A big milestone for motorized surfboards racing in Sebring, FL
Dated on the 17th – 18th July, the motorized surfboards racing returned back to racing action in the brand new racing format of the MotoSurf Games.The racers couldn’t have hoped for a better spot for the MotoSurf Games opener. Sebring, home of the world’s fabulous Sebring International Raceway and over 100 fresh water lakes, welcomed more than 35 riders from four different continents and seven nationalities. For the very first time to the MotoSurf weekend, fully electric powered category of motorized surfboard saw eight riders competing in head – to – head challenge. Alongside the MotoSurf action in the water, the race integrated a brand new discipline – e-motorized skateboarding to the weekeend’s structure.
The MotoSurf competition was divided into three main categories, the Pros, Hobby Riders and last but not least, Women + Youth. In the Pro category, there was a big fight expected between Houston’s Jordan Davlin and Miami based Peter Vencovsky. Evenutally, many more speedsters joined the mix. Mexican Ayrton Eboli showed great speed and excellent consistency brought likeable young talent in the podium fight. Coming all the way from Kuwait, Hasan Boabbas kept the top pace and podium hopes until the end. joined by another speedster – Antony Squire from North Carolina.
After the heats, the leaderboard saw Peter Vencovsky leading the way from Ayrton Eboli and Jordan Davlin closing the top three. Antony Squire was right behind in 4th while Hasan Boabbas was completing the top five. Ben Kolpa in sixth showed great speed in heat number one scoring respectable third as well as Tyler Chenault in heat number three. The two finished the heats in 6th and 7th respectively. Ahmad Albaghli, Todd Boyd and Dana Lundquist didn’t stay far behind after Friday’s programme.
The most important session of the weekend was of course the final where riders had a unique chance to score quadruple amount of points. Jordan Davlin found the best pace and controlled the finals to sum up 113 points for the overall victory. The two remaining podium spots were hunted by Ayrton Eboli and Hasan Boabbas. Hasan finished 2nd and Ayrton 3rd. The final scoring put Mexican racer Ayrton Eboli in 2nd with 86 points from Hasan Boabbas in 3rd with 84. Antony Squire concluded the 7 laps finals in 4th and Ben Kolpa completed the top 5. Peter Vencovsky experienced an unlucky weekend in 6th after crashes in heats and the finals.
The Hobby class riders competed in two groups in the heats session before the top 12 met in the finals. The leader board saw Mohammad Boabbas on top after the heats from David Tayeb and Colombian Mateo Gómez who built up his pace with stable top-three finishes in the heats and a fantastic victory in the last heats session, Mateo Gómez made the Colombian fan base in Sebring very proud.
Coming to the finals, Kuwait representative Mohammad Boabbas found the fastest pace and marked the first-ever victory at the international race for Kuwait. David Tayeb from California finished second from Mateo Gómez who made all the Colombian fans very proud seeing the flag of Colombia in 3rd.
In the women class, the battle for the podium places was super intense between three fast ladies – Alaia Flores representing the USA, Arantxa Flores from Mexico and Alyssa Schmidt representing JetSurf Houston.
Alyssa collected the most points of the field in the heats taking 3-1-1 followed by super consistent Arantxa Flores with 2-2-2 and Alaia 1-3-3. Everybody expected a tight battle in the finals that will decide the Queen of Sebring. Alaia Flores made a great start and led the way from Arantxa who defended her 2nd spot from Alyssa Schmidt in 3rd.
The weekend saw a brand new class to the race weekend – the Electric Challenge – with a multibrand presence on the race track seeing JetSurf – the motosurf pioneer – challenged by e-Wave, a brand new manufacturer joining the MotoSurf racing action.
The Electric Challenge racing format was set up as a head-to-head competition where the winner of each battle proceeds further. Right in the first battle, the crowd witnessed a super intense battle between the two manufacturers. Peter Vencovsky riding a Jetsurf raced against Dana Lundquist – e-Wave representative. Dana took a better start and led the way throught the whole session. Peter was closing his opponent until the finish where both the riders finished separated by just 0,5 seconds seeing Dana Lundquist victorious and making his way to the round of 4 – the 4 fastest riders of the Electric Challenge.
