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.

Weekend in Colorado!

As I was flying into Denver, Colorado, I had no idea what to expect from a state that’s know for its world-class winter resorts and snow.  Unfortunately, for my first visit, I was not visiting Denver in the winter, but in the middle of summer for the PWT stop 4.  Upon landing, everything reminded me of a ski town, which was a cool change from the normal stops of the PWT. We had flown into Denver a day early to shoot with Sam Saslow, a old friend who lives in Denver, for an online video about our travels and riding in Colorado.  Denver definitely does not have the plethora of lakes like Orlando, so our riding spots were definitely limited. We ended up at Sloan lake, a small circular lake located almost directly in dt Denver.  The Hagoods were nice enough to take us out on their Super Air for a ride, which definitely was an experience.  The first thing, was that Denver is pretty nice, its clean, everything looks new, and has a fresh feel. But, on top of all that, there are a lot of bums…everywhere. And Sloan Lake was no expectation. On benches around the shoreline the bums would sit, watching and even cheering, as we went by.  They were definitely a different type of bum that the ones in Orlando, which are constantly nagging everyone for money and are really dirty. Also, the laws of the lake were that every boat had to go around the lake in a counter clockwise direction.  So, at one point we had 7 boats circling the lake with us, which as you can imagine, created some crazy waves in the middle and just about everywhere else.  We made the best of it, and had a great day.  The local wake crew also built a rail off to the side of the lake in a little canal that we had a chance to winch a couple times to get some shots for the vid.  It was apparent that the crew of riders in Denver were all cool people with a love for wakeboarding, and love for sharing it, which was the best part of the day! That night Sam and I hit up the downtown bar scene, which kept with the ski town theme, and was definitely too good of a time.  On Friday and Saturday we went up to Colorado Springs for the PWT stop and to check out God’s Garden, which had some of the craziest red rock formations, similar to Sedona Az.  The location was perfect, and the riding stepped up a notch with the perfect conditions. For a full story on the stop check out http://bit.ly/9p53IW.  Once the fun of Saturday night was over, we went out to a gravel pit to ride with air chair’r Darrin Dinkel behind his 2010 Malibu VLX.  The gravel pit wasn’t fully dug out, which allowed for only a 3 trick pass.  If you’ve never been to Denver, because of the altitude, almost anything gets you out of breath, and turning every 3 tricks exhausted us very quickly. Still, the boat was sick, with a 450 HP engine, and the lake was completely flat so each one of us had pretty good rides, and were able to get some alright footage. The highlight of the day had to be when Kirby Liesman stomped a moby dick 5! We all went crazy, and he was all smiles for the rest of the day! Now we’re back at Sam’s place, relaxing, waiting for our flight out to Lake Shasta for the iwake.com photo shoot!

Wakestock UK

The 3rd stop of wakeboarding World Series took place in Abersoch Wales, which was the host of Wakestock.  Before going, i’d heard a lot about Wakestock, mainly, how crazy the weather was, and how much crazier the people were.  Upon arrival, the weather definitely lived up to its reputation. Coming from Orlando, I had definitely climatized to hot weather, so when it was about 60 degrees, rainy, and windy upon arrival, we all became pretty bummed. The competition took place on the ocean, so not only did we have to battle winds, rain, and a small wake, but also the ever-changing tide on the course.  It became interesting as the tide would go out and the rails would become larger and larger for each rider.  Needless to say, the riding adapted to the conditions, and no one threw any crazy tricks, with the exception of Phil Soven. After seeing the video of him doing a whirly 5 behind a jet ski (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuA6dWTO5NE), I knew he could ride in any conditions behind anything.  He wowed the crowd with a whirly 5, toe 7 (the only 7 of the whole comp), crow mobe, and tantrum to blind, to take the win!  It was impressive to see those tricks while the wind was blowing 30 mph and the wake was incredible small. Check out the video of finals at my website, NickJonesWake.com, under the travel tab and Wakestock UK!!

Wakestock UK was about much more than just the wakeboarding, as it has become one of Europe’s biggest music festivals with over 20,000 crazy English in attendance! I didn’t recognize any of the band names other than DJ Goldy Rocks, whos dating my friend, and the Ting Tings.  But, none the less, all the bands got the crowds going crazy, and everyone into the festival spirit. One thing I took particular interest in, was the fashionable Wellies that everyone seemed to be wearing.  Maybe it hasn’t caught on stateside yet, but just about every female in attendance had her own pair of custom Wellies , with high socks to match and jean short shorts! At first, the look was odd, but by the end of the weekend I’d become a fan of the Wellies look, and hope it migrates to the US soon!  The boat comp was at a different site than the music festival, which was somewhat of a bummer, but they did put up the legendary Wakestock pool gap right in the middle of all the festivities.  If you can remember from Wakestock Abu Dhabi, everyone was stoked on the rails and overall setup of the pool gap! The UK boys brought the same set up out to Wales, and dropped it in the middle of the most crowded area of the festival, making for some crazy crowds and good times.  Aaron Rathy came away with the win, after faltering in Abu Dhabi to a third place, with second going to Englands own CK!

Overall the whole event was different than any wakeboard competition I’d ever been to. The water conditions were worse than I thought possible, and the party’s were of epic proportion. After some bad weather days, we were fortunate to have beautiful weather for the last couple days of the contest and for our day checking out London. For more pics and video on the event, check out NickJonesWake.com.

Lucky in Kentucky!

Last weekend was the 2nd stop of the PWT in Dallas Texas. Once again, it was held at Texas Mastercraft, which always is an amazing site and one that every rider looks forward to. This year, the wake was big, and it was unbelievably hot. I rode amazing on the first two days, but came up short on Saturday, and ended up in 16th once again. Starting to get really annoyed with that position. In some crazier news, Harley didn’t even make finals, opening the door to Phillip Soven to take the win and rusty to get 2nd with a 1080 off the double up. After the comp, in flash decision, I decided to cancel my flight home, and drive up the Kentucky to stay with Mike and his family who own NicksBoatDock.com with Andrew Shear, Austin Hair, and Julian Cohen.  After our all day, all night drive, we found ourselves in the middle of a true wakeboarders paradise. The lake we’ve been riding on is called Rough River, which happens to be the calmest water i’ve ever rode on! With all its curves and hills surrounding it, the locals don’t even know what rough water is.  These pictures are just examples of what the water looks like everywhere. Video coming soon…..

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

Belo Horizonte, World Series Stop 2

The second stop of the Wakeboard World Series took place in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, last week.  It was a pretty important event because only the top 10 riders from the first two stops qualified on to the rest of the World Tour.  At the first stop in Abu Dhabi, I got 11^th place, so the pressure was definitely on to perform and get in the top 10. Belo Horizonte is located in the mountains in the southern part of Brazil, meaning that their winter is just starting. It was definitely evident the second we got off our 9 hr flight.  After traveling to Manaus, Brazil earlier in the month, Belo seemed like a completely different country. The water was chilly and the air was thin.  But, it was still an amazing place.  The one similarity it had with Manaus was that the people liked to party, and party hard.  We got two days to practice behind the Masterboat Wakestar to check out the wake and shoot with the media. To me, the World Series really stands apart from the US tour because of this one difference.  All the riders got to take two boats out and spend the afternoon on the lake just riding and having fun, which is what its all about.  Once the competition got underway, the partying stopped and I had to focus to ensure a spot on the tour.  After making it through my heat on the first day, I went into a heat with Rusty and Phil in my heat, two of the heaviest hitters in the sport. When it was all said and done, I ended up winning the heat, with Phil advancing in second behind me!! It was definitely one of my better moments in my competition career. When Sunday came around, I once again had Phil in my heat, but also Harley. Unfortunately couldn’t pull it out, and ended up tying with Dean for 6^th, securing a spot on tour! I was stoked to make a little money and experience Belo. They threw an unbelievable party, and the females in Belo Horizonte are the most amazing I’ve ever seen! Every one is gorgeous, its almost to much…..almost! Unfortunately, with all the partying and riding, I didn’t have much time to take pics or vid, but luckily enough other people did to get some pictures and a video coming soon!

Shooting with Burwell Productions

Today I woke up at 7 am to drive out to Mount Dora to meet up with riders Alex Brown, Austin Hair, and Adam Burwell from Burwell Productions to get some footage for an upcoming web video.  The drive took a little over an hour, but felt forever because of the anticipation. I spend a little over 2 years up in the Mount Dora/Lake County area, and grew to love the lakes very quickly. Mount Dora is the only place in Florida that has any amount of hills, so the lakes are the most protected in the State and always seem to be calm. I’ve definitely had some of my best rides out on them.  This morning proved to be no exception, as the whole lake was butter, and we had Alex’s new Malibu VLX weighted down to ride. Alex just got the old Wakeworld VLX, so I was stoked to see how the wake was after i’d heard so much about it.  It was insane, and everyone killed it.  I’d been watching a lot of Burwell productions snowboard videos over the winter, so am stoked to see what he’ll do with the footage. His editing is as good or better than most of the guys in the industry, and he brings a fresh look to the vids from his snowboard background.  As soon as a teaser or any amount of footage comes out i’ll be sure to throw it up on here. Untill then, enjoy the pics of the perfect riding conditions.

Out of the Amazon, back to reality!

Wow, I’ve finally recovered from the craziness of the Maresia King of Wake in Manaus, Brazil.  Never in my life have I partied harder, rode harder, and meet so many rad people as this last weekend in Manaus. The first thing you must know, is the clubs in Manaus don’t close until early in the morning, like 8 Am, and, somehow I found myself there until 8 every night/morning. The next thing is that the local riders, the Black River wake crew, can party all night, and ride their faces off all day.  At the ripe age of 23, I am definitely not able to do all that they do, but I managed for the last two days I was in town.  Manaus was probably the closest to wakeboarding perfection possible. Everyone there had massive wakes, so much so that when I went back to Orlando the wakes felt small.  Also, the Amazon is always calm, and the scenery is amazing! All that, plus the most stoked crew I’ve been with, made my week the best trip I’ve been on.  There were some gnarly times, like when a local shot mortars at our boat because we sunk his canoe, but luckily no ones hand/foot got blown off. Although, one of the mortars did hit our bimini and bounced off to explode in the water about 5 feet from the boat! After that, the crazy local wasn’t as funny anymore.  Even crazier than the local shooting the mortar was the driving! In Manaus, lanes are simply a suggestion.  Andre, the guy who brought us in, would periodically cut between two cars going about 50 mph, in middle of two lanes!! Seriously, it was like Fast and Furious driving! I think the picture of the flipped car explains it all. Another point that stood out in the trip was the crazy freshwater dolphins that swam in the river.  I have no idea what they were, but they looked just like dolphins and played around in the water in the same way.  Overall, I am stoked on Manaus, and am looking at an excuse to go back. Thanks to Andre, Hugo, Felipe, Angelina,Diana and everyone else that helped us out on our trip. Also, thanks to Austin Hair for getting me involved, you’re the man bro! Look for the vids to be popping up soon on NickJonesWake.com