RECAP: What just happened in Mooresville, NC is northing short of incredible. This year the Pro Wakeboard Tour brought back the 2-run format for finals, giving each rider in the finals two attempts to thrown down their best run with only their best run counting for their final score. If a rider falls in their run, their run is over.
Shota Tezuka was first off the dock and received a respectable score of 75.00.
Dean Smith was second, and despite throwing down some massive tricks into the flats, he fell in his first run, receving a score of 48.33.
Noah Flegel then went out and threw down a winning calaber run, moving him into first place with a score of 91.67.
Tony Iacconi then took to the water and out-matched Noah with multiple Mobe 540's and 900's stomping every trick with amplitude and power, earning himself the highest score of his career, a 95.33 which was good enough to bump him into first place.
Cory Teunissen and
Mike Dowdy were next off the dock, but both seemed rattled by the unexpected turn of events as both fell in their first passes and it was back to the top of the riding order for everyone's second run.
For the second time through, Shota was able to improve upon his first score but was not able to surpass Noah, leaving him in third place. Dean had another unfortunate fall in his second run and could not improve his score while Noah decided to attempt a 1080 for the first trick of his run which had everyone excited but he fell just short.
It was then Tony's turn again and with a score of 95.33 no one expected that he would be able to improve upon the best run of his career, yet somehow Tony was able to go out and thrown down his exact same run as before with even more power and intensity, grabbing and landing every trick with near perfection. Never in the history of wakeboarding has any rider ever thrown down TWO of the best runs of their career in the same finals heat. Judges bumped his score up to a 97.00 and he went on to victory for the first win of his professional career.
With the third podium of the year Tony has established himself as one of the riders to beat this year and a rider who could potentially win the 2016 Pro Wakeboard Tour.
