The day after a heavy rain storm that everyone wished to forget, Friday morning started out warm and sunny – it showed signs of a great day ahead, but that was not the case. But by 11:00am, an unforgiving wind rolled into Lake Acworth and stayed through out the entire day. The water went from calm to chaos.
The riding conditions were rough water with occasional sightings of a few white caps. Legion rider, Kyle Alberts, was caught off guard by the conditions: “The water didn’t look to bad from the dock, but as soon as you are riding it is way worse than you though, and the wake was really unpredictable”.
All afternoon and evening, riders struggled to find consistency in the choppy water. Everyone was falling. All the riders hung out around the athlete’s tent to see firsthand how everybody faired against the adverse weather. The people who were able to make it out of their heat were the ones who could quickly adapt to the fluxing water conditions.
The early afternoon hosted the Junior Men’s qualifying heats, and the Hyperlite Legion team was really making their presence known. Alex Scagliotti, Danny Burnstein, Eddie Valdez, Nick Davies, and Jimmy LaRiche all moved on to Saturday by finishing in the top two of their respected heats.
In the Pro Women’s division, Hyperlite’s Nicola Butler showed why she was the defending Wake Games champion and moved on to the next round.
In the Pro Men’s division, the quick spinning Kyle Alberts, and the rising Danny Thollander moved on as well. Speaking of Thollander, Danny scored the best run of the day – a perfect 100! (It was probably a result of his literally staying at a Holiday Inn Express the prior evening). Be looking to see Danny build off of his 100-point performance and push the Pro Men’s competition on Saturday.
Everyone is hoping for better weather in Acworth for Saturday, a day with no wind, calm waters, and sunny skies.
