SAN FRANCISCO -- Wakeboarders Darin Shapiro and Shaun Murray may share the hometown of Orlando, Fla., but that is about where their similarities end.

The duo did combine to dominate the Men's Wakeboarding event at the 2000 X Games on Clipper Cove of Treasure Island in San Francisco. Shapiro captured the gold medal with a score of 71.56, while Murray nabbed the silver as he totaled a 69.11. Shane Bonifay, of Lake Alfred, Fla., won the bronze medal with a score of 59.67.

Shapiro is the most decorated wakeboarder in the sport's history and he has proved it during his four X Games experiences, winning two gold and two silver medals. Meanwhile, Murray found himself on the X Games podium for the first ever as he improved upon his 4th place finish a year ago.

"Fifty percent of what I had today was because of the crowd," Shapiro said of his day on the water. He said he gathered energy from the crowd's support and from that of his fiancée, Heather.

The 26-year-old Shapiro was his usual aggressive and explosive self all afternoon long, while Murray countered with his easy, fluid technique.

"I was kind of hesitant to come out because of the conditions last year," Murray said. "But this year, they held up and you got to remember it's all about the fun, not about the wind."

Murray, who is known as the "House of Style" for both his free-flowing style and his demeanor, finished his silver-medal run with a Pete Rose 540 (a front-side Mobius with a grab).

But without Shapiro, Murray might have never found himself with an X Games medal. Murray only picked up a wakeboard after seeing Shapiro on television and thinking he could "do that too."

Teenage girls wins women's Wakeboarding

There was no ESPN the Magazine jinx here. The teenage girls did rule the X Games' Women's Wakeboarding competition at Clipper Cove at Treasure Island today.

The top three finishers were all teenagers: winner Tara Hamilton, of Lantana, Fla., is 18. Silver medal winner Dallas Friday of Orlando is just 13 and third-place finisher Maeghan Major, who is from Clermont, Fla., is 16.

"I am pretty X-cited," said Hamilton, who had just finished her home-school education. "It feels great to have another X Games Gold medal."

Hamilton returns to the top of the podium for the first time in 1997, when she won the gold medal in San Diego. In 1998, Hamilton placed third before a fourth-place finish a year ago here in the San Francisco Bay.

The victory is even sweeter since the seasoned champion won the Pro Wakeboard Tour in Detroit earlier this year.

Hamilton went big on her final run down the cove, which was also the last run of the competition. She hit a tantrum, a backflip over the wake coming off a heel edge, to score the final score of 61.33 for the victory.

Friday, at age 13, makes her X Games debut a success with a second place finish with 58.89 points. Major, who won the event last summer, came in third with 48.33.

"I can't wait until next year," Friday said. "I hope it was as fun as this year's event has been."

Both Hamilton and Major were part of a recent ESPN the magazine layout that featured the teenagers in summer wear, posing with Emily Copeland and Lauren Loe.

The 2000 X Games will bring more than 350 of the world's best alternative sports athletes to the Bay Area to compete for medals and nearly $1 million in prize money, the industry's largest prize purse. Competitors seamlessly defy gravity launching off jumps, sliding down rails and spinning and flipping overhead in Aggressive In-Line Skating, Bicycle Stunt, Freestyle Moto X, Skateboarding, Skysurfing, Sport climbing, Street Luge and Wakeboarding.

ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC's Wide World of Sports will combine to produce over 28 hours of original programming. ESPN International's 21 networks will distribute to over 150 million households worldwide in more than 180 countries in 21 languages, while EXPN.com will provide daily in-depth online coverage.

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