Aug 31, 2009

Lake Trout Carry Out. now with 7.5% more hangover

Lake Trout Carry Out is what we are currently calling the random link heap/dump/thing/whatever.

Hartland Waterski festival hits the water after a year long hiatus due to complete fuck heads like this guy who commented on the story:


How Nice ...
Just a gentle reminder that the folks who live here and pay taxes here aren't allowed to put their boats in the water because of concerns about water quality, but it's O.K. to pollute and terrorize the wildlife if it's for a show that puts "heads in the beds"...
billmichael 08/27/2009

DIE IN A FIRE MR. BILL MICHAEL! and the phrase is "butts in the seats", "heads in the beds" would refer to hotels not a festival. You and all your whiny bitchy closed minded ilk can enjoy your miserable Prius driving, carbon neutral boring ass life, while living in your moms basement, while the rest of us get out and enjoy the outdoors and live our short lives to the fullest.

/rant over

This article should be titled "why the ODBF needs to move to a warmer state". This chick loves to write about skiing, and writes for a pretty big local online magizine. We need more people like this in the media and less of the morons that call chris parrish a wakeboarder.

CRB Girl Dallas Friday wins another tournament. WHERE ARE THE BIKINI PICS??? lazy Fox reporters!

The Rowboat Abides would have been lost with out you Dallas!

The largest waterski tournament in the world was webcast back in July and is now archived on Waterski.org. The CRB Minion can't stop talking about all the men in tights. Its a little creepy...

Aug 28, 2009

Jaquess in SI

And no not "that" issue (although we would not mind), but in the SI Faces In The Crowd segment.

Regina Jaquess SANTA ROSA BEACH, FLA. > Waterskiing Jaquess, 25, set
or tied three world records this summer. At the Florida Inboards Open she tied
the women's slalom mark (one buoy at 41 feet off), and her point total in
slalom, tricks and jumping set the women's overall record (2,895