So I named my new puppy after the best little girl’s wakeboard on the market…Bella! The name also means beautiful in Italian. It looks like I’m going to be able to have a CWB doggie life jacket for her next summer too!
My home lake (Lake Oroville) got lower than I’ve ever seen it, and it’s a deep resesevoir. Although we didn’t get to hike waterfalls and wakeboard out of caves like last year, we made the most out of the low water by bungee jumping off the bridge! My first two jumps last year were more about accomplishing a conquest and more fear than adrenaline; kinda like when I see a rail that I want to hit which doesn’t look that fun but I would never forgive myself if I didn’t try it. This time was different though because it was a full moon and you could see everything while diving off the 240 foot high bridge. I went with the same people who jump with Byerly, Grubb and Nelson.
Some other summer highlights include having rode pretty well in the Reno pro tour stop, winched/jibbed a natural log in a creek, rode in the Spanky Beavers Rail Jam in an Olympic style swimming pool, went camping/riding at a lake near the ocean and then winched the ocean, rode a few local contests, helped try to construct a backyard rail pool, and tried new tricks (succeeded with some). Shawna has been killing it lately. She was the first of the two of us to ever do a spin, and now she’s hitting all kinds of spins consistently. (grabbed, front and backside, and getting really close on some tricks I don’t think girls have done yet) She did pretty well in Worlds too, for the gnarly rollers. Shawna and I also have an interview on http://www.superhumanmag.com/content/view/658/92/
I started fishing, skeet shooting and am about to start hunting again. I haven’t done any of those activities since I was twelve, but now that I’m having to buy all my own food I figured why not earn some of it in a less expensive way? Last night my friends and I performed at an amateur music showoff in downtown chico. I played the easiest acoustic part and only messed up once! My friends are amazingly talented though!
Lana, the winner of the Diamonds are forever contest is coming from Minnesota to our house soon. Can’t wait to show her what Norcal is all about! Well I hope you all are having a great summer!
Layder!!
-Raequel

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

       

You know what’s even more fun than finding excellent winching spots? Finding creepy, run-down, rotting, old houses in the middle of nowhere at the same time and calling them haunted. My friends and I have been scouting a lot lately. We found a little canal secluded into the woods, but still not too far from my home. It had concrete sides that were a little rough, but could potentially be sick for wall riding! I chickened out and only went up about 2 feet on the wall. Soon, I’m going to go back and conquer it after I put some more wax on the concrete. It’s weird how after someone buys a winch, he or she starts to develop “winch radar”. You start paying a lot more attention to water structures like you never have before. We were picking out rooms from the haunted house to stay the night in but shortly after, thought we should leave before the walls started to bleed. I’m glad we did because later on, I heard from some other mountain folk that the house was a place where people…well…cooked stuff that wasn’t exactly legal.Wake riding has been going really well too! The wake on our boat is dialed and literally kickin! After the Atlanta tour stop, I got to ride with Daniel Walden and some other Tennessee  riders on Lake Chattanooga. I also am officially done with community college and ready for Chico State next year! They have a really good wakeboard team as well so that’s also exciting! If any of you are still getting ready for finals, don’t be like Shawna, Shelby and I and fly crowded airlines the night before! Hope you all are having a great beginning of the Summer!

-Raequel

So I guess I’ll start by giving a brief overview of what’s been going on with me lately. Right now I am at home in Chico, California. There are two big new toys in my garage; one of them is an Epic boat with a spiderweb wrap and the other is a pink winch I just bought! I can’t play with them right now, but I’ll get into that later. First I’ll start from the end of winter. After a rad snowboarding season I packed up and left the mountains for Florida. Being a cook at The Wakeboard Camp allowed me to have some ideal Florida weather and training! In addition to learning new stuff on a wakeboard, I also got to learn how to curve a strike in bowling (Thanks Benny G). I found some swamps to run by, played HORSE on the trampoline with co-workers, and went to the beach. Oh, and I got 3rd place and 10 bucks in a karaoke competition at the bar across the street from the camp! I wanted the 75 dollar 1st place prize, but I had fun anyway because Rhiannon is fun to sing. There was a day when some other c-dub riders came out to film for learnwake.com that included Trevor, Bryan and Nick. My Mom and Shawna also came to visit me for a week. One of the best things about working at a camp is getting familiar with all the different kinds of accents of the world. I have fun practicing them every time I know a telemarketer is calling. One time I practiced my Aussie accent when an unavailable call was coming from my phone and it actually turned out to be my soon-to-be-roommate Amber Wing!

It’s too bad I didn’t get to spend more time in our lakefront house, but having my shoulder dislocated for a whole hour got in the way of that (hence why I came home early). My welcoming family, friends and boyfriend are helping me to feel super again and I’m sure I’ll be back riding in no time. I’ve been camping, roller-blading, disk golfing and getting caught up with school. I think I’m going to build a C-rail while I’m out too. Well thanks for reading this and have a wonderful day!

-Raequel