In the second battle, Matej Surkos representing JetSurf lined-up next to Canadian Steven Garner on an e-Wave. Steven took holeshot and controlled the first part of the race. Matej Surkos, riding a mistake free round used out the mistake of Steven to steal the victory and proceed to the Round of 4 with his JetSurf.
In the next two battles, it was Antony Squire taking advantage over Ayrton Eboli from Mexico. And the last battle saw Tyler Chenault taking victory over Hasan Boabbas from Kuwait.
In the Round of 4, Dana Lundquist fought against Antony Squire who managed to find better pace in the shootout and secured his position in battle for 1st while Dana Lundquist went to battle for 3rd keeping the podium hope for alive for e-Wave. In the second pair, Matej Surkos made his way into the battle for 1st against Antony Squire and Tyler Chenault.
The battle for last podium spot in the battle for 3rd was between Tyler Chenault and Dana Lundquist. Jetsurf vs e-wave and two United States riders. Tyler found faster pace in the session and grabbed his premiere podium finish in the Electric Challenge battle. Dana Lundquist finished 4th and wrote history for e-Wave, super happy Dana added:
EWave’s passion is helping push the limits of Electric Jetboarding so we were very excited to have the MotoSurf Games allow us to participate in the first ever multi-brand Electric Jetboard competition in the United States. This event was a monumental step forward for the entire Motosurf industry. We, of course, had our research and ideas about how competitive we would be but until you get Pro Level riders on a sanctioned track with all the fans, excitement, and adrenaline, you just don’t know what is going to shake out. Although our hats go off to JetSurf for taking the podium, our overall finish of 4th was truly remarkable for a new brand like ours. We are just happy we could show up and represent at the highest level and are even more excited about the historical advancement this moment was for our entire industry.
In the fight for victory in the battle for 1st, Czech Matej Surkos challenged Antony Squire. Super technique and great speed brought the young talent to the top spot while Antony Squire debuted on the podium.
Matej Surkos, representing Jetsurf, commented on his ride:
“I’m super happy to be given the chance to compete at MotoSurf Games in the first ever multibrand Electric Challenge competition on American continent. It was a great battle seeing the differences between the manufacturers in different areas. I took the whole advantage of the Jetsurf board mainly in the technical sections because of its turning abilities which eventually worked best for me to score the overall victory. It was a great racing weekend in Sebring and I cannot wait to race here in America again. I would like to express my big thanks to JetSurf USA for their support to entire MotoSurf Games organization. ”
The weekend’s action was not just about the action on the water. The MotoSurf Games format welcomed exhibition race of electric skateboards. Over twenty riders joined the competition seeing Justin Bishop from the USA fastest round the course made for the skates. Antony Squire showed excellent speed also on the tarmac and fought hard until the end for 2nd place overally. The podium was completed by Paul Stoeppelwerth who managed to keep the pace with the fastest riders and scored his first ever MotoSkate podium.
Antony Squire commented about the weekend:
“The Motosurf race weekend in Sebring FL was an amazing action packed weekend for racers and spectators. With Jetsurf offering extra competitions like the skateboard challenge during the event it allows more people to become involved even if they aren’t racing on the water. Also, allowing other brands into the events shows how it is more about coming together as a community and building the sport than it is about being the best brand out. It is great to be a part of such a new and upcoming sport that is bringing people from all over the world together to share their passion for Jetsurf racing. This event was my second race, first time racing in the pro class and i definitely plan to keep pushing and make it out to more races both in the USA, and hopefully the world.”
The weekend in Sebring was a blast and the entire MotoSurf Games Team would like to sincerely thank to the Sebring City, Highlands County, Airstream Ventures and JetSurf USA.