God's Gift & Mr Walker Water Ski Race 1995 & Wade Bennett's fall in the Ski Drags

[ginninbourbon]

sorry i ment the original thundernuts the inboard

[ginninbourbon]

you got that right the legend 'Gods Gift', but another legend was there too.. Thunder Nuts.. my 2 favorite boats of all time

[pcr44bender]

gods gift legend of a boat shame still not around today

[lookmygot]

Still rember this like it was yesterday, was standing on the bank talking to Geoff when you fell Wade, so glad that you recovered, like all of us at the time following your rehab and determinded recovery, well done! Stopped racing years ago, kids, marrage , etc, etc, would love to get behind the wheel again someday, thanks for the vid, bought back some rally cool memories, cheers unforgiven 175

[jamlucas]

Wade you are amazing. Well done skiing behind the Chief. From all that you have been through and then to do what you love doing once again is so great to see. You keep on being legendary.

[SkiRaceKid100]

Hey Wade Good Luck In The Southern 80 Behind The Chief Hope U Braek The Record....

[badlad77]

Thanks heaps ! I cant wait to have a crack at it !

[SkiRaceKid100]

as a kid i love SHOWDOWN

[SkiRaceKid100]

IT GREAT TO SEE THE OLD GUNNS AGAIN

[jamlucas]

awesome video

[nathangliddon]

what a awesome video, makes my hair stand up watching it, was such a horrible crash to see at the time. but i agree with every body else that racing then deffinetly had more variety of boats. gods certanly set some high standards and a great engine set up. not a hell of alot differnt now 14 years on.

top work badlad for posting this i didnt know fottage exsisted

[RazorsEdgeSkiRacing]

need more footage from back in those days, definately more exciting boats back then!

[qwerty158]

i have about 4 hours worth of early-mid 90's southern 80, green island classic and a little bit of footage on vhs, I'll post some soon

[qwerty158]

little bit of bridge to bridge*

[badlad77]

Be great to see it all again.

[qwerty158]

Wow, its only just came to me you are Wade Bennett.

Your an inspiration man

[badlad77]

Yeah, it's me : ) Thanks ! Awful nice of you to say. I had to hang onto this footage for so long, as it's still such a fresh 'n raw memory for everyone that saw it live, and I didn't want to cause any more distress. That's why no one has ever seen this tape before. It had to be held off with the legal crap for ages, but it, God's and Walker are part of Oz ski race history, and I thought that 141/2yrs is long enough wait. I feel like a blatant self promoter putting my name to it's title though.

[SkiRaceKid100]

that would be kool as

[RazorsEdgeSkiRacing]

have you put any mid 90's footage on here yet

[qwerty158]

ahh ive got one crappy quality one that has been on there for a while, but I will get them on as soon as possible. Just need to buy a vhs-digital converter then I will put them up straight away.

[badlad77]

still haven't converted it yet.

[qwerty158]

actually Wade, one of the videos Ive got (win's telecast of the 96 S80) actually starts off with an interview of you. However it was accidently taped over so only the last 5 seconds of the interview remain

[badlad77]

haha shit I'd forgotten about that ! talking about the Blitz I think. wow that was ages ago !

[qwerty158]

As much as I love all the new boats like Hellbent and Blazen, these late 80's-late90's boats give me chills like no other machines; boats like Mr Walker, God's Gift, Gotta Crazy and Island Cooler.

[badlad77]

Yeah there was a lot more experimenting going on with the boats then. Pushing the envelope more and more.

[qwerty158]

yeah, just about all the superclass boats now are connelly's and forces with the same turbo set-up. Don't get me wrong, I love all the new boats (connelly craft have always been my favorite ) but Mr Walker with its triple rig, Gotta be Crazy pioneering turbo's in boats and God's Gift with that insane Rodek engine all pushed the envelope (apologies for using the exact same words as you), so much more than then the connelly's and forces today which all seem to be clones of each other.

[qwerty158]

Boats like ORSM prove what can happen when someone does something different; all the experimentation's of the 80's and 90's raised the performance bar and competitiveness to greater heights then what would of been if they all had used essentially the same set-up like they do now.

[donuts7272]

I still remember that day. It was a damn big accident.

[jamlucas]

Awesome footage