Shreveport-Bossier to welcome wakeboard competitors
Attendees at the Mudbug Madness Festival will have the chance to experience something new this year.
Through the help of the Shreveport- Bossier Sports Commission and the city of Shreveport, the Red River will play host to the USA Wakeboard Competition through Memorial Day Weekend, May 24-26.
The event starts at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday with awards at 3 p.m. Sunday.
The free event will take place just steps away from Mudbug Madness, at RiverView Park on the Red River, where more than 100 collegiate competitors from across the nation will come together to jump, spin and y over the water, doing various trick moves while being pulled by motorboats.
The city of Shreveport was the winning bidder for a location for the competition, which is of cially held under the banner of USA Waterskiing.
“This is pretty high level for us,” said Sheila Norman, Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission administrator. “There’s the potential for nationally televised recognition since the event will be broadcast on cable networks, and hosting this kind of event can open the door for other organizations to consider us when they’re seeking a venue for something similar. There’s a possibility of a drag boat racing event coming up in the future, as well.”
Norman said that while the event certainly won’t bring in the 93,000-plus crowds of the Bassmaster Classic, it is still very signi cant in terms of lling hotels and getting people into the city.
“We’re always looking for ways to utilize the Red River, which was just named one of the country’s Top 100 rivers, and to ll hotel rooms because that’s good for Shreveport- Bossier. There will be all the teams and their families coming in, and with Mudbug Madness that weekend, the crowd will be able to see the event just across the street. We’re hoping for at least 1,000 people a day.”
Norman said there will be bleachers set up by the river along with places for lawn chairs and blankets.
John Zdeblick, past-president of USA Wakeboard, is from Madison, Wis., and will be arriving to oversee the event as well as defend his title as collegiate champion.
“We looked at some other areas and decided on Shreveport as a good, central location,” he said. “Since these are the collegiate nationals, bringing in schools from the West and East Coast and South- Central region, we just thought this would be a great middle ground.
“In the spring, too, the climate here is great. We were looking for a mid-sized city, and there was one in North Carolina, and another we considered was Madison, Wis., but they have less-reliable weather and were farther away for a lot of people.
“Once we found out about Mudbug ug Madness, it just made sense. Those two events are going to be a block and a half away from each other, so it will give the athletes something to do when they aren’t competing, and the people from the festival can wander over and spend a few hours or a day or two at the wakeboard event.”
The event will show off the nation’s top college-age competitors as they perform tricks, speci cally in boat wakeboarding, which is one of two types of wakeboarding.
Zdeblick explained the two types are boat wakeboarding and cable wakeboarding and are most comparable to snowsports or waterskiing.
“Traditional boat wakeboarding is comparable to a half-pipe event in snowboarding, and cable wakeboarding is more like a snowboarding in a terrain park,” he said.
“It’s probably something a lot of people have not seen. It’s something like waterskiing, too, with different spins and ips while being pulled along, but competitors are jumping up and doing some incredible tricks that often make them look as though they’re actually ying.”
Cable wakeboarding is more like a ski lift, Zdeblick said, except instead of going straight through the air, it goes in a big circle, with eight or so people going around in a circle over ramps. This type is currently a candidate as an Olympic sport for the 2014 games, though it won’t be part of this competition.
A Zombie Run will be held that morning, and the event will offer food, energy drink and alcohol vendors along with a showing of vehicles from the Shreveport Jeep Club. After-parties are planned at Fatty Arbuckle’s in the Red River District.
Sponsors include the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission, Louisiana Wakesports, Swamp Sports Board Shop, B&L Marine, Bennett’s Ski School and Slingshot Wakeboards.
For more information, go to www.shreveportbossiersports.com, www. usawakeboard.com, or look on Facebook, www.facebook.com/CollegiateWake.
– Eric Lincoln
