So far the month of August has been a pretty good month, of course most of them are good so I guess this month is hardly any different. I started off the month at home getting ready for the U.S. Nationals where I rode decently, I made it to the semi finals, which isnt to bad. From there I headed to Garden City Beach, which is a quaint little town with nothing to do just north of Charleston. I was there to spend a little time with the family for vacation. Then I headed to Nashville, TN. The country music capital of the world. I went there for a contest put on by TNT Watersports. The whole weekend was just a huge lake party with wakeboarding going on in the background, it was awesome. There are so many people stocked on wakeboarding. I got to meet a bunch of cool new people and ride with some really good riders from Tennessee. After the weekend, I stayed an extra day to get some riding in with Matt Simms and some other local Tennessee rippers, and had a really good time. I left Tennessee this morning to fly to Connecticut to meet up with my best friend Dave AKA Massive. Massive is 6′7″ and wakeboards an races moto, he’s a cool guy, anyway, he is from up here, and he is visiting home so I decided to come visit to shoot guns and ride tractors, and go out on the town in New York City. We are also going the Outdoor Nationals Motocross race at the world renound South Wick, which is in Mass. I have a feeling, its gonna be a pretty good week up here in New England. Im then driving back to Orlando to ride and start getting ready for the WWA World Championships held in Oklahoma City…yay cant wait to go there. Anyhow, its been a pretty fun month and now we are closing in on Surf Expo at the beginning of Sept. and the end of another good season.

Corey

So far the month of August has been a pretty good month, of course most of them are good so I guess this month is hardly any different. I started off the month at home getting ready for the U.S. Nationals where I rode decently, I made it to the semi finals, which isnt to bad. From there I headed to Garden City Beach, which is a quaint little town with nothing to do just north of Charleston. I was there to spend a little time with the family for vacation. Then I headed to Nashville, TN. The country music capital of the world. I went there for a contest put on by TNT Watersports. The whole weekend was just a huge lake party with wakeboarding going on in the background, it was awesome. There are so many people stocked on wakeboarding. I got to meet a bunch of cool new people and ride with some really good riders from Tennessee. After the weekend, I stayed an extra day to get some riding in with Matt Simms and some other local Tennessee rippers, and had a really good time. I left Tennessee this morning to fly to Connecticut to meet up with my best friend Dave AKA Massive. Massive is 6′7″ and wakeboards an races moto, he’s a cool guy, anyway, he is from up here, and he is visiting home so I decided to come visit to shoot guns and ride tractors, and go out on the town in New York City. We are also going the Outdoor Nationals Motocross race at the world renound South Wick, which is in Mass. I have a feeling, its gonna be a pretty good week up here in New England. Im then driving back to Orlando to ride and start getting ready for the WWA World Championships held in Oklahoma City…yay cant wait to go there. Anyhow, its been a pretty fun month and now we are closing in on Surf Expo at the beginning of Sept. and the end of another good season.

Corey

this week aron, stefan, and i (along with photographers bear and bok) once again went out and conquered some new spots. after scouting san marcos, stefan and aron have once again came through with the goods. (how nice is it when multiple pearl winch spots are 5 min from your house.) anyway, once they found what they were looking for, they gave me a call, and it was on. the mission was to get some shots while bear was in town from florida. so for 3 days straight we pinned it. we hit everything from a new shopping center fountain, to the sm river rock pile, to the dunlap waterfall. it went off. lots of sun and fun. we were in winch mode. i love it. maybe you will see the shots in the mag. maybe you will see small video clips on tarfilms.com(our blog will be finished soon), or maybe the world will end tonight. whatever happens, keep riding. we spent about 5 bucks in gas for all three days total. cant beat it with a stick. i also want to say congrats to aron(tex) for being voted best wakeskater for wakeboardings magazines readers poll. but who expected anything less, especially after he moved out here to texas.

gabe

Big News! Earlier this year I put together a trip to Shasta with abunch of Westcoast riders, including fellow CWB riders the Hoffman sisters and Rob Carter. The trip was definitely an adventure, and everyone had a good time. Since then, Spencer Norris put together a video on the trip, I wrote a masterpiece of an article, and Sean Watson (the photographer from the NW, not the rider) put together a photo gallery. The news will be up on wakeworld soon, but as a special to the CWB bloggers, it is on wakeboardingmag.com. The direct link is;
http://www.wakeboardingmag.com/article/Events/Video-and-Gallery-An-Epic-Week-of-Shasta-Shredding
So be the first to check it out!

