USA wins the 2010 International FLOW Championship

All the anticipation is over and the flowriding battles have come to an end, at least for today. From insane thrills, spills and airs, to crazy carves, sprays and shreds, the best way to describe the best flowriding competition ever held is simply EPIC.

The final day of the International FLOW Championships began with the typical qualifying heats as the riders worked to find their rhythm and the Wave House crowd enjoyed an unusually cool day in Singapore. The later heats brought out the competitive spirit in each of these expert riders as they really kicked up their game, hoping to get a few more points before the finals.

The Ladies Expert strapped division came down to a battle between Singapore’s Ili Lim, Kristen Barney of Team USA, Marta Jekot of SA and Chile’s Nicole Boraschi. Each of these girls threw their biggest moves for their bonus trick but only Kristen Barney was able to stick her back flip. The crowd went wild with each attempt and in the end, Kristen Barney took the title.

The second of the finals was expert bodyboarding and it was by far the wildest bodyboarding competition to date. The battle between Billy Tennant (SA), Tyler Danek (USA) and Claudio Cafati (Chile) was, simply put, the best riding ever to take place on the FlowBarrel. All three riders landed huge airs and their bonus tricks and had the crowd cheering for more. Billy Tennant proved to be the best prone rider in the sport by laying down two flawless runs to take the title.

Last but certainly not least came the Men’s Strapped Flowboarding finals. The finalists saw a head to head match up between the two South Africans, Wes and Matt, versus the two Americans, Eric and Laz. Each rider raised the bar by going bigger and adding something new to their run. When it came down to the finals, Eric Silverman jumped at the opportunity to prove his worth to the judges. He landed everything he attempted, including a double back and air 1080. After a flawless final run that featured his biggest tricks of the competition, he set up for his bonus trick to a screaming crowd and nailed it! It was a picture perfect ending to the best flowriding event ever held. The crowd went crazy as Eric solidified his new title as Number 1 in the world. With as much as the sport has evolved in the last year, the big question is, what will the 2011 International FLOW Championships be like? Only time will tell.

The 2010 International FLOW Championships sponsors Contiki, Billabong and Sanuk representatives presented the awards and prizes as team USA was crowned “World Champions”. The ceremony was closed in proper fashion with a speech from Wave House and Wave Loch owner and CEO Tom Lochtefeld. Next up was the after party celebration, the perfect ending to a perfect weekend!

If you missed the action, take a look at the recorded videos of each division on our Ustream Channel.