Australian Boardstock 2002 Wrap-Up
Date: 2/20/02
Author: Reece Palmer

Recently Australia held it's first Boardstock...well, it's first decent Boardstock at Lake Eildon Vic. The weekend went off without a hitch with plenty of demos, freeriding, beer and some of Australia's hottest DJ's. There were estimates made by the houseboat rental companies of about 120 to 150 houseboats rented for the weekend with around 40 or more houseboats moored at the actual competition site. The rest of the boats were moored randomly around the lake's edge with keen boarders coming in for a glimpse of the action in between their own sessions. The weather was perfect for the entire weekend with the exception of Friday night, when a huge storm blew up and left the food tents flooded out. Fools, such as myself, who planned to sleep under the stars were left soaking wet, wrapped up in a Chubby sign with nowhere to sleep. Some of the other events that went on over the weekend included belly flops off the roof of houseboats and drinking jugs of beer whilst standing on your head for prizes. Some of the more hilarious stunts of the weekend involved Johnny Henson trying to spark up an already lit firecracker inside a watermelon and coating himself in watermelon head to toe on the Chubby houseboat. Another classic moment was when John Gorman tried to find a toilet in the bush at night and ended up limping out of the darkness with a piece of a tree branch protruding out of his shin. How it got there nobody quite knows, but it bled for three days straight. There are a lot of different stories to come out of Boardstock '02 but they all give an impression that it was the best Australian wakeboarding weekend thus far. Hope to see everybody there for Boardstock '03.