Full Circle: The Shannon Best Story

By Gavin Butler

Posted Tuesday 2nd October

After a full year spent traveling and promoting his company around the world, Shannon Best recently returned to his roots and hometown of the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, where he had the chance to spend time with his family, further promote Best on his home turf, and reflect on what has been a long and illustrious career as a professional wakeboarder and kiteboarder.

Shannon at Narrowneck

Over seventeen years ago, Shannon left his home as a teenager with aspirations to become a professional wakeboarder. In that time, Shannon has been through the ups and downs of the board industry, winning wakeboard events behind both the boat and the cable, competing in various kiteboarding events, and has been involved in the early stages of the sport of wakeboarding and kiteboarding. Shannon is now a partner in one of the biggest kiteboarding companies in the world, selling products to all corners of the globe, employing over 20 staff, and helping promote one of the fastest growing sports in the world.

Shannon in Brazil

Shannon with his family

Beginnings

Shannon started off as a skateboarder on the Gold Coast in his late teens riding anything from street to vert with his brother and friends. After seeing them wakeboarding for the first time on the Broadwater in '88, Shannon was intrigued by the endless possibilities of the sport. A skateboarding injury to his ankle at the beginning of the summer in 1990/1991 forced Shannon off the skateboard and luckily into the cable park, as the footstraps provided more ankle support than the skateboard.

Cableski Bli Bli

At 10 a.m. on the 1st of January, 1991, Shannon rode his first lap of the Cable Ski World ski park in Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast. You could say the rest is history, but only seventeen years of hard work, training, and the desire to be the best would prove that to be true. In the first three days at the cable park, Shannon spent twenty three hours on the water before moving further north to the Sunshine Coast four months later to work on a friends orchid farm in the hinterland in the Obi Obi valley. It was here that Shannon would sneak away from the farm, work and train at the Bli Bli cable park.

Brandon Wolf, one of Shannon's original wakeboard crew from Bli Bli commented on Shannon's professionalism and desire right from the word go. "Shannon had trained a hundred laps around the park before work every morning. He didn't drink, didn't go crazy and party too hard. By the time we woke he had mastered another trick."

Bli Bli wake mates

These early days saw Shannon and the crew from Bli Bli ride the first production wakeboards called the "McSki," which was a directional-style board with footstraps designed by Bruce McKee, who first saw photos of the sport in "Tracks" surfing magazine in Australia in the late 1970's. The riders in the shots were surf legends Allan Byrne (Byrning Spears Surfboards) and Kevin Jarrett, both from New Zealand, riding Hot Stuff Skurf Boards. Bruce's Mcski's were first introduced to the States in 1983 called the "Surf Ski," while Tony Finn released the "skurfer" brand the following year. Bruce states, "I met Tony Finn when I went to Chicago's IMTEC boat show when I launched the world's first production 'wakeboard' with Medalist or Wellington Puritane, that was the parent company. They (Medalist) called it 'Surf-ski' and Tony Finn was looking to be the (our) rep for California. He ended up getting connected to Darby and co and the next year and set up Skurfer."

Shortly afterwards Shannon moved up to the first compression-molded wakeboard made by Hyperlite. Upon winning his first cable competition in Bli Bli in 1992, Shannon was strongly advised to go to the States and go pro by his close friend Clayton Dunn from the trick ski days. One month later Shannon was on a plane, headed for the Quiet Waters Cable Ski Park in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

Wakeboarding

On the 23rd of May '93, Shannon arrived at the Quiet Waters Cable Ski Park with determination and zeal to make it in the wakeboard world. Shannon spent two years at Quiet Waters running the cable operations and training for the tour.

The first wakeboard tour was run in conjunction with the water ski tour in 1992. "In the beginning," Shannon remembers, "ski jumping, freestyle, slalom skis and even knee boarding were all bigger than wakeboarding." The first year Shannon rode the tour was in 1994, when everyone was riding directional boards. In September '94, the first twin tip was released in Islamorada by WakeTech, which changed the sport forever.

"In the early days there were no towers on the boats, no fat sacks, no balsa cores. I was the only foreigner on the tour for the first two years. All the boards weighed fifteen pounds with bindings on them." Shannon was the only cable rider on the tour in the early years and spent four months training behind his good friend Jimmy Sposato's boat to be able to ride at a competitive level for his first season on the tour.

