dallas Friday also blew away her competition with a routine completely different from that of her semi-final.
She won by a massive 20-point margin over her nearest competitor, fellow American Shelby Kantar.
Friday, who bagged US$8,000 in prize money, told my paper: "The water conditions weren't so great today - but I came out and tried the hardest tricks right at the start."
Said Soven: "Conditions at the previous venue (Bedok Reservoir) were calmer - it's a completely different setup here. But I did all the tricks that I would have done normally in smoother conditions."
One trick Soven wasn't up for though, was the "1080" - a 1,080-degree mid-air rotation that he had attempted in previous years of the same competition.
Said the teenage wakeboarding maestro: "I played it safe this year."
Singapore wakeboarding prodigy Sasha Christian narrowly failed in her bid to make the finals yesterday. The 15-year-old lost out in the semi-finals by one point to her Dutch competitor, Denise DeHaan. Her brother Max, 18, failed to make it past the qualifying round last Saturday.
The two-day competition was the finale of the month-long WaterFest Singapore 2008.
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