Wakeboarding rail guru Pat Panakos talks about Wakestock's new rail designs for the Billabong Railslide, Malibu Boats Expression Session, and Oakley Launch Pool

One of the many reasons that Wakestock is known as the premier wakeboarding and wakeskating event in the world is because of the new custom-designed rails that are built each year. Between the pool and water courses there will be nine new rails. The man behind the design and build at Wakestock is none other than Pat Panakos, the legendary rail builder from The Projects in Orlando, Florida. Pat has been working with Wakestock for the past six years and is always pumped to design new rails to challenge the top pros and progress the sport. See what Pat has to say about this year's rails.

What are you going to be building for the Billabong Railslide and Malibu Boats Expression Session and Billabong Wakeskate courses?
Ever since I've started designing rails, I've built them bigger and bigger. Last year I changed it up to make the rails a little mellower so the riders could get more technical on them. The level of riding really stepped up at Wakestock last year; you saw a lot of riders spinning both on and off of the rails and spinning over the gaps.
This year I've designed some rails that are even mellower with the goal of raising the level of riding once again. I think that everyone is going to see a lot more technical stuff getting thrown down and more stuff landed as well.
We also want to cater to the wakeskaters a little more as well this year. We plan to add a fifth posted rail to the course to make it more wakeskate friendly. In the past the wakeskaters had to step up and hit gnarly wake rail; this year they're going to have a couple of smaller ones that they can throw down on.

You designed the Oakley Launch Pool last year, what's going to be different this year?
The Oakley Pool is going to be dope again this year. It's going to be by far the best pool jam that I've ever been to. We're taking the top pool down a little bit and lengthening the rails. With the longer rails, everyone is going to see some really technical, difficult tricks thrown down. For the first time in a rail contest, there will be a set-up designed to allow riders to transfer from rail-to-rail. It's also going to be a lot better because the length of the landing pool will be twice as long.

What brings you back to Wakestock every year?
I really like to be involved with Wakestock because it is the best contest in the world. Every year, it is progression leader for all wakeboard and wakeskating contests and it's fun to be a part of that.

WAKESTOCK GUIDE IN TOMORROW'S TORONTO STAR!

Pick-up a copy of the Thursday edition of the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily, to get your copy of the OFFICIAL WAKESTOCK EVENT GUIDE featuring schedule highlights, site map, rider interviews, party info, band line-ups and more. The GUIDE features Canadian wakeboarding superstar Chad Sharpe on the cover testing riding the Toronto Islands' Wakestock course behind the new 2007 Malibu Boat's VLX Wakesetter.

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BUD LIGHT WAKESTOCK WEEKEND PLANNER IN TOMORROW'S EYE WEEKLY

Get the scoop on all the Bud Light Wakestock Parties, Bands and more Wakestock Festival info in the Thursday August 3 edition of EYE, Toronto's leading entertainment weekly.

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