"In those days you had to qualify for the events," says Shannon. "Sixty guys competed for two wildcard positions. You had to arrive on Fridays and battle it out. Runs were twenty-five seconds each and in the finals, one run was behind the jet ski, the other behind the boat, and the runs had to be submitted to the judges the night before. If you didn't stick to your run you would not only get penalized for it, you just wouldn't score"

In 1993, Shannon bought his first two boards in the US off Darren Shapiro for $150 each. In 1995, Shannon placed in the top five of the tour and stayed in the top ten for over six years straight. 1995 was also the year Shannon launched the S-Bend. "Basically I was trying to do a front flip back on the cable parks in Australia. Everyone laughed and thought it was ugly so I put it away and didn't use the trick until 1995. Everyone freaked out when they first saw it on the tour. Darren (Shapiro) asked me to do it ten times in a row to figure it all out."

Shannon was the first Australian to make it big in the States, paving the way for the other Australians who have been so successful on the wake tour. In 1996, he became the first Aussie to have a pro model named after him, and in his career working for various companies, he had over eight pro models based on his design and style. His sponsors included the who's who of wakeboarding - Connelly, Rip Curl, Liquid Force, Jet Pilot, Moomba Supra Boats and many more. During this time representing these brands Shannon won the Pan Am Oahu, Hawaii, in 1998 and the 2001 World Cable Ski Championships in Orlando, Florida, taking out the freestyle and big air divisions.

Double Backroll to Blind

Kiteboarding

In the winter of 1999, Tom James, the editor and creator of Kiteboarding Magazine, was pushing the new sport of kiteboarding with the release of the first Kiteboarding Magazine in America that year. Seeing not only the future in the sport itself but also the crossover potential from wake to kite, Tom invited Shannon to try the sport for the first time with Lou Waiman and Elliot LeBoe in Corpus Christi, Texas, along with fellow wakeboarders Zane Schwank and Chase Heavener. Tom recalls, "I wanted the wakeboarders to see a cooler side of kiteboarding, not just going big. Within 10 minutes, Shannon and the boys were doing raleys, which surprised Elliot and Lou by how fast they were learning, especially on the old Wipika two-lines." Rafael Salles and Raphael Baruch from F-one were also there with their 7m foils for the guys to use on the lighter days at Bird Island.

This wasn't the first time Shannon had seen kiteboarding. In 1995, when Shannon was training and working at the Ski Ranch in Texas with Troy Navarro, Troy was playing around with a kite at the back of the ranch. Shannon, Troy and his dog went to Corpus so Troy could kite and practice for the X-Games in '95 in Rohde Island. The 1995 X-Games was actually called the Extreme Games and this was the inaugural X-Games with the sport that was then being called Kite Skiing.

At the Portland Wakeboarding Tour stops in 1997 and 1998, Shannon met up with Lou Wainman, who showed him pictures and video of kiteboarding in Maui. Eventually, in 2000, after winning the Cable Worlds, Shannon met up with Raphael Barruch, the US distributor for F-one, who asked Shannon to teach the kite team to wake. During one of Florida's windiest seasons in years, Shannon spent time teaching Malik Bouchenafa, Bertrand Fluerry, Trip Forman and Ty Luckett, which is also when Shannon learned to go upwind and ride on foils, riding alongside Florida regulars Jeff Biege and Lou Simmons. Shannon was hooked instantly, and shortly after, he told his wake sponsors he wanted to kite. He took back the wake boat, replaced it with a kite, and rode as often as he could in January of 2001.

Shannon trained hard and entered his first contest, the amateur division of the kiteboard competition at Waddell Creek in 2001. Soon afterwards, Lou invited Shannon to come and hang out with him in Maui, and within three weeks, Shannon was staying on Lou's couch at the "compound." "Back then everyone was doing whip tricks on the 2 line kites. I told them that they didn't need to whip the kite and within a week Lou had picked it up, throwing down all the handle passes incredibly fast and with ease." After four months in Maui, F-One brought out their inflatable kites, which Shannon loved. The Mach-1 9m was pretty much the only kite that Shannon rode, usually on a pulley bar. At this time, Shannon helped Keith Baxter from Air tweak the pulley bar set-ups that are used today.

