Raod Trip pt. 1
Once again hello fellow wakers. On this entry I am going to talk about our friendly road trip that me and a couple of your favorite wakeboarders and filmmakers are on. And also touch on a topic that has been on my mind for a couple days now.
To start off I am on a road trip. This road trip consists of four riders and a filmer all in one 2007 Honda Odyssey. The crew is Andrew Adkison, Jimmy Trask, Jeff House, W.I.T. Productions filmmaker Spencer Norris, and myself. We started off the trip the Monday after Wake Games in Orlando. We all got into our trucks and caravanned to Panama City, FL where Andrew owns a house on an incredible lake called Lucas Lake. We stayed there for two nights just hanging out, doing some riding and shooting and just having a good time. We actually went and rode on the lake that Andrew learned to wakeboard on and got to meet Delbert who is one of the raddest person I have ever met. He is around 50 years old or so and rips it so hard you could not believe it. He started out with a huge 180 into the flats and from there on out throwing a huge variation of rolls and spins. We also got to meet up with and ride with our old friend Devin Rogers who we all haven’t seen in too long. So for it being the first leg of the trip it was better than I could have even imagined. I mean we got to shoot guns and I picked up a new hobby all in one day. Photography is my new hobby by the way. I am in love. I just need to get a camera.
On Wednesday morning we got up around 6 a.m. got into the van and got on the road to Hammond, LA. This is the only place where we actually have to do something that was planned out before. We are stopping in Louisiana to take photos for WBM’s My Scene. Where they pick peoples local spots and feature them each month in their magazine. THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!!! I have been alot of places through wakeboarding and this is on my top 3 favorite. Not only is it perfect conditions no matter what every day. They have a fully loaded Mastercraft X-Star, a pond with three rails radass rails to hit behind the four-wheeler, and also a step down pool gap with a banked rail on one side and step down A-Frame on the other. I mean its a full winch park and wakeboarding paradise. Ok I was excited and kind of got ahead of myself and forgot the most awesome part. And that is Chip Smith. He is the owner of Rukus boardshop in Hammond, LA. IF it wasn’t for him this would not be possible. He hooked us up so hard with everything from a place to stay, two brand new sea-doos to shoot video and photos, a brand new X-Star, and he even got some of his crew to build us two of the sickest rails just for us to hit and session as much as we want. As I am writing this it is 10 o clock at night and I am watching Jeff House and Andrew sessioning a rail under stadium lighting. Remember that song about the skatepark in heaven. I hope there is a heaven for wakeboarders because this would be it. We got to ride twice each day and session the rails as much as we could handle. And tomorrow to our disappointment we are leaving and going to the TSR for Cablestock. I shouldn’t be so bummed though because the the TSR is another one of the sickest places to wakeboard. It’s literally a compound dedicated to action sports and its awesome. And the people who run it have the right vision and want the right thing for our wonderful sport. And not to mention they are great people. So as we reach our halfway mark of the road trip it is obvious that this is the funnest trip I have been on in my career. I am surrounded by good friends (I wish a couple more could have fit but thats how the cookies crumbles), incredible riding conditions, and lots of laughs. I will fill you in with more in the next couple days about the rest of our trip.
Now to the point I wanted to get across thats been weighing on brain for the past couple days. Traveling around and meeting new people is awesome. Especially when everywhere you go you are surrounded by amazing people who share the same interests. It is like everywhere we go we are surrounded by good friends. Even if we have just met the people we are with because of wakeboarding we instantly have a common bond that brings us closer than so many things. Its amazing that everyone we meet we instantly get along with and can have an amazing time. I love this sport and the way it brings everyone together. Thank you and adios amigos.
DG