This was my first time riding in the USA, let alone competing in America, so I was really excited to check out the wakeboarding scene. The competition was at Hexagon Wake Park in North Carolina, and was brand new. The cable itself was awesome to ride, filled with some wicked obstacles. I was a bit nervous about competing, as it was my first competition since my injury in February, however I was excited to see how I got on.

It was a 2-day event, with the riders mostly coming from America, but due to it being a stop on the WWA Wake Park World Series, there were riders coming from Germany, Thailand, Australia and more, so it was a pretty international competition. I competed in 2 categories; Pro Men, and Pro Features, which was a different format, consisting of a 10-minute session of only hitting obstacles.

For Pro Men, I had a stand up pass and was mostly content with my performance, however, due to a tough heat, consisting of a World Champion; I unfortunately didn’t make it through the qualifying round.

In the Pro Features category, I again was pleased with my run and landed all the tricks I aimed to do, only falling once at the end of the session, however, again due to tough competition I didn’t qualify.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the competition and definitely learnt a lot form the experience, as it helped me realize what I needed to do in order to step up my riding and what I had to do to improve my level of competitive riding. It was a really good competition and I look forward to competing in more WWA competitions, and hopefully I’ll return to America next year to compete again.

However, my trip to America wasn’t all wakeboarding. For the following 2 weeks I spent time in Washington D.C and New York with my family, checking out all the famous landmarks and being a tourist, which was wicked fun! I even managed to hit up the Quiksilver store in Time Square.

Overall, it was an amazing trip, both on and off the water. I learnt a lot, and will remember the trip for a long time. I look forward to travelling internationally next year to do some more competitions, and hopefully get some better results!

Thanks to all my sponsors for helping out with this trip, big shout out to Quiksilver, along with CTRL Wakeboards Singapore and SKI360. Also to my parents for the company during the trip, and for the massive support they give me! Wouldn’t be able to do any of this without you guys!

Alex