Its Blog time again! Since my last update life has been alittle crazy. As you may have seen in Derek Grasman’s previous post, myself, Derek, and Cory went to Smith Mountain lake in Virginia to experience BroStock first hand. Wow. It was one of the craziest weekends of my life. Never have I seen so many man-soda’s shot-gunned, pounded, guzzled, sipped, drank, and funneled in my life. It was a good time, but I was definitely glad when it was over. That lake was one of the coolest I’ve been on, and recommend it to anyone that has the opportunity to check it out. The water was always glass, and super warm. Plus, the crew at Wake-N-Skate was awesome and stoked on riding.

Whats up all, Its about that time of the year. And by that I mean WWA U.S. Nationals. YEEEHAW. What better way for everyone of our friends to come together and have a little friendly but not really competition. By that I mean its not friendly because I will step on anyone who gets in my way to take the crown. And that means anyway. Friends or not they all go down. haha I am just kidding with you guys. It is a competition but all us bros are bros so if my friend makes it and I don’t it’s still a good day. And I get to see my whole team because Nationals brings us all together. So hello to Bryan, Zane, Corey, Andrew, Gabe, Nick, Trevor, Stuart, and Robby and I will see you soon.

So I went out today still pumped from yesterday and I did the regular toe 9 again and then today I learned a switch toe 9. It only took me a few tries. Hopefully I can keep them consistent, so far they seem pretty easy. It sure is nice to be home for a few weeks where I can ride out at the house everyday and and learn new stuff.

Corey

So I was out riding today after a long night last night, and I finally did what I thought I would never do, a toeside 900. I have been able to do several different 7’s wake to wake for a while and Ive done regular and switch heel 9’s of of the double up, but today marks a milestone in my wakeboarding, I did a 9 wake to wake, now I know your thinking, well everyone does wake to wake 9’s and your right, but for some reason I never had, I think it was a brain fart for me, but today it wasnt. Another motivator was that there are a few girl riders that are getting close to wake to wake toe 9’s and ill be damned if a woman did one before me, no offense to womens riding. So Im pretty confident that it is going to become pretty consistant, and I think tomorrow im gonna go out and learn a switch toe 9.

MasterCraft X-Stars wakes are the best

Corey

Ummm I forgot to blog and I’m in this marketing meeting and the Veep of CWB said yo man you been blogging….so here I am…naww just been busy for me traveling a ton, injured my bicep 7/1 at the CWB shoot, I always get hurt at CWB shoots, nonetheless I rode Reno PWT and hurt it more so I am just now getting back on the h2o….it’s been raining back home so we can get the boat out and move to deeper water so this week Jimmy and I will be shreding it up getting ready for Nationals this next week. 

Here’s the real deal….my iPhone is now starting to be an issue…I have the 2.0 software on it now and the team MGR Steve Bates just introduced me to several distrubing things….my favorites now are the iBeer, using the Phone Saber during meetings etc, Air Hockey, and the most intriguing is Cube Runner….so there it is go get it, this is the best iTunes$$ you’ll ever spend….

 Checking out the new 09 gear and you all are going to be blown away….this year’s gear looks sick!!

 More to come….Zane

The life as a professional wakeboarder is better than you could imagine, we get to travel all over the world seeing new places and meeting new people. I couldn’t think of anything I would rather be doing with my life. So far this summer I have slept in my bed at home including last night, 5 nights. After being on the road for weeks at a time, there is nothing better than coming home to your own bed and all of your own furnishings. I will spend a few more days here in Orlando, mostly just relaxing and trying to ride as much as possible. Basically, all im sayin is that I enjoy my time at home riding, eating good food and spending time with friends.

Corey

You heard it correctly. Nick Jones, Corey Bradley, and myself attended this year Brostock at Smith Mountain Lake. It was Awesome with a capital A. We all rode and did a couple clinics for some riders, showed some riders a thing or two. Although pretty much we just got down with our bad selves. Joined the Liquid Force team in a couple contests of the adult sort and dominated. Corey and I even had ourselves a hula hoop battle. And I also learned that I can dance really really well. I think i just finally grew into my body and can fully understand it. Wish you guys could have all been there. Now its time to fly home and I have never been happier too. Keep on keeping on, see ya when I see ya.
DG

I suck at gambling.

