Mike Ennen Wins The Off Axis 07 Wakeboard Festival

The 12 best riders from Europe, USA and Canada made a fantastic
show for wakeboarding in front of a stocked Munich crowd.

12 Riders, great live-acts, head-to-head KO mode and two fully loaded Mastercraft X2 towboats made the Off Axis 07 Wakeboard Festival a great success. It's the first time Munich has seen a wakeboard boat event of this size. Off Axis 07 brought the best European wakeboarders and some of the most sophisticated U.S. pro riders to the historical Olympic regatta track in Oberschleissheim.

Usually the Olympic spirit of 1972 is going around there. But on this weekend, the boardsport addicts have been taking over. When it came to wakeboarding, the crowd got crazy. Stars like Mike Ennen (USA), Sean O'Brien (USA), Dan Nott (UK), Julien Bonnet Sean O'Brien

(BEL), Kevin Henshaw (CAN), Dominik Hernler (AUT), Matthias Koban (CH), Yann Calvez (FRA) and many more showed what is possible with a wakeboard beneath your feet. A great contest format, sunshine and international live acts made a perfect combination for a fantastic weekend.

To make the competition format even more exciting, a unique mode has been compiled. In each head-to-head duel, two riders chosen by lot had to fight against each other. Each one was assigned one of the two boats. Like two jousting knights, the riders must give their best one after the other in an all-out 3 to 5 minute session. The sessions got longer each qualification round. Dan Nott

Their efforts were not only be assessed by a panel of top judges, but the audience voting was also integrated into the decision, to involve the audience to the max and bring the better rider in the next round.

Right in the first heat, the biggest surprise happened. Youngster Dominik Hernler from Austria had to ride against the top favourite Kevin Henshaw coming all the way from Orlando. After Kevin fell in his first pass, Dominik took his chance to beat him. The second battle wasn't less exciting. Julien Bonnet from Belgium, the European champion in junior men, had to fight a hard battle against Sean O'Brien from the U.S. Julien had to ride first, landing a Moby Dick, tootsie roll and dum dum. But Sean topped his run with a tantrum to blind and a big worm at the end.

Matthias Koban

In the following head-to-head couples, Jamie Oliver (ESP) won against Yann Calvez (FRA) and Dan Nott (UK) against Gert Perauer (AUT). Matthias Koban (CH) had to ride against Conny Schrader from Hamburg/Germany and won that duel. Last but not least, Mike Ennen won against Walter Gianinni from Italy.

In heat #2, Dominik Hernler lost against Sean O'Brien and had to go into the lucky loser double-up challenge. The same happened to Dan Nott and Jamie Oliver. Sean, Mike and Matthias fixed their ticket straight into the finals. In the double-up challenge, every lucky loser got one double up to show that he is the one to get the 4th final ticket. Dan Nott did it best landing an off axis 540.

Jamie Oliver

In an exciting final, Mike Ennen (USA) beat his compatriot Sean O'Brien from Orlando. It was the second time after the Wakeboard Open '05 in Austria that Mike competed in front of an excited German-speaking crowd. Mike started his run with stylish grabs and 180's before he stuck technical stuff like a crow mobe, switch crow mobe, tantrum to blind and a KGB on the double-up. The second rider, Sean O'Brien, focused on stylish tricks like nuclear tantrum to blind, 540 spin variations and a nose grabbed 720 on the double-up. Dan Nott from the UK did tricks like Moby Dick and batwing to blind and became third at the end.

Off Axis 07 was a great success and we are looking forward to the continuation in June 2008.

Results

1. Mike Ennen (USA)
2. Sean O'Brien (USA)
3. Dan Nott (UK)
4. Matthias Koban (CH)
5. Jamie Oliver (ESP)
5. Dominik Hernler (AUT)