Round
8:
Malone wins 2001 IJSBA National Tour
This past weekend Eric "Cyclone" Malone
won the 2001 IJSBA National Freestyle title.
Malone is now the current, and
three time, National and World IJSBA Freestyle Champion.
Eric was lucky enough to compete in the final position.
This meant Eric would compete after his arch rival
the Brazilian champion, Alexandria Lenizie. While watching
Lenzie compete, it became obvious to Eric that Lenzie
was not necessarily at his best; and it was looking
like he would be easy to beat. Then from out of nowhere
came a huge wave. Lenzi took advantage of it and pulled
off a back flip. Wow, talk about luck, except for this
wave; the surf had been rather small all day and no
one had been able to complete a back flip. Now it's
Eric's turn, he searches and searches; but there is
just not a wave big enough to pull another back flip.
The "Cyclone" can't wait any longer, so he opens his
two-minute routine with a huge "No Hander Lander" and
goes on pulling off many of his best tricks. He performed
a nearly flawless routine. In the end, the seven judges
gave Malone one-tenth of a point less, thus Eric won
the tour with a second place finish at the final round.
Eric's next major event is the World
Finals at Lake Havasue City, Arizona in early October.
While training for this event Eric will also be performing
at the 2002 Yamaha Motors Watercraft Dealer meeting
at Savannah, Ga. in August. In September, Eric will
also be competing in Brazil. The final tour event will
be aired on the Speed Vision channel on Wed. Aug. 22,
at 10:00 PM. Look for the Red Bull Wave Bash which
Eric also won on the Fox Sports Network.
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World
Finals:
MALONE CAPTURES FIRST IN NATIONALS AND FOURTH IN WORLD COMPETITIONS 2001
In the personal watercraft motorsport
industry of the world, Duncansville's Eric Malone is
known as one of the best personal watercraft freestyle
riders in the world. Riding for Yamaha Motor Corp USA
and Keystone Yamaha in Duncansville, Eric captured
his third (IJSBA) International Jet Sport Boating Association
National Title in Pro Freestyle. The eight tour stops
consisted of Georgia, Florida, New York, Michigan,Texas,
and California. Eric won six-first places out of eight
this season. Brazil's Alessander Lenzi took second
place and Florida's Josh Lustic took third.
As you probably know Personal Watercraft
Freestyle competitors drive their skis on the surface
and under the water executing many gymnastic moves
on and off the ski as well as many aerial tricks within
a two-minute routine in front of a panel of six to
eight judges. As you can imagine everything must come
together for the competitor to hopefully achieve the
highest score to win. As far as the skier, he must
be physically fit --- in excellent physical condition.
The highly modified stand up ski equipment must be
mechanically ready to function at optimum level when performing. All
of the skies used in competition are rebuilt according to the competition
rules.
Eric was satisfied with the third
national title under his belt, but he knew he had his
work cut out for him if he wanted to be ready to attend
the 20th annual Skat Trak IJSBA World Finals in two
months at Lake Havasu City, AZ. Here there would be
approximately 40 countries represented for the competitions
of closed course racing, slalom, and freestyle. Being
a privateer competitor rather than on a factory team,
Eric knew he had plenty to do to remain on top and
to acquire his fourth world title. He had three skis
to build for the competition, physically work out and
train at the gym, ride his mountain bike, and train
on the water at Lake Raystown as much as possible.
Also, Eric had a Yamaha Watercraft Dealer Show obligation
in Savannah, GA. Sponsored riders are always required
to attend each year. This year was special because
there was to be a hour and half of exciting entertainment
on the Savannah River entitled "The Eric Malone
Freestyle Show with all of His Crazy Friends".
Under Yamaha's leadership, the gala of music, fireworks,
and the worlds best freestyle entertainment was presented
under the colorful lights with exploding energy. The
watercraft dealers will surely remember this show for
a long while.
The IJSBA World Finals day had arrived
in Lake Havasu City, AZ on Sunday, October 14, and
Malone was there with all the other twelve competitors
from six other countries. Those countries represented
were Japan, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Canada, and USA
. Each of the twelve chose a numbered ball which would
determined the numerical order of the competition.
Eric was pleased when he chose the ninth ball which
would allow him to witness Brazil's Alessander Lenzi's
routine who was his greatest threat. The Brazilian
had chosen the seventh ball. It was not a shock that
after Lenzi had competed, Malone had to do his best
performance. He confidentially started his patriotically
red, blue, and white power machine. Eric the Cyclone's
routine began with a sequence of three aerial barrel
rolls -- each of them landing perfectly. Within seconds
later he set up for his new move entitled, "Around
the World" a new signature move by Malone. In
the middle of the move, tragedy struck when the nose
of the ski struck bottom. When the ski surfaced, it
was out of Malone's grasp. At this point, even the
American flag of stars and stripes on the bottom so
highly visible to the 10,000 spectators was not going
to bring the scores high enough for Malone to be the
winner. Being the professional athlete he is, Eric
regrouped instantaneously and continued his routine.
Eric knew he was defeated due to the valuable time
lost during his routine and losing his ski.
By the end of the competition and
when the scoring was in, the Brazilian, Alessander
Lenzi, had taken first, Mark Sickerling of Germany
had taken second, and third went to Nobuyuki Machizuki
of Japan. Eric Malone took fourth. Malone was the only
American rider who placed in the top five in a truly
International Event.
Eric has become a dominant figure
in the sport of Personal Watercraft Freestyle. Since
l997 when he performed the first ever "No-handed" aerial
barrel roll, Eric has continually been inspired to
create many signature moves and at the same time acquire
three national championships and three world titles.
Some of the highly acclaimed signature Malone moves are the sinus soaker,
no handed barrel roll, double trouble, the threesome, one handed lander,
no hander lander, one footed barrel roll, mariot, school girl, cyclone,
reverse tail stall with a kiss, and around the world.
Malone's goal has always been to win, but more than this, he has been
inspired to take personal watercraft freestyle to a new level. His desire
has been to become not only a top physically conditioned athlete but
to also change the type of tricks being performed by the freestylers
--- more gymnastics and aerial moves in the tricks. It appears Eric has
achieved his goal.
Eric Malone recently produced and
successfully completed a video entitled, "Cyclone
On Edge" featuring Eric Malone. His current web
site is www.Eric Malone.com and his current company
is Keystone Cyclone Division where he sells signature
parts for the PWC Freestyler. Eric has just recently
won the Red Bull Surf Challenge in Oceanside, CA. This
kind of riding in the surf is different from flat water
riding. The news media and fans find it intriguing
that Eric from Pennsylvania is such a champion in the
surf.
Malone has future plans to continue
to compete on tour and in the surf challenges around
the world. Plans are to travel to Hawaii in December,
possibly to Chili, and the IJSBA National Tour USA
of 2002.
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