BATES

I just got home from Reno Nevada this morning. We were in the great city of Reno this week for the Final stop of the PWT 08. As many of you are aware there are several reasons that the average traveler travels to Reno. I would rank gambling around the top of this list. Reno is like Vegas in many ways and when I say many ways I mean that they have all the same games to win or loose money. Let me say this first I am a terrible gambler! I really enjoy sitting at the table and playing Blackjack and Three card poker but the reality is that I suck at it. I understand all the rules and odds and know when I should hit or stay but I loose 9 out of 10 times i enter a casino. Lucky for me I have gotten wiser over the years in realizing this therefore playing for smaller amounts just to have a good time and not loose a stupid amount of money. I tell you all this about myself so that I can tell you about Corey Bradley. Corey absolutely sucks at gambling as well. The difference between him and I is the way that we go about sucking at gambling. Like I said before I know the odds and play them and Loose. Corey isn’t even aware that there are odds in a casino and play’s the games in the most terrible fashion but wins. Before I go further I want everyone to know that I love Corey and I am in no way making fun of his gambling knowledge I am just merely pointing out the things that I saw. So to make a long story short here are the highlights. Throughout the weekend I spent most of my time at the blackjack table. I had a plan to bet small and just grind it out and make a little money. What ended up happening was the complete opposite, I bet small but lost the majority of the hands played resulting in me loosing about $200. Corey played a little blackjack though out the weekend with very little success. Where Corey really stepped it up was at the Roulette table. I watched Corey put 100 on black and win. most people would be content and grab there 200 and walk not Corey he “LET IT RIDE”. Won again. Now with 400 even more people would walk but again Corey “LET IT RIDE”. Corey “LET IT RIDE” four times in a row and left the table with $1600 dollars in his hand. Not to bad for 5 minutes. Corey didn’t stop there he continued to play Roulette all weekend and ended up leaving Reno this Morning with just shy of $10,000 in his piggy bank. Congrats to Corey for his big winnings. I hate casinos!

Trevor

Over the last few weeks, the CWB team has been riding and testing the 2009 boards and bindings. Lets just say that I am excited for everyone to see the new gear at surf expo in September. There are a few new board shapes and most of the bindings have been redesigned for the new year as well. The all new graphics fit the line of new product very well and I think that loyal CWB riders and new CWB riders will be very pleased in what we have to offer for 2009.
Corey

It’s been a bit over a week since this trip ended but I’m still wishing I was on the houseboat again! Much love and thanks to all the sponsors and people who made it happen! Epic Boats and CWB, the videographers Damon Chaimberlain (Frontside Films) and Spencer Norris (WIT Films), our photographers Sean Watson and Eric Cassano, Kimmy Betts and her lab Emmy for letting us use their houseboat, my mom for bringing our boat up, and all the riders for the driving and entertainment on and off the water! Nick, Robby C, Shawna, Alex Scagliotti, Chris Craig and Derek Cook are who I think of when I think of premium west side riding. To be completely honest, after hearing some upsetting news from the doc the morning before the trip I wasn’t sure if I was going to stay on the houseboat the whole week. Had I known what kind of a houseboat trip I was in for, I would never have thought of leaving for a second. I think I had just as much fun as the rest of the crew did even though I only slayshed around once.

So how does one have so much fun on a houseboat at beautiful Lake Shasta, 2 boats stocked with 4,000lbs of ballast and sunny skies without riding? Part of it might be because some windy days and white caps left some of the riders not riding much more than myself anyway for the first part of the week. It’s also due to the things we did besides wakeboarding like cliff jumping, hiking up a waterfall and sliding down a natural waterslide, jammin tunes with our guitars, and trying to catch catfish (btw Rob discovered tuna and peanut butter taste good together…trust him you’ll love it). But I think that the main reason is the company. Sean Watson described us as comedy central/family reunion and I couldn’t agree more! Looking back on it, I don’t think I would have wanted it any other way. You know you get along really well with people when you can have a blast with them doing things you wouldn’t normally consider “blast-worthy”. These such acts included but were not limited to; persistent inside jokes and phrases, slumber partying on top of a houseboat under the stars with howling cold breezes, having 7 people try to paddle an inflatable mattress across a cove at .001mph, and dancing to techno with glow sticks. I had no choice but to listen to 8 dudes talking inane, uncouth content all week, but you know what? It was hilarious and really fun to be around! These are some of the most comical people I know, and I almost want to call them “like my brothers” but they are way too handsome for me to think of them like brothers.

The wind eventually died and we got some EPIC riding in! We even held our own double-up contest in the cove by the houseboat! It really was an awesome week! There were some things that didn’t go at all the way we expected, but we also had fun in ways we never would have expected; more fun than I had hoped. I used to think that this laid back type of atmosphere was a unique part of the west coast, but I’ve realized that it’s actually just a unique part of wakeboarding; or at least it should be. So the next time you might be frustrated by something while wakeboarding, just remember all the friends in the boat that you love and all the other ways to have fun on a lake and take advantage of it!

cheers!

-Rae