The Wakeboard Blog

Momentum! the movie

Its official, the new iwake.com movie will be titled “Momentum”! The guys at iwake.com

Chad Sharpe in Shasta

finalized it the other week, and we’re all stoked on the title. Now to the riders…Rusty, Chad Sharpe, Brad Smeele, Kyle Alberts, Joey Bradley, Austin Hair, JD Webb, and myself! Its a mixture of guys that have been in the biz for awhile and new riders bring it up to the next level, pushing each other to make a video thats not just another wake vid.  The journey began in Texas, iwake.com’s headquarters, in the spring with a few of the team riders. We spent a week shooting before the PWT Dallas stop. It was the first time any of us had shot with Joey Archisz, the filmer behind Momentum, so was good to get used to his filming style and what he was looking for. Next, we took the vid to Cali, to spend a week on Shasta shooting with a RED! A RED is the best camera out at this time, shooting 138 frames of HD video a second! In the future, there are plans for the Bahamas, Philippines,

Shasta

and South America.  Needless to say, no corners will be cut in the production of the video. We already have never-before-done tricks, 10’s and many other gnarly tricks that will make this vid the one to check out next year. I’m stoked! And will keep up with the updates!

Big Things Coming!

I know on a lot of my blog titles I use explanation points, but this one needs to be amplified. I just arrived to Lake Shasta in Cali for the first iwake.com DVD shoot, and am as stoked as it gets! We have a week on a 3 story houseboat, Spencer Smith out to shoot pics with his loaded down Xstar, and a rider lineup of Rusty, Chad Sharpe, Brad Smeele, Kyle Alberts, Austin Hair, Alex Brown, and myself!  Theres a RED in front of me ready to catch all the action and hammers that will be dropped throughout the week! About 30 mins ago I sat in on the first meeting discussing the direction of the movie, the riders involved, and the filmer’s (Joey Archisz) view on it all. The iwake.com guys never do anything medium, and i’ll be the first to say that this vid is going to hit the wake scene next year with shit that has never been seen. The official rider list will blow minds. But unfortunately, all the details of the vid, the locations, and the riders is

on lock right now.  Just be ready for groundbreaking riding and a new avenue to view a vid, taking a melting pot of movies like Slick City, Push Process, Rewritten and the snow scene and blending it into the lifestyle wakeboarding brings us.

iwake.com’s video

I’ve been in Texas for the last couple days shooting for iwake.com with Aaron Katen and Joey Archisz. We’ve been lucky enough to ride behind Alex Browns all white 08 Malibu VLX. I wrote about it a couple posts back, as being the old wakeworld boat, and just like before am stoked on the wake. Alex has always been my friend who always wants the bigger wake and trying to push the limits of what our boats could carry. So, now that he has his own boat, he definitely weights it to the limit! The weather hasn’t been cooperating as much as we would like, but we’ve still been getting out there doing work! Okay, on to whats important! The other day I had a chance to sit down and talk with Jeremy, the man behind iwake.com, and talk about his vision with the upcoming video and where he wants it to go. I was pretty excited to hear everything he had to say, and stoked on the upcoming trips he has planned. Two of the most exciting will take place in California on Shasta lake, and in Costa Rica!! Definitely motivating to push my riding to get some good shit on the trips. To sum up his vision, together with Joey Archisz, they’re looking at a combo of Push Process and Slick City. These days, lifestyle is what sets a video apart, as Slick City demonstrated, but it needs to be backed by good riding. Although we don’t have Harley Clifford to kill it, but some of our riders will surprise everyone.