Shannon on the Best RV, 2006

"F-One was paying me $2000 a month, we were all riding everyday and videoing at the same time. At night we would sit down and critique each other's riding and coach each other. No leashes were used then so kites were flying around Kite Beach all them time." Shannon recalls the different factions at that stage. "The Oahu guys were into the big jumps and transitions whilst we were really into wake style, as well as going big and wave riding."

Double island point

Shannon spent nearly three years in Maui from 2001 till 2003 riding and pushing the sport with the likes of Lou Waiman, Elliot LeBoe, Mauricio Abreu, Jack Webb, and Nina Heinburg. At the time, Shannon was riding F-one kites and riding for Jimmy Lewis (3 pro models). In 2003, he did the hugely successful kiteboard DVD's with the Tronolones, Kiteboarding 101 and Kiteboarding 201.

Inskip point

Business

In the middle of 2003 while traveling through Florida, Shannon had the opportunity to meet with Alex Shogren, a then-budding kiteboarding junky. The meeting was arranged by Jeff Beige, Shannon's old kiteboard friend from Florida, before the Maui days. Shannon, with his nonchalant style, arrived at the meeting three hours late and within twenty-four hours Best Kiteboarding was born. "The next day me and Jeff called F-one and told them we were leaving," said Shannon.

Shannon in a dunking booth at the SurfExpo, 2004

Shannon had been looking to set up his own company since the beginning of the wakeboarding days and was close to it on several occasions, but shady deals and behind-the-scenes politics had left Shannon with little to show for his hard work and creativity. Shannon learned "not to ride for a company whose boss smokes crack."

On February 9th, 2004, Best Kiteboarding went online for the first time and opened its doors to the kiteboarding world, through the internet as well as regular sales. Best's business model caused quite a controversy in the development period with several brands colluding to push Best out of the market because of Best's online tactics and outspoken marketing approach. "Back then the companies were all scared of our new approach," says Shannon. "It was only natural that they fought us."

Three years later, Best Kiteboarding has survived not only the problems of an initial start-up, but also the added pressure of extremely vociferous competitors. Shannon has worked in many aspects of the company, helping it get where it is today, even answering the phones and doing customer service in the early days … which he occasionally still does. Customers are thrilled to have their problems solved or questions answered when I pick up the phone," says Shannon.

Interview with ABC radio

Shannon has also been involved in his own Pro Model board that has been hugely successful in terms of units sold. Other design work includes bar design and safety systems, along with the obvious kite and board testing … skills that come from years of experience in the industry.

Shannon has an extremely creative side as well. Most of the names of Best kites come from various Aboriginal names for wind or water, including the Waroo, Bularoo and Yarga models of kites. Shannon enjoys researching these names through his Aboriginal heritage with the help of his family back home in Australia. Shannon is also is adept at several graphics programs, including Illustrator and Rhino 3D, which he uses to work on bar design, logo and board graphics.

Traveling is what keeps Shannon the busiest. He spends an average of nine months a year on the road representing Best Kiteboarding, from being dunked in dunk tanks at trade shows, to attending several kiteboard competitons worldwide, to driving the RV around the USA, to various kiteboard lessons, radio interviews and media shoots around the world. "Last year I hit the road in January and continued to travel even when I arrived in Australia in September, stopping all over the States, Brazil, Hawaii and Japan along the way." Shannon was recently inducted into the Australian wakeboard hall of fame in Brisbane for leading the charge of Australian wakeboarders around the world and outstanding performance

Wake Awards, Australia

What's Next?

As for the future, the travels will continue and so will Shannon pushing the sport and promoting his company around the world. Shannon can still ride as hard as anyone with smooth technical wakeboard tricks and powerful style. I recall seeing Shannon ride in Brazil this year and in one session throwing down every trick both ways on the lagoon. Double SBends to blind, double back rolls to blind, toe side SBends to blind, giant butter slides, nose presses and many more.

"The future of the sport is endless. At this stage kiteboarding is still only in its infancy in comparison to other action sports. I look forward to seeing how kiteboarding directs itself into the future and to be a part if it."