Organised by Masterline AU (the distributor for Liquid Force and O’Brien wakeboards in Australia) the ‘Maven Team Session’ was basically a chance for all of the LF/OB Australian team riders (plus a couple of foreigners like myself) to hang out for the weekend, ride together, and just have a good time really. With two of the best female riders in the world attending (Amber Wing and Melissa Marquadt) it was set to be a sick weekend.
Most of the girls had already met up at Brisbane airport on the Friday afternoon, having flown in from various spots around the country. Greeted by Mick (organizer and all-round legend!) and a 12-seater bus that was to be our transport for the weekend, the girls headed up the coast with two brand new 2008 Malibu Wakesetters in tow. Living just 5 minutes down the road from the Twin Waters Resort where we were booked in for the weekend, I just caught up with everyone at the resort in time for dinner. Being pretty much the plushest hotel on the Sunshine Coast it was no surprise that the dinner was amazing… fresh seafood, meats and salads, plus a whole selection of tasty looking deserts with ice-cream and most importantly… sprinkles! With ridiculously full bellies (and handbags!), we all got a good night’s sleep before the weekend got into full swing on Saturday.
Having spent the night in a luxurious hotel, we then had the luxury of no queues and glassy flat water in the morning, as Mick had hired out the cable especially for us girls. Being predominantly boat riders, most of the girls had little experience at the cable, but it didn’t take long before everyone was booting off the kickers as if it was the wake and getting to grips with spinning and pressing out on the rails. Lauren Mead was obviously killing it on the water tricks; throwing down massive front to blinds and generally ripping (there’s definitely a reason why she’s Australian Cable Champ!) The only mishap of the morning was when Lauren was trying to show Amber how to do raleys. It didn’t go too good and resulted in a brutal front edge that had Amber lying knocked out, face down in the water for a good 15 seconds before Jolene charged into the lake to flip her over. She seemed ok apart from that she was obviously pretty concussed as she was doing a full-on Dory from ‘Finding Nemo’! We spent the remainder of the afternoon riding boat on the Maroochy River and weren’t too concerned about Amber’s concussion, but by the time it got to 6pm and she still couldn’t remember how she had knocked herself, even though we had been telling her at 30 second intervals throughout the afternoon, we thought it would probably be a good idea to get her checked out at the hospital. She was kept in overnight for observation, but was let out in the morning with no problems.
On Sunday we spent all day on the river again and even though Amber wasn’t in a fit state to be demonstrating any 7’s behind the boat Melissa was amazing to watch, going huge into the flats and throwing down heaps of technical wrapped tricks. Some of the younger girls, Bec Gange, Courtney Angus and Beck Frangi were also ripping, with floaty inverts and stylish grabs. Having only ever ridden once before behind a boat, I was pretty apprehensive to start with, but by Sunday I was feeling confident doing basic grabs and 180’s both switch and regular. By the evening we were all completely exhausted and although we went out for an awesome meal at the local Surf Club, we were struggling to keep our eyes open! Having ridden hard all weekend, we were rewarded on Monday morning, each receiving a massage and facial at the Lagoona Day Spa. Feeling clean and relaxed, we could have just chilled out at the resort in the afternoon, but needless to say everyone was keen to get straight back out in the saltly lake and have another slider session at the cable, before going off in our different directions in the evening.
Huge thanks to Masterline AU, Ski n’ Skurf Bli Bli, Mick and Paul for driving the boats and the Twin Water’s Resort for putting on the
