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
I’ve spend the last couple mornings waking up at 6 am to shoot with Jason Lee. It was pretty intense the first day, as the last time I saw 6 am was in Brazil and we were leaving the clubs. But, with each day, it got easier, until today when it felt close to normal. What i’m most stoked about is how much more time I have in the day. Its mid afternoon, and i’ve done everything I needed to today. Now is when I wish I had Call of Duty. Tomorrow will be the test, because i don’t have a photoshoot so won’t have to wake up. I’m going to try, but not sure if its possible without the motivation. Ohh, another plus….coffee tastes sooo much better that early! And we all know how stoked I am about coffee. I can’t release any of the pics from the shoot, but they looks sick, stoked to see what happens with them! If anyone knows of any good free online games that are a good waste of time let me know, because I have a whole afternoon the burn. I tried to take a good pic this morning, but as you can see I failed miserably. Atleast I got the chase jetski in there…..
Last weekend was the first stop of the US Pro wakeboard tour in Acworth Georgia. We’d been the Acworth for a couple years, and i’d never thought of it as much of a fun stop. The new format definitely changed my perspective of it all, and it ended up being a great time. This year’s format is qualifiers on friday, and saturday has quarters, semis, finals, and then double up and kicker contest. Saturday ends with a big party and live music well into the evening. In the past, we had to ride sunday as well, which killed the saturday night partying, but no longer! Some of the notable highlights of the weekend were Harley’s final run, and Rusty’s 1080 in the double up contest. First of all, Harley’s finals run was the craziest run ever put together on a wakeboard. It included four mobe 5’s, a 7, and a 9! He’s years ahead of the competition, its pretty unbelievable. Then, on Rusty’s first hit in the double up contest, he straight stomps a toe 10! It was the first one i’d ever seen in person, so was pretty stoked to witness it. Also, my good friend Austin Hair made his first final, and ended the contest in 5th place. I’m definitely stoked for him! I was riding awesome in the contest, even had the best run of my life on friday, but couldn’t put it together on Saturday. Ended the weekend in 17th, meaning I have to go through the qualifying in Texas again. Luckily, I have two weeks home to work on my run and hopefully come into texas with some more heat. Check out the video of the finals, courtesy of wakeworld
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 11th 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 6th, 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!
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.
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.
The last two days I’ve been waking up early to shoot with Danny Thollander, Chris Canuel, and Alex Brown. Patrick Wieland from Alliancewake.com has been coming out to shoot us on Danny’s new rail and behind my boat out on Pickett. The first half hour of the day is always brutal, and I have to struggle to stay awake enough to drink my coffee. Once the caffeine sets in, everyone starts to get stoked and we begin to get moving. The rail was sick, and the Malibu VLX wake was huge! I’m definitely stoked with the footage we got, and am interested to see how the vid turns out. It was my first time shooting and meeting Patrick, so I had no idea how the shoot would turn out. But, quickly we started laughing and I knew it would be all good. For me, it definitely makes a difference if I get along with and feel comfortable with the filmer/photographer, and Patrick made that easy. Thanks to the boys and Patrick for inviting me on the shoot, the vid should be on AlliancWake.com early next week.
Wow, yesterday, two of my fellow riders landed some insane new tricks. First, my good friend Kyle Alberts stomped a wrapped, off axis, grabbed, back 9 off the double up!! Yeahhhh boy! Check the vid at http://vimeo.com/11511393, so clean and big. Next, Rusty landed his first wake to wake 1080!! Two huge trick landed in one day, pretty crazy. Rusty’s is unbelievable, check the vid at http://vimeo.com/11511688. Definitely stoked for these two, and motivation to go out and land something new! Thanks to Spencer Norris and Trevor Hansen for grabbing the videos
When it comes to living in Orlando and wakeboarding, it usually means that you live with a lot of people. Almost every wakeboarder I know has at one point slammed a ton of people into a small house on a lake just for the sake of riding with their buddies……and saving a lot of money. A group that is notorious for that is the Aussies, who have been known to cram about a dozen guys in a house. I’m currently in the same situation, living with 7 roommates. When it comes to having that many dudes around, it can get tricky at times. Food always seems to vanish, laundry never gets done, and its always someone else’s dishes in the sink. Luckily, we’ve all adjusted pretty easily to each others styles and have made it work. Also, we have a good variety. One of my roommates, Tyler Trant, is an up and coming wake photographer, who is always fun to go out and shoot with on sunny mornings. We’ve ran into some issues in the past, but each time he’s learned quickly the ways of shooting wakeboarding, which is in no way easy. The other morning we got out there for a quick little ride, and got a couple pics that I was pretty stoked on. Its nice to live with a photographer because whenever the lights good, we just go out and shoot. Enjoy the pictures, more to come soon. For more info on him, or to see more of his work, check out his site, TylerTrant.com.
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
