Melissa Colborne: September 2013

Monday, September 16, 2013

CASA pro tour stop 3

The 3rd stop of the CASA pro tour was held at Stokecity wakepark in Midrand on the 14th and 15th of September. I flew up to Joburg on Wednesday (the 11th) with my brothers so that we had some time to practice before the comp started on Saturday. Our cable in Cape Town has been closed for the past month for winter so we really needed the practice. By Saturday we were all super tired and sore from practice but it was worth it. It was great to spend time with the crowd from Joburg and Kyle and Chantal did a great job with the organising of the comp. The weather was surprisingly hot but unfortunately the wind was blowing..

Qualifiers were run on Saturday afternoon. I was fortunate to place 1st in the open ladies division for qualifiers, which meant that I got to ride last in finals. My brother Jason placed 1st in the pro men division for qualifiers, so I was really happy. After qualifiers, we all just chilled at the cable and then had an early night as finals were being run at 8am on Sunday morning. On Sunday we were once again greeted with hot weather but more wind. Finals went well and I was stoked to win the ladies division. Jason won the Pro Men division and Jeanu, also from Cape Town, won the Junior Men division. Cape Town represent!!

We flew back to Cape Town on Sunday night after a good time in Joburg. I am looking forward to Nationals next month in Warmbaths. Thank you ROXY and LIQUID FORCE for the support. Now its back to boat as the first pro tour stop is on 27 - 29th September at Milnerton.

Open Ladies
1st- Melissa Colborne
2nd- Bryanna Motepa
3rd-Candice Bacon

Pro Men
1st- Jason Colborne
2nd- Craig Eygenberger
3rd- Caleb Louw

Junior Men
1st- Jeanu du Plooy
2nd- Marius Labuscagne
3rd- Jacques Labuscagne

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

south korea

On the 23rd of August i left to South Korea along with the rest of the South African team. After 3 flights, 2 train trips and a bus ride, we finally arrived at the Lotte Hotel.We competed at the IWWF world wakeboarding champs in Busan. We ended up coming 12th out of 29 countries which we were happy with. My wakeboarding didn’t go too well unfortunately but the experience that i got from this trip means more to me. I met so many amazing people. A lot of them I knew by name, but I finally got to meet them in person. Watching top class wakeboarders from all around the world has really motivated me to push myself even harder. I also met and spent a bit of time with a fellow Roxy wakeboarder, Larisa from mexico. I look forward to meeting up with her again, either in SA or over in Mexico.

Besides the wakeboarding, we also did some touristy things. We went to watch a baseball game at a huge stadium in Busan. This was very interesting and definitely not your average sports event. . There is so much entertainment going on that no one really even watches the game. We also did some shopping which was not very successful, but it was awesome to see some of the city.

Our team, as well as all the other teams competing, stayed in the Lotte hotel. It is a 5 star hotel in the middle of the city. It was super fancy and probably not the right choice for a bunch of wakeboarders. There was even a driving range in the hotel. The hotel was not too far from the competition site and everyday shuttles were organised to lift us. Before the competition, we all got to have a practice run behind the boat so that we knew what the wake was going to be like.The food in Korea is very different to what we eat back home but it was an eperience to try it all. They are very big on their barbeques which are wayyyy different to ours.

Thanks to the entire team as well as Laurence and Tich for the amazing experience, and a huge thanks to my sponsors Roxy and Liquid Force for the support and making it possible.