BY ESTHER ROBINSON
Mark Robinson, from Lisbellaw, and Niall Burns, from Enniskillen, will be hosting the prestigious opening stage of the European Cable Wakeboard Tour in England on 13th-15th June 2008.
Mark and Niall have been friends since they attended secondary school. Mark is a former Portoran while Niall went to St Michael's. By coincidence, both of them moved to England to attend De Montfort University in Leicester and several years later, they independently developed a passion for wakeboarding.
Mark and Niall jumped at the opportunity to buy a wakeboarding business, WakeMK, at Willen Lake in Milton Keynes in November 2007. While Niall works full-time running theWEBtrap, his own web design and hosting company, in Edinburgh, Mark works full-time at Wake MK.
It took a lot of enthusiasm and hard work to make a success of the business and they are delighted that they have now won the tender to host the UK stop of the European Cable Wakeboard Tour (ECWT). They look forward to the challenge as it is the first time that it will be held in its current format in the UK.
Mark explains the format of the competition: "There are five stops this year and WakeMK is hosting the opening stop.
"We will have professional and amateur wakeboarders from all over the world entering, so it's going to be a big event. We are hoping to attract some of our own Irish talent to the competition, as well as having the current reigning cable tow world champion, Nick Davies competing.
"The competition is open to anyone with membership of their respective Waterski Federation and costs up to 60 euro per entry.
"The five categories are: Open Men; Open Ladies; Junior Men; Junior Ladies; and Masters. Anyone wishing to enter the competition should register at www.cablewakeboard.net."
Friday 13th June is the qualification day. The main competition takes place on Saturday 14th, followed by the after party.
On Sunday 15th, leading wakeboarding manufacturers will be displaying and selling their equipment while professional wakeboarders take to the lake to give demonstrations. Over the weekend, people can give wakeboarding a go with free sessions on a separate training facility.
Mark, 34, explains how he and Niall won the tender to host the competition: "Being keen wakeboarders ourselves, Niall and I have a massive amount of enthusiasm in developing the sport and I heard that the International Waterski Federation was looking for a UK venue at which to hold the event.
"I spoke to the ECWT's governing body, told them what facilities we had and what we could offer. After analysing the costs and securing sponsorship from companies such as Relentless and Domino's Pizza, we were able to fully commit to hosting this prestigious competition tour stop."
Several thousand people are expected to attend the event to enjoy the sport and the mini festival. It will feature 15 live acts including DJs, as well as Rock and Indie bands, camping facilities and a funfair. Several media partners are promoting the event, including Extreme Sports Channel, which is offering a prize draw to win a wakeboard, bindings, rash vest and board shorts.
Mark and Niall hope it will be a continuation of their current success: "We held a UK film premiere of a wakeboarding film called 'Impact' in April. The venue was full to capacity and it was a fantastic night. We hope that this will be the first of many international wakeboard competitions to be held at WakeMK.
WakeMK is by far one of the best cable wakeboard parks in the UK. We have an excellent selection of kickers and sliders and the cable height of 10m allows riders to perform more air tricks."