iwake.com shoot in Texas

We set up the first shoot for iwake.com’s team video in Texas this week awhile back.  It was on my calendar and I knew about it, but for some reason everything was going against me making it to Texas. It all started on Saturday night. I never go out when i’m in Orlando because I like to ride every morning and am not a fan of hangovers, but saturday was step up productions first rail jam of the year….in downtown Orlando. On top of that, my current roommate, Danny Tholander, and my ex roommate, Kyle Alberts, were going head to head in the big air final! So I had to make an exception.  It was awesome to see everyone down town, and I know everyone had an awesome time.  Unfortunately, I had to good of a time, woke up sunday around noon with a burly memory and throbbing head.  It took awhile for me to realize that I had 2 1/2 hrs to pack, take my boat out of the water, and get to the airport to make my flight to Dallas. After a blur of activity I actually made it in time, and on the plane.  I had what was supposed to be a quick layover, but turned out to be 4 hrs in ATL. Luckily, I had a good friend who lived close to the airport, so I had her pick me up to help pass the time.  Before I knew it, the time had passed and I only had 20 minutes to get back to the airport, go through security, and get on the plane before it took off. Everyone in security thought I had no chance of making it, with ATL’s train system and crazy crowds.  But, with determination, and a little pushing of the crowds, I made it to the gate 5 minutes before take off, with the plane waiting for me! After all that, I knew it would be a good trip. Yesterday we woke up early to film with Joey Archisz for iwake.com. The riders were Alex Brown, Austin Hair, and myself, and all of us were so stoked to ride! I had one of my best sets ever, landing three different 9’s in a row off the wake, and stomping everything else.  Now, i’m pumped for the trip and for the work we will get done for iwake.com. The pic below is of the rail jam in downtown Orlando

Abu Dhabi Final Day…. Atleast we thought.

Monday was supposed to be our final day in Abu Dhabi. After already being here for almost a week, I was ready to head home to the states.  We spent the day out on the system 2.0 cable seasoning the rail they had put out for wakestock.  The weather was perfect and it one of the nicest beaches I’ve been to, so we were stocked to get some shots and relax before our 24 hr flight home.  Our flight was scheduled for 2:35 Am, giving us plenty of time for dinner and drinks before hand. During Wakestock Austin and I befriended a local Swedish family, and they invited us to dinner for our last night. They had just moved down from Sweden in November so it was cool to hear about back home for them and the differences in Abu Dhabi.  After, we meet with Sharis, the owner BAKE, which is the company that runs the beach operations.  She knew that we hadn’t experienced much in Abu Dhabi as a result of the competition, so took us to the Emirates Palace for drinks.  The palace was the most glamorous place I’d ever seen in my life.  Just an example, they even sprinkle 5 kilograms of gold on their food each year!  It was first built for the meetings of all the Sheiks that are held once a year and cost 3 billion.  After the drinks, we headed to the airport around 1 to catch our 2:30 flight home.  Unfortunately, we didn’t make it in time for checkout, and ended up sleeping on the tile floor of the airport all night, and all the next day until 2pm when Sharis came and picked us up.  I’ve never missed an international flight, and didn’t realize how much more difficult it is than domestic. There is nobody anywhere that seems to know what’s going on or how to help us. Fortunately, we have good friends, and just happen to be stuck in the wealthiest nation in the World!

Just Landed in Abu Dhabi

Greetings from Abu Dhabi! After leaving monday afternoon at 3pm, Austin Hair,Danny Tholander and I just got into our hotel room in Abu Dhabi, at 1 Am on Wednesday morning! I’ve never spent so much time on a plain or sitting still in my life.  Fortunately for myself, there are benifits to that, which I will explain.  The first, is the wide variety of movies offered on international flights, and countless hours to enjoy them all! Austin and i started with Year One, an excellend comedy featuring Jack Black.  After that I watched a documentary on Lebron James’s highschool basketball career, and came to the conclusion that i’m going to start balling it up when i get back state side! Also, i’m pretty sure that I have one of the healthiest hearts in Abu Dhabi right now, courtesty of the comlemenary red wine on British airways. Did i mention the free food? It was like a Golden Coral buffet instead they brought the food to our seats!  The only downside of it all is that my body has no idea of what time it is, what day it is, and when to fall asleep. I’ve pretty much been up since monday now.  Throughout our journey Austin Hair and I have been and will continue to film our experiences to bring to you on my site and iwake.com.  Fortunately for us, we’ll have 24hrs to sit in a plane and edit on the way home.  As far as the World Cup, we have practice tomorrow for the boat competition which runs thursday through saturday. Also, every night will feature a railjam and live concert from various bigtime bands that i’ve never heard of. Tomorrow should be a fun day, and hopefully i’ll get some pics to post of it all. Now, i’m going to try and get some much needed rest.