Mark Gomez Pro Freerider Update: National Tour Stop 1 - Panama City, Florida Story & Photos: Mark GomezUSA Pro Freestyle Championship Video Recap - available to view now April 16, I competed and placed 3rd in the Pro 1200cc class at the US Pro Freestyle championship round in Lake Havasu, AZ. They just released this video recap from the event. A more in depth run by run breakdown of the entire contest is soon to follow. Click this link to view the HD video --> https://vimeo.com/165785394Pro Watercross National Tour - Round 1 in Panama City Beach, Florida. New to my entire year's season is my participation in the Pro Watercross National Tour, which has it's own 8 stop sanctioned race series with their own world finals mostly based on the east coast of the United States, and CBS Sports Network produced coverage of most tour stops. My plan for this tour is to race a borrowed Superjet in the Pro Ski Stock class, and compete in Pro Freestyle. This is my rookie year for this tour as well as competing in Pro freestyle.I flew into Panama City last Thursday night to meet up with pro ski GP racer Brock Austin's family, who had towed their race trailer out here with my freestyle ski inside. Friday I spent the day tuning the freestyle ski for the next two days of events as well as getting to practice in the rough conditions that were not quite the surf conditions I was hoping for. ​ Saturday morning came before i knew it and it was an action packed day, getting to know the environment and tempo of how this event is run. I was quickly at work running around taking photos and checking in on Hydro-Turf sponsored riders to help promote their efforts that day for the HT social media page. Pro Freestyle would be my first event of the day. The conditions were really bumpy with chop in between and no real sign of wave swells to take advantage of. This leveled the playing field for everyone since no one really had much of an advantage in the chaotic water conditions. I piloted the borrowed Rickter 1000cc XFR Demo ski that was trucked over and went to work. It was extremely difficult to time the set up wakes to launch my tricks off of. However, I was able to pull off good maneuvers and land them clean, which set my score highest overall on day one to take the win. Shortly after that freestyle session I braced up in my race gear and piloted Brandon Edwards #41 stock Yamaha Superjet to race in pro ski stock class. This moto was a qualifier in which I ended up in about 4th place getting used to the course and the way this ski handled for my first time riding it. I was able to get time on the main tower on the live stream for an interview to promote my sponsors, and explain my crazy season of 25 events. Shortly after CBS Sports crew pulled me aside for a personal on camera interview about who I am and what I was doing there.Sunday was round 2 for freestyle and a continuation of the race moto schedule, including my final 2 main race motor in Pro Ski Stock. In Freestyle I was up again against Chris Langlais who is an extremely talented and an aggressive freestyle rider on one of the most powerful 1200cc class skis available. I was anxious to see what he would put together on day learning from his mistakes the day before. He threw down an incredible run, which put more pressure on me to put some extra things together in my heat. Strapped up with a GoPro chest mounted camera from CBS Sports Network I took off for my final 2 minute freestyle heat. I was able to find a decent rhythm through the messy conditions, pulling variation tricks followed by a few double combination tricks that I was able to land clean each time. The clean landings and variation tricks ended up pumping my score higher to take the overall both days. This contest proved to me how well rounded and stable the new Rickter XFR hull platform that I am riding really is to be pro level competitive from perfect conditions to some of the worst.I helped all of the freestyle guys get their skis up the beach and was called to my first main pro stock race moto. Come to find out the two main motos were 12 minutes long plus one lap. Having not an abundance of training under my belt from all of the event planning, this was a massive test of my endurance. I was able to charge my way through both main motos taking 4th place each time.The podium was live streamed as well as being filmed for CBS Sports. I spoke for my Pro freestyle podium and then turned around to take photos and promote the Hydro-Turf riders and friends who had landed on the podium this first round. All together it has been an incredible experience this first round on the Pro Watercross National Tour. I can't thank the Austin and Edwards families enough for their hospitality and help with myself and equipment around their pits and trailer. I am staying with them through this week as we relax and transition into the this weekend's tour stop in Pensacola, Florida. I am really impressed with the Pro Watercross National Tour, as well as Panama City Beach, the white sandy beaches and hotel venue made it extremely enjoyable to be at.Next stops May 14-15 -- Pro Watercross National Tour stop 2 - Pensacola, FL May 20-22 -- IFWA Freeride World tour Stop 1 - Nazare Portugal May 27-29 -- IFWA Stop 2 - Lacanau, France June 3-5 -- IFWA Stop 3 - Newquay, UKThank you 2016 Sponsors: Rickter – RRP Mystik Lubricants Hydro-Turf DASA Engines WORX Racing Components Liquid Militia Clothing Jetpilot TC Freeride Skat-Trak Jet Renu Hot Products Bomber Floating Eyewear KMG Racing Cold Fusion Factory Zero Performance Fiberglass Repair Salty Investments ADR Crankshafts JetineticsMostly, thank you all for your support,-- Mark Gomez2015 IFWA Jetski Motosurf World ChampionInstagram: @MarkGomez137Facebook: @MarkaGomezMark@Markgomez.netwww.MarkGomez.netLike, Tag & Share!