Wakeboarders "slided" white water UpStream!


More than 1,500 spectators lined along the Sava river in Tacen / Slovenia today to witness the birth of a new sports discipline.


After most of them clashed with whitewater during yesterday's training, today the 12 most courageous European wakeboarders competed against each other on the kayak route in Tacen at the very first wakeboard contest on whitewater called Red Bull Upstream. Let us remind you again this was a world premiere!


Injuries were, of course, unavoidable, but not too painful. Already yesterday, the best Slovene rider Robert Pokovec injured his shoulder but today he set his teeth, gulped a couple of tablets, and appeared at the starting line. This morning, after sliding nicely over one of the artificial objects in the water, the Belgian Quentin Delefortrie managed to plough even more nicely in the concrete wall, and thus brought some blood into the otherwise crystal-clear river. But humans were not the only ones to suffer Pokovec proved once again that his name suits him perfectly (pokovec = naughty boy) when his wakeboard literally cut off one of the cameras' lens. Even this accident had a happy ending as the cameraman swears the last shot was the best shot ever! The lens, though, needs a new leg.