- press release -

CABLE KRK

Marina Punat Cro Board / September 11 2004

The first Croatian & Slovenian cable wakeboard Championships

     Marina Punat Cro Board 2004, the first Croatian & Slovenian cable wakeboard Championships, was the final event of one very successful wakeboard season at Cable Krk. On Saturday, September 11th, twenty Croatian and Slovenian riders took part in this event, and about five hundred fans cheered their favorites. Competition was held in categories Juniors and Open, and the three judges graded their performance. Slovenian Rok Rogelj won in Juniors, and the best Croatian junior was a 12-year Lovro Klepac from Punat, who took the second place. The best in Open was Croatian Mihovil Brebric, and the best Slovenian was second - Robert Pokovec. They won the titles of national champions and special prizes provided by Tourist community of Punat and Cable Krk. The chief judge from Hungary, Gyuri Kirsch, said: The level of the competition was surprisingly high. Wakeboard activities at Krk in the past few years carried out the national teams with a bright future at the global scene.

     Cable Krk will once more gather the European stars at Krk at its fifth international event in May 2005. Croatian & Slovenian CW Nationals 2005 will take place end of July, and the best riders will travel to the World CW Championships in Budapest beginning of August 2005. Cable wakeboarding is known as a sport in which Germans are the real doctors, Germany has about 50 wakeboard and waterski cableways, while Croatia has only two. It's also interesting that Slovenia doesn't have cable parks at all, that made Cable Krk the "second home" of the Slovenian riders.

     Marina Punat is the general sponsor of this seasons' wakeboard events at Krk. For more information on Cable Krk, Wakeboard club Krk and wakeboarding in Croatia visit www.wakeboarder.hr

- Personal review - Varna - 12.09.2004

     Unlike our ECWT stop in May, weather yesterday was luckily quite nice. We had bura (a cold northern wind) chilling us for the entire week, then a nice and sunny Saturday, and today is cloudy and windy, now it's even raining. Anyway, yesterday at 8 AM the juniors were already at the cable waiting for the training to begin as eager as their parents waited for the morning coffee. The training finished at 10, and the qualifications were to start at 10:30. thet's where the problems began... Something got seriously wrong in the office and we spent quite a while trying to produce start lists, spectators and fans started to loose their patience, and poor juniors spent an hour ready at the start. Finally, at 11:30 we were ready to start, but meanwhile our moderator Lari got lost (he was here a minute ago, I swear). However, as the juniors started to ride, we found Lari and the mike and things got better. At 2 PM, when the finals were about to start, spectators and fans were in the great mood, and riders really performed their best. Well, maybe not everybody, our 10-year Filipinko carried by the atmosphere fell two times in the finals, but never mind, he was in the good mood at the after party in Snooker...

Final results are a secret before the prize giving, so I had to run around the cable from people till 8 PM, everyone wanted me to tell "just me, I won't tell for sure, or at least give me a hint, c'mon". At 8 o'clock a crowd armed with cameras gathered for the prize giving, and Lari had to shout throughout the ceremony because the audio cable wasn't long enough to reach the stage. All riders got the official T-shirts, three best Juniors won 1.500 kn worth presents from the Cable Krk, and three best in Open won the cash prizes of 3.500 kn, delivered by Branko Karabajic, president of the Tourist community of Punat. For the majority of riders this was the first competition and next year we hope to have more riders,  especially girls... Tonja was the only girl riding yesterday, she competed in the Open together with guys. After the finals she landed safe her very first roll to revert and she was seen with a blessed smile on her face throughout the night.

     Many thanks to our judges, Gyuri and Lior, thanks to our sponsors, all dear guests and of course riders. Stay with us in the next season, and the one after, and the one after...