So last weekend was Surf Expo, and like every year, was absolutely crazy! The King of Woly himself was staying with me for the event, and incase anyone had any doubts, he doesn’t do medium! I mean this by, every morning we had to be at Expo at 9 am, when it opened. . . .but yet were the last ones at the parties every night! Me on the other hand, am definitely a “medium” kinda guy, so keeping up was made possible by lots of coffee. This year it got moved to the old building at the Orlando expo center so wasn’t to sure what to expect.  As a result of the economy, there were a lot fewer and smaller booths in the wakeboard industry section, but every company still managed to get out most of their 2010 products.  After looking at all the board companies 2010 stuff, all i can say is wow!! Pretty much every board company stepped it up this year and every one impressed me like crazy.  And if Expo wasn’t enough, the expo parties were better than ever this year!  The hilights had to be Park’s documentary and the Nike 6.0 premier.  Parks doc was the craziest wake movie i’d seen in a long time, and its unbelievable what he has done in his 27 years.  The gnarliest part is that the footage of tricks he was doing in 03/04 is still good enough to get into the best trick award at wake awards.  He did a double whirly (which noone else has ever done) and a toeside backroll whirly (which i’ve never even heard of) along with a double back mobe (!!!!!). It really showed why parks is the face of wakeboarding.  Before i forget, in the WBM wake awards, Rathy won with a wrapped, grabbed, backside 10!! what? yeah, crazy. progression is a daily thing now.  Moving on, saturday night was the Nike 6.0 premier and party.  THe party was in dt orlando, and was 80′s prom themed.  It was a pretty good party, but then word of the surprise band got around.  If you could have any band at an 80′s prom, who would it be?? I got it on my first guess.. . . . .The DAN Band! Yup, the guys from Oldschool, and from I Love You Man. That instantly stepped the party up to legendary status and everyone proceeded to get hammered off of the free alcohol.  Attached is a picture of Dan himself, but it was taken after intoxication so is a little blury.  Now, on Wednesday, life is back to normal.  It took 2 days to recover, and Surf Expo was definitely one to remember this year.

Its January now, which means all the winter festivities and vaca’s are over and its time to get back onto the board. I just moved out to WInterhaven, and am now neighbors with a couple of my teammates. Needless to say, i was stoked to ride on my new lake for the first time. That was Saturday, and now i’m just starting to remember it. Unfortunately my first ride back didn’t go so well, and i proceeded to knock my head pretty hard and forget about everything for a couple hours. The headaches are starting to go away, and i’m starting to get stoked to go out and ride again. I guess i cleared all the cobwebs out of my head real quick with that fall. Now, if i could just remember what i fell on. . . .

Recently I ran across an interesting fact that I would like to share with everyone. Recently, Orlando Fl has bypassed Vegas to be the #1 tourist destination in the country!! And we all know the reason for that. . . .wakeboarding! I never thought wakeboarding was that popular of a sport, but that statistic just proves it. So many people are flying down to orlando to go to various wake camps and cable parks that it pushed past sin city as the most popular destination in the US. This is definitely good news to the wake industry, especially with the economic turmoil thats been going on lately. Even if Citi Bank and most of the US car manufacturers go out of business, at least we know the wake industry will be holding strong. Ohh, and I guess a small percentage of those tourists might be visiting Disney, Universal, Sea World, Kennedy Space Center, and other local attractions, but my money’s betting that most of them just wanna come down and ride butter!

Just learned how to Scuba dive. Sooo sick. Was way cooler than I ever thought it’d be. Going to go spear-fishing in a couple weeks and can’t wait. Attached two pics of us diving out at West Palm beach. The day we picked was gnarly. . . 6 foot swells, thunder and lighting, and pouring rain. I felt like i was in a movie, maybe the Perfect Storm. But, that made it way cooler. Anyone thinking bout learning, definitely should.. .and if you do let me know because i’d always be down to go.

Its that time of year again when the mornings get brisk, the leaves change colors and wetsuits are brought out of storage, yup its fall. For most that means the end of their wake season, but for Floridians it means the time of year to try new tricks and progress. For me, it means I have to start seriously planing my Halloween costume, and I feel like this year could be the toughest yet. While the vast over population of the United States may mean many different things, to me it means more people are taking more halloween costumes away from me. Add that stress onto the fact that schools started up, and fall gets intense. School’s been crazy, and if i plan on keeping in line with my 9 year plan, i gotta buckle down and make sure i pass my one class per semester. On top of that, we’ve been wakeboarding like mad men. Now that the season’s over, its time to cram photo shoots and video shoots in before it gets to cold. Last week Spencer Norris stayed at my house to film for his new vid, and I must say we did work! I landed the first new tricks i’ve had in a long time, a switch heel 7, back 7, and Indy Front Flip to blind. It was definitely a fun week. But the fun didn’t stop there. Friday night was Chad Sharpe’s b day party downtown, so a couple friends and i meet up with them, and had more than our fair share of adult beverages. Needless to say, i decided to stay in on saturday night to get ready for my trip to Texas on Monday. I”m going there for a week to ride, and go to the Angels and Airwaves concert. Also, while down there, going to plan our trip to Mexico in January. Will fill everyone in more when it comes about. As for now, i have a fridge full of food thats going to go bad, so i’ve put aside this whole day to eat. It may sound like fun to some, but after the 6th meal in a row and the 5th scrambled egg, it definitely becomes a challenge. I do respect professional hot dog eaters.
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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.

The more i’ve started to travel, the more i’ve noticed i don’t mind hanging out in the airport. To most i feel like an airport is like a videogame they don’t know how to play, but once you get used to it, it can be fun. Passing the time at airports can be fun and entertaining. RIght before i started writing this, i had a kid who lived in the same small town in Florida come up and talk to me, and i’m at the Sacramento airport. Small world. Unfortunately, this kid was missing half his teeth and smelt like crap and wouldn’t leave me alone, but other than that it was kinda cool. There are a lot of things you can pick up about a city just by looking at its airport. My layover to get out here was in LA, and let me tell you, everyone looked like they were dressing to be models. The airport felt really up tight and rushed. I’ve never been outside the LA airport, but i have a feeling if i ever were to leave it, thats what Los Angeles would be like. Speaking of airports, want to know what really burst my bubble? Paying for luggage. This was the first flight i’ve had to take that it was a requirement to pay for my second bag. I paid, thinking that maybe it would make it safer for my bags to make it to my final destination. So imagine my surprise when i got to Sacramento, and my bags weren’t here! The good news is, i’m wearing my most comfortable shorts right now, so they should last me all week. Plus, they’re athletic shorts, so they’ll work as boardshorts also!! I’m glad i paid for my bags to get lost. I’m not going to name the airline i flew on, but its name rhymes with melta. I’m off to the food court to buy a $10 burger and find out what the Sac airport is all about.

Its been awhile since i’ve been on here. I’d like to say its because i’ve crazy busy, or because little people stole my computer. Unfortunately thats not the case. I’ve been dealing with an adiction problem that finally i have conquered. Around the time of my last post, i was all about coffee. I enjoyed drinking it, alot, always had alot of energy, and was just stoked all the time. Over time, i started getting a tolerance for it, so i had to drink more and more to get the desired “high” i was looking for. Needless to say, coffee took over my life. My friends started getting worried, but i wouldn’t listen. Everyone in my life recognized the problem, but i was shoulder deep in my obsession and nothing could stop me. That all changed two and a half weeks ago. I woke up on that fateful day, and like always, drugged out the the kitchen to get my life medicine (coffee). And then it happened. All the coffee in the house had been removed!! I frantically searched, but it was nowhere to be found. My roommates, Kyle Alberts and Anthony Hollick, were already up. They were prepared to handle the havoc that took place. It was somewhat of an intervention. They sat me down and explained the problem to me, making me realize that my life had taken a downward spiral that could only lead to pain and suffering. Over the next couple days, i was like a zombie, barely getting by without my coffee. I couldn’t think, had the shakes, and was almost going crazy. Finally, on the 6th day, i woke up feeling normal. I had conquered my addiction!! Since then, i’ve learned to appreciate the little things in life that matter, like Orange Juice, and table tennis. I thank my roommates for helping me through my time of crisis, and am glad to say i ventured to the bottom of the deepest pits, encountered the worst of fears, and lived to tell about it.
So that may have been a bit of an exaggeration. I started typing without knowing where it would take me. Apparently my conscious is trying to tell me something, but whatever. Since my last post i’ve been traveling a little, and riding a whole lot. In the beginning of May, spent a week in northern California with Bryan Hutton, CM, and Matt. It was a pretty amazing trip. Started it off with a weekend at CIE’s Spring Ride, which is a double up contest that is probably the funnest contest i’ve ever been to. The CIE guys really know how to throw a contest/party. Plus, i got to see Ricky G stomp an indy pete; a trick that has never been done before. After the weekend of partying, B-Hut headed south, and i stayed up north with CM. On monday i was abe to ride with a couple of CM’s boys, Sean and Brett. We headed out to a lake that was created by a Dam. It was amazing to be riding, and turning around right next to the top of Dam, while seeing the drop off that went down hundreds of feet. The next day, tuesday, i went out to a rail jam at Sac State that Shelby Kantar and Daniel Doud had set up. Unfortunately that didn’t go so well for me. Being only my second week riding in about 9 months, i was a little rusty, and definitely got owned by the rail. On my last hit, i caught my heel edge and got the gnarliest concussion i’ve had in a couple years. I blacked out for about 10-15 minutes, which if you’ve ever experienced, it one of the scariest things in the world. When i came back around, i had no idea where i was, who i was, or what i was doing. I took the rest of the day easy, and was ready to go by the next morning. We woke up around 5:30 am on Wednesday to drive out to the local swimming hole to shoot on some butter with Spencer Smith. When we got to the lake, I almost wanted to kill myself. It was totally blown out, white-capping, and was only about 6am. Fortunately we found some good water, got some shots, and were able to rush to the airport in-time to get me out on my noon flight. Since then, i’ve been riding as much as possible in Florida, trying to get back to shredding like the good old days. Speaking of riding, the lake is butter right now and the boat is sacked out. . . . until next time i leave you with this thought, A ship in the Harbor is safe, but thats not what ships are built for.

Whats up everyone, this is my first post and i’m pretty pumped about it. I signed up awhile ago, but was to lazy to get around to submiting a post. All that changed acouple days ago when i became a coffee drinker. My roommate, riders Anthony Hollick and Kyle Alberts, always enjoyed waking up with a warm cup of coffee. I’d always been agianst it, figuring i wasn’t the coffee type, but yesterday I figured “why not try”. There are qualifications to be a coffee drinker; not everyone can pull it off. First, you have to wake up early. Second, while drinking you have to talk about important/intelligent things, or pretend to. Third, there has to be a place to drink it, somewhere you can sit down and enjoy your surroundings. So, i woke up earlier than i had in months, and enjoyed my first cup of coffee on the back porch overlooking the lake. Wow, i don’t drink soda or anything with caffiene, so the coffee hit me hard. I swear i did more that day than i ever have in a week. Now i’m on day two, and look at this, i’m submiting a blog. I already painted my room, visited with our 80 yr old neighbor, owned it on Rockband for Xbox 360, rode, and cleaned the boat! Speaking of our older neighbor, we just moved into a retirement neighborhood, with us being the only ones under 75, but i’ll fill you in on that at a later time. Back to the topic, coffee. I recomend anyone who doesn’t drink it, try it. And those of you that do, if you want to enjoy a cup with myself and my roommates, let us know! I’m off to get another cup, who knows what else i’ll get done today.