A new level

The season opening for European wakeboarding couldn’t have been better. On May 1 at Red Bull Wake the Line in Cologne, Germany, more than 7,000 spectators saw incredible wakeboarding action performed by top riders from all over the world.

The second edition of Red Bull Wake the Line showed a new level of urban wakeboarding and opened doors for new tricks. Towed by Sesitec’s system 2.0, the four pools in the stadionbad of Cologne made up a total of 320 meters of wake heaven. In the super final Keith Lidberg (USA) showed the best performance, winning ahead of Germany’s Bernhard Hinterberger and Shawn Watson from the United States.

Jan Kissmann of Germany secured first place in the wakeskate divison of Red Bull Wake the Line. The local hero had to make his way through the warm-up session in Langenfeld, where he got his wildcard. With his technical skills on the rails and massive spin tricks at the kicker showing late backside 180 and a frontside 540 he was clearly the winner. Second place went to Leo Labadens from France and last year’s winner Andy Kolb (GER) came third. The winner of the best trick award was another Frenchman, Kevin Calvez.

The rider line-up in the wakeboard division of Red Bull Wake the Line included Europe’s biggest names, like Bernhard Hinterberger (GER), Christian Koester (UK), David Vervenne (BEL) and Laurent Perychou (FRA) – completed by Parks Bonifay, Keith Lidberg, Shawn Watson and Collin Harrington all from the US. In the first duel at the head-to-head semi-finals Parks Bonifay had to ride against Bernhard Hinterberger. Both showed incredible runs with many similar tricks, including a 450 transfer to the A-Frame and nice quarterpipe action. With his crow mobe 5 over the last kicker, Bernhard overruled Park’s Whirlybird and made his way to the super finals. There he met up with Collin Harrington, Keith Lidberg and Shawn Watson.

The 20-minute jam session was dominated by Keith Lidberg, showing all his technical rail skills such as big transfers, backside lipslides and tons of style in his kicker tricks. Last year’s second-place winner Bernhard Hinterberger repeated his placing ahead of Shawn Watson, who won the best trick in the quarterpipe.