• WHAT: Pro Wakeboard competition featuring three divisions: Pro men, pro women and junior pro men.
• WHERE: Lathrop’s Mossdale Quarry Lakes at 96 W. Mossdale Road off Interstate 5 just south of the San Joaquin River crossing
• WHEN: June 28-29. Qualifying and preliminary rounds begin at 8 a.m. on Friday, June 28. Preliminary rounds continue on Saturday, Juen 29. Finals set to begin at 3:30 p.m.
EVENT
Reigning wakeboarding champion
hitting water at Mossdale Quarry
By JAMES BURNS
The Bulletin
LATHROP — A former reality star will once again command the spotlight when the King of Wake series docks at Mossdale Quarry Lakes later this month.
It's call time, Phillip Soven.
The world's top-ranked wakeboarder leads a cast of flip-flying stars west from North Carolina to Lathrop for the fourth leg of the King of Wake series on June 28-29.
The competition features three divisions -- pro men, pro women and junior pro men -- and begins with preliminary heats on Friday morning. The junior pro men’s quarterfinals at 8 o’clock and the pro women semifinals at 10:30.
Soven and a pro men's field that will also include current points leader Harley Clifford and Rusty Malinoski will carry the day with five hours of qualifying beginning at noon.
Saturday gets underway with the pro men’s quarterfinals (10 a.m.) and semifinals (2 p.m.) sandwiched around the junior pro men’s semifinals (1 p.m.).
The final rounds begin at 3:30 p.m. with the junior pro men. Pro women finalists take the water at 4. The pro men final is slated for 4:30.
The event concludes with the Polaroid Action Big Air Kicker Contest from 5:30-6 p.m. and the awards ceremony on site.
King of Wake will provide Mossdale Quarry Lake and the surrounding area with unique national exposure.
NBC Sports Network will televise the two-day competition, promising “unprecedented access to all the action on the water, with in-depth profiles of all the best riders.”
The cable network is distributed throughout the country, reaching more than 75 million homes.
Nicknamed "The Real Deal," Soven has 26 career victories around the world, including three King of Wake victories (2007-08, 2010), two WWA World Championships (2005, 2007), a WWA National Championship (2008), and an X Games gold (2004).
More importantly, the 11th year pro has what the others covet most: The world's No. 1 ranking.
Given all that he's accomplished in nearly two decades on the water, Soven may be a bit of a mystery to the novice spectator.
Unless, of course, he or she is a reality TV junkie.
Soven was the featured star in the short-lived reality show "WakeBrothers," which captured the lifestyle and antics of the Soven and his younger brother Bob Soven, also a professional wakeboarder.
The series was picked up up MTV in 2012. The show was reportedly cancelled in the fall.
Regardless, Soven's performance on the water hasn't suffered.
He is second to Clifford in the King of Wake 2013 point standings, 280-265, and the 24-year-old has one series victory this season -- the Pro Wakeboard Tour's first stop at Lake Acworth Beach in Georgia on May 18.
Soven was second to Clifford in Mooresville, North Carolina on June 1. Those two performances in Tour-sanctioned events give Soven the edge over Clifford in the PWT world rankings.
So what can local fans expect from Soven?
Here's a hunch: Keep the cameras rolling.
