April 18, 2007

Randy Harris Returns to Wakeboarding; Departs Correct Craft Team

Two high-profile departures from the Correct Craft team have made news in the industry. Philip Soven, a long time Correct Craft team rider recently departed their ranks and joined Malibu. Even more shockingly, Randy Harris has just inked a deal with Malibu as well.

We've previously posted photos of a hot pink Wakesetter and named it "Most Strangely Remarkable" in the The 2005-2006 Wakeboard Report Wake Boat Beauty Awards. That boat, or one like it, could be earmarked for Harris as many know that Harris prefers his wake boats pink, slammed with ballast and outfitted with upholstery capable of withstanding errant run-ins with body piercings.

Harris was a true Correct Craft mainstay and it will be difficult for me to see him riding behind anything but a Nautique. And as Correct Craft continues to sign motocross athletes and other non-wakeboarders to their extended team, we're left wondering why the departure of key wakeboarding athletes from their team is being permitted. Soven's departure from Correct Craft was rumored to be powered by an extremely lucrative deal and at his age it is somewhat more acceptable. But Harris's departure is more distressing to us - something about this just doesn't jive - and we can't quite put our finger on it.

An industry insider informed me that Malibu has a reputation for, in their words, "handing out boats left and right". At this point, with a bevy of new and exciting models from Correct Craft, we hope they start to follow suit and poach a few big name athletes - and expand their promotional team at the same time. Signing Emily Copeland-Durham was a good start, But we'd like to names like Darin Shapiro, Ben Greenwood, Erik Jernberg, Tino Santori or Erik Ruck on the Correct Craft team, as opposed to motocross phenom James "Bubba" Stewart, or snowboarding Innovator Tommy "The Machine" Czeschin.

Posted by erik