2011 FLOW Championships Teams Determined

The world's best flowriders have qualified to represent their countries and venues at the FLOW Championships at Wave House Durban in the beginning of October.

Wave House Durban, South Africa is ready to receive an influx of the world's best flowriders. For the past month, all global Wave House ^® and Flow House ^® venues have held qualifying competitions to determine which riders would be flying their respective flags at the FLOW (Flowriding League Of the World) Championships in early October.

The first team to be confirmed was the USA FlowRider Team, as the Wave Loch FLOW Tour came to an end after an exciting 13-stop season. The championships took place at Camel Beach, PA where Sean Silveira, Nick Nguyen and Vanessa Arroyo continued to dominate and earned a trip to Durban.

Not long thereafter, Wave House San Diego held the USA team qualifier where four of the best American riders would earn a spot in Team USA and join the FlowRider team on their travels. Brandon Stevens and Morgan Just came out on top and will be competing in the FLOW Championships Expert Flowboard division. Chris Childers and Amy Luis will be joining them for the Bodyboard and Women's Flowboard divisions respectively. The 2010 FLOW Champion and Runner Up received an automatic seed into the 2011 Championships meaning San Diego favorites Eric Silverman and Greg Lazarus will also be representing USA in the Expert Flowboard divisions. Read more

September 3rd was a busy weekend in the sport of flowriding as Wave House Sentosa, Wave House Santiago and Wave House Durban all held their qualifying competitions.

At Wave House Sentosa in Singapore, local favorite, and Billabong Team Rider, Alfian Affandi, took first place, with Rip Curl's Arthur Kor getting that all important 2nd spot. "Everyone went big so there was a lot of pressure throughout the various heats, but I am really glad to have emerged in one of the top positions. I am looking forward to Durban and reuniting with the riders from other countries," said Arthur. First time FLOW competitor Vincent Young took first place in the Bodyboard division and Phulyen Tham will represent in the Women's Flowboard division on Team Asia, along with Alfian and Arthur. Read more

Across the southern hemisphere at Wave House Durban in South Africa, local hopefuls battled it out to earn those spots to represent the home team, Team South Africa. Strapless style master Clayton Barker and FLOW veteran Paolo Falconer took the top in Expert Flowboard. As expected, Billy Tennant will be flying the flag in the Bodyboard division and Sarah Bloch, another first time competitor, will be battling it out in the Women's Flowboard division. Like Eric and Greg from Team USA, both Wesley Fischer and Matt Lammers received automatic seeds into the 2011 Championships due to their 3rd and 4th place finishes last year.

Further south, at Wave House Santiago in Chile, a two-day qualifying event allowed the riders to relax and get well rested ensuring everyone was on top of their game. Even with challenging weather, everyone put on a great show, but in the end flowboarders Patricio Polanco and Nicole Buraschi and bodyboarder Claudio Calderon came out on top for the third year in a row. Joining them as Team Chile on their trip to Durban will be first time FLOW competitor, Juan Pablo Campos in the Expert Flowboard division. Read more

The following weekend was another big one for flowriding as Team UAE and Team Europe held their qualifying competitions on Saturday, September 10th.

Up in the northern hemisphere, Wild Wadi Water Park formed Team UAE. With two of the top riders from Team South Africa, Billy Tennant and Paolo Falconer, judging the competition, the riders knew they had to pull out their biggest moves to show them what UAE riders are made of. Crowd favorite and UAE national, Moh'd Ibrahim, did just that and secured 1st place in the Bodyboard division.

In the stand up division, 14 year old Max Sokolov from Russia, who is also Wild Wadi's sponsored rider, had the crowd glued to their seats with his back flip and clean turns, which ranked him 1st place. Coming in 2nd place was one of Wild Wadi's very own riding instructors, Felino Fontanilla from the Philippines, who pulled off clean air 180's. For the girls, Clair Reid, also from Wild Wadi, came out on top and will be representing Team UAE for the second year in a row.

Further north, Flow House Bedford in United Kingdom held their first ever qualifier, which attracted an impressive 38 competitors all wanting the top spots. In Open Bodyboard it was a three-way battle between Gethin Walters, Ben Stephens & Neil Harrison, but in the end Newquay's Gethin Walters took 1st place. 2010 FLOW competitor Morwenna Berry and first time Sam Butler, who defined himself with switch tricks in the electric final, will compete with Gethin Walters on the Europe FlowRider Team, sponsored by Animal Worldwide Freeride. Read more

The Asia FLOW Series will hold it's finals at Wave House Sentosa on October 1, 2011 to determine the Asia FlowRider Team, which will join the above seven teams at the 2011 FLOW Championships at Wave House Durban October 5 - 9.

With 8 teams, representing more than 8 nations, compiled of the best flowriders, you do not want to miss a thing. If you can't make it to Wave House Durban to see the action live, stay tuned to WaveHouse.com for the latest and watch out for an announcement of where you will be able to follow all of the action streaming LIVE.

FLOW Championship Teams

FlowRider Teams