its amazing how i sat in traffic for about an hour and a half only to find out that the accident was ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY! how does that happen?……………i guess it was probably people like me taking pictures. oh well, hopefully everyone was ok.
wakegames has come and gone and i am now sitting in LA at the girlfriends apartment. saturday night i cruised to downtown orlando for the premiere of a new wake film called “out of the pond”. sunday i headed back to “O-dubs” for the finals. then early monday i got on a plane and cruised out to LA for a week of rest and some west coast riding as well as (the main reason) to hang out with the girl.
the premiere of “out of the pond”.
sunday at wakegames.
emma (my dog) chauffeuring my girlfriend and i around the streets of LA.
santa monica.
i cruised down to encinitas today and hung out at the liquid force offices. here is grace and don hard at work.
scot leveritt holding down the art department.
picked up the chick at work…… work being at the LA dodgers……… no big deal.
the view from the LA dodgers stadium.
my driver and spotter the other day. if that doesnt inspire you to try and have style i dont know what would.       Â
greg nelson and shaun murray………….. kind of big deals.
well i fell on my first trick and didnt do a damn thing except slide the rails the way i wanted to in the qualification round of wakegames yesterday. its come to my attention several times over the past 4 to 5 years that i need to shorten my rope and slow the boat down 3 to 4 mph for contests. the only problem that i have with that is………… well, everything. first off, im stubborn. second, going from a long rope to a short rope sucks because you basically have to re-learn your timing on just about every trick. third, i dont want to conform to a contest setting…….. i want the contest to conform to me. but i guess that wont ever happen so for now it looks like if i want to try and do this contest thing i need to shorten my rope and go slower. this season i have had planned to see how well i can do in contests but stop number one for me which was this weekend has taught me a valuable lesson, i must shorten my rope and go slower.
for example, most everyone was riding a 80ft to 83ft rope and going about 25 mph. i was riding a 90ft rope and going 27.5 mph. needless to say if a boat hits start up rollers going that fast its gonna porpoise and thats exactly what happened. not only that but hitting those obstacles going that fast doesnt work so well. i had to have travis (the pro tour boat driver and boarding school co-owner) slow down about a mile an hour for me to hit the fun box and roof top rail so that i would not be launched all the way to the end of the lake.
anyway, i guess ill have to try and conform a little bit in order to do somewhat decent at these tour stops. i at least dont want to embarrass myself and i feel thats exactly what i did yesterday. the biggest frustration for me was the fact that i had been riding behind a 230 nautique for the 2 weeks leading up to wakegames and had a pretty solid run down. oh well. at least i learned.
i used to live in a small town where there wasnt much to do but wakeboard, lucky for me it was shaun murray and gerry nunns small little town as well and i became good friends with the dynamic duo. these two guys have been loooooong time best friends and are absolutely awesome human beings. not only are they both extremely talented on a wakeboard but its seriously like being surrounded by a circus when you are around the both of them. they are some of the greatest people that i am happy to call friends. both shaun and gerry have helped me out a lot with my career, they have been there to pull me and to let me organize photo and video shoots at their houses. over the past couple years things have gotten more busy and i moved to a new location and havent ridden as much with gerry and shaun. however this past week i have had been riding at their lake a lot and i havent been more happy to be back riding with my friends, you know there are just some people that you can go out in a boat with and you just feel good positive vibes from? thats shaun and gerry. i love riding with people like that and there are a very select few that are on that list for me, but shaun and gerry top that list for sure (along with ben greenwood, my brother from another mother).
anyhow, like i said i got to go ride with my boys and here are some photos of them and their families.
murr-dog setting up a new shred stick.
murray shredding
me shredding.
some of my most favorite people in my life. from left to right: kerri murray, hayden murray, shaun murray, and gerry nunn.
shaun being shaun.
this is where my dog grew up. with tarzan (a full grown golden retriever, gerrys dog) and roxy (a full grown pit bull, shauns dog) its funny how thay all make the same face as emma when they get a bath.
christian nunn. the only 4 year old kid i know that can jump a table top on his tiny little 50 motorcycle as well as do chin-ups and who also has a defined 6 pack from birth. he definitely has his dads genes.
nothings better than coming home from a week long trip and finding 4 large boxes of oakley gear waiting for you at your front door. texas wrapped up really nicely, i was able to get my quad fixed by a local masseuse in austin, tx. it had been bugging me the entire time i was out there and it was limiting my riding so i was stoked when she fixed me and i was able to actually ride again.
here are some pictures of my 09 gear from oakley:
so after our stop at possum kingdom we headed to austin but stopped off at this river on the way thru BFE. when we pulled up everyones dreams of riding pretty much diminished. the river was like 15 feet low and the wind was gusting up to about 30mph. however once we got the boats in and realized the river was still deep enough to shred we actually ended up finding a good bend in the river that protected us from the wind so we decided to make the most of it and get at least one person shot. kyle went first and after his set the wind had calmed down quite a bit so i decided to take a set. after my set the wind dropped even more and all the riders decided to get a set in before our long drive to austin, tx. so all in all it was actually good that we dropped the boats in and fought against all the odds.
the view from the first launch ramp which was unusable due to the water being so low.
big spence loves his tube soooo much he has a make out sesh with it everytime he is about to shoot from it. that way the tube doesnt buck him off.
so being in texas apparently dries out some peoples skin. unfortunately for these poor souls, there is no manly way to apply lotion. poor nick got chapped thighs and had to resort to this pose.
now im pretty sure that “man law” has a rule about applying any kind of lotion to any other man. here is kyle alberts and big spence breaking “man code” and alex allowing it to happen……….FAIL.
rollin out of BFE headed to austin…… one of my favorite places on this world.
texas has a very weird sense of humor. check this burger joint out.
texas has got a lot of weird characters. for instance, we were at possum kingdom, tx. the other dat and we were eating at this really nice local joint and i see this, what i assumed was a conversation go on.
guy with the jean jaket on (on the right): “daaaaaaaaaaang stewy! you got the chromed out gauges and everything on this hooss!”
guy on the left with the bandana on: “i know bruce! it only cost me 2 grand extra!”
stewy: “sunbitch! this fool got the exact same ride but with the fancy trunk on it!”
bruce: “ya! but does it have the fancy dancy chromed out gauges on it?!…………hey stewy, you know you got a pretty crazy wedge goin on.”
guy in the brown t-shirt, and owner of the orange bike with the trunk on it: how ya’ll doin this gorgeous afternoon?”
stewy: “ya how ya doin there, i was just notisin you got the same bike as me.
brown shirt guy: “looks that way dont it?”
stewy: yesir it suuuuure does.”
brown shirt guy: “yuuuuup”
stewy: “whelp, take er easy there mister. lets ride bruce!”
our viewing stage for this amazing conversation.
our wakeboarding location
oh and then we went to this rad ass house on the lake to enjoy their maaaassssive private water slide. it was awesome, minus the fact that the water was like 50 degrees and the air was 85. the ride was fun but the ending kinda sucked.
i arrived to texas this morning at about 12pm and met up with the a crew of people. we then headed to woly boardshop of ft.worth, texas to rally and get everything together to go ride and shoot. we arrived at a river that was real close to woly boardshop and dropped the boats in, after a short mishap with someone running over the cord to a fat sac pump in the x-star we were underway. i rode first but had to quit early since my tweaked quad is still giving me trouble. but it was a really nice evening with a read sunset.
big spence, kyle alberts, nick jones, and alex brown.
rolling to the river in the boat…….on the trailer……..behind a truck……….on a texas road…… going 70. it was all to much for spence, he had to lay down in order to keep from passing out. clay was a little weirded out.
the x-star. moments before the running over of the fat sac pump cord situation.
joey bradley showed up to lend his boat and his chase boat driving skills to us.
big spence working on his soon to be pose.
big spences pose.
kyle alberts shredding.
clay and clays boat.
sunset on the river.
kalberts seeing what it would feel like to be superman.
me and jacob cruised down to tampa yesterday evening so that i could meet up with the pro tec team in order for me to get my action shots since im leaving in the morning tomorrow morning and wont be able to attend the rest of the shoot. on our way down to tampa to the mccormick cable park jacob and i first past andrew adkinson on his way home, we unfortunately didnt get a picture of him, but we did meet up with amber wing on the highway. here are some photos from last evening and some from today. unfortunately we woke up to really bad conditions this morning. wind, rain, and colder air.
dinner last night.
this morning. the crew gathering before the shoot.
emma rolling with dad.
emmas part time baby sitter.
mccormick cable park in tampa, fl.
garrett cortese. “aaaahhhhh herro prrease!”
amber wing
russell and josh. the media crew.
mike mccormick, kevin henshaw, and josh.
the crew and our caravan.
