The Professional Wakeskate League started the 2024 Season with a banger of a contest at Valdosta Wake Compound last weekend. The contest included a new format, which also included live scoring which made watchability much improved. We had 11 Pro Riders and 6 open division riders. The new format included 3 line attempts on the full size cable from tower 5 to tower 1. Of those three line attempts only 1 counted toward their final score. In addition to the line score, the riders got 7 attempts at the trick section of their score. For the trick section, 3 of their scores, plus the line score made up for their total score. Best possible score being 40pts. The judges used a new scoring app where they used a slider bar to submit their score to the decimal. The scoring app made for flawless scoring and helped keep the event running smooth. From the 11 pros we took the top 7 to finals, the bottom 4 battled in a LCQ for the last spot. With a live leaderboard on the livestream, the action kept the audience on the edge of their seat until the last pull where Coco Mendez secured his spot in the Semi finals. Finals were just as exciting as the highest scores of the weekend went down on the line section. On attempt 9 of 10 in the trick section, all 4 rider’s total score were within 1.12 of each other with reigning champ (and undefeated in 2023) Travis Belsito in the lead. It came down to the final pull for Cole Kraiss where he landed shuv to back lip, shuv out scoring a 8.35 and bumping him to the top spot.Trav went for a hammer of kickflip back lip for his final pull, but was unable to ride away. Jordan Sullivan of Canada landed front shuv boardslide back 270 out on his final pull to beat Travis by .02. It was an insane final with the live scoring and new format. Cole Kraiss 29.8 Jordan Sullivan 29.54 and Travis Belsito rounded out the podium with 29.52 for the Pros. 16 year old Canadian, Shain Edward, took home the W for the Open Division. Our next contest is at Black Water Junction in Union Hall Virginia. Come on out or tune into twitch.tv/thepwl on Aug 3rd to watch the finals. Support the PWL by subscribing to our twitch channel to watch the VOD of the first stop from Valdosta.