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!
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.
Stoked on this little video my roommate showed me yesterday of some guys using their imagination and making a dope video. When I was watching it, I felt like the guys were actually surfing, which is rad. Its crazy what people think up, and this is definitely one thing I want to try!! Probably not as cool as it looks, but still legit! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Spent the day riding with the guys who get coached by Time On the Water with me. It was me, Lewis Link, and Mark Moss out on my Malibu VLX on Pickett. I’m pretty sure we were the only riders in town as Nationals in Reno was this weekend also. The wind was definitely blowing, but we were still able to find a shoreline with some rideable water. Mark brought out his camera so we were able to get footage of our riding, and I threw together a little vid to put up on iwake.com. Check it out, more to come soon. Thanks to Time-OnTheWater.com for helping out with coaching and pushing our riding.
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.
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…..
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.
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
In one of my earlier blog posts I mentioned shooting with Patrick Wieland from Alliancewake.com. We had some epic mornings out on Pickett and Mills to capture all the trick my roommates and I have been working on. Stoked to work with someone who was fun to chill with, and could capture my riding exactly how I wanted it to look. Stoked to get 3 different 9’s wake to wake on film, and get it on Alliancewake. Thanks to Patrick for working with us, enjoy the vid. http://www.alliancewake.com/wake/the-east-side-rise-up/
I’m pretty excited right now about a lot of things with wakeboarding. For starters, yesterday I landed a “big Perm”, which has possibly never been done before on a wakeboard. Some have speculated that Brandon Johnson landed it about 10 years ago, but never got it on footage. I asked some of the more respected guys in the industry, who have been in it since day one, and they’ve agreed that its only speculation that it was ever landed before. So, I’m pretty stoked on the whole thing, and stoked I got it on video! Quality isn’t all there, but good enough to see the trick. It’s a toeside frontflip 720, or like an ollay crow 7! On top of that, I’m sitting on a plane right now on my way to Brazil for the 2nd World Series stop! Last month I was able to spend a week in Manaus, Brazil, which is in the northern part of the country. Now, we’re traveling to Belo Horizonte, which is in the southern part, next to San Paulo. I’ve been told the water here is a little cold because the seasons are opposite those of the northern hemisphere, so they’re beginning winter as we begin summer. I’ll be updating with pics as frequent as I can get internet.
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.
