Wakeboarder Sam Carne – best season – Relentless Energy Drink

Relentless Energy sponsored wakeboarder Sam Carne has had his best season to date - he tells all in his end-of-summer blog

After attending the London Boat Show in January, my season started off in Florida, as usual. It was all about riding and getting my fitness back up after taking a little break over Christmas and New Year. Apart from free-riding and shooting, my focus was on getting a solid contest pass for the World Championships in Milan.

Too blessed to be stressed

My first result of the year was in Prague at an event called Wake Jam. It was a cool event, more of a display than a comp but I ended up with a third anyway. The second event was the notorious Wakestock, where for once we were blessed with decent weather but ended up running out of water with the rapid tide. I came away with fourth, just missing out on the podium. The day after Wakestock, I flew out with the rest of the British team to Milan in Italy for the IWWF World Championships. We were out there for a solid week of competing against 36 countries with more than 250 competitors. It was the biggest Worlds yet. I managed to make it to the finals and ended up with sixth place, which is my highest world ranking to date.

"Six thousand spectators turned up to see us jump over the famous harbour wall"

Better late than never

The next event was sprung upon me kind of last minute. Twelve of the best rail riders were invited to the first UK Red Bull wake event that I can remember in Lyme Regis. Six thousand spectators turned up to see us jump over the famous harbour wall. Possibly the most daunting event I’ve ever participated in. It was a great success and I managed to take my first victory of the season – a big highlight of my career so far.

The home advantage

Not long after that it was time for the UK Boat Nationals, which were held at my home stomping-ground, Quayside. It’s always great to see new faces and the level of riding blowing up in the UK. It was an extremely tough battle, but I managed to knock Dan Nott off the top spot and gained my first national title as a pro.

Next on the calendar was the London Night Jump; another challenging event and my second time competing in the dark. Again a huge crowd descended on Datchet. I was last to leave the dock and managed to stick two passes together, which put me on top of the podium for the third time in the season. From one to another

The weekend after, it was back up to North Wales for Glass Butter Beach, my first time at the event. I was surprised at the scale of the festival and more surprised at the fine weather that accompanied it. Having said that, the boat event was held on the sea, which meant less than ideal conditions. Everyone put on a decent show and I ended up in third place.

Living the dream

I was invited along to the next two comps as a result of my world ranking from Milan earlier in the year – the first time I’ve been entered into the IWWF World Cup. This consisted of two stops, first of which was in the exotic and remote location of Borneo in Malaysia.

"I later found out that a crocodile ate a local further up the river that we were riding on"

After the 24-hour journey I was welcomed and cast into a heat among the very best in the world - with 30 invited riders in all. It was a pleasure to be standing on the dock with some of my idols. I managed to hold my own and advanced through the quarters and semi-finals, so made it to the six-man final and put a couple of decent passes together, which gave me fifth. I was over the moon just to make finals. I later found out that a crocodile ate a local further up the river that we were riding on!

After a week in Malaysia it was time to fly to the second stop, which was in a city called Linyi in China. Having previously never travelled to Asia, I was blown away by the culture and vast population. Once again the comp was soon under way and I managed to hold my form through the same hard field. I qualified in first place through to the finals, putting some of my best performances in in a comp ever. I had a little hiccup in the finals, which cost me a podium spot, but happily came away with fifth again.

Home sweet home

Finally, after the long flight back home, it was time to finish my comp season off back on Quayside for the last stop of the UK Relentless Pro Tour. Unfortunately, due to my schedule, I was forced to miss the first stop of the tour, so was automatically out of the running for the overall title. I still wanted to make my mark either way, though. The event was blessed with perfect conditions due to our late heat wave. I fumbled the qualifying but squeezed through in the last-chance qualifier. The competition was fierce, and I was within a point’s difference from the winner, leaving me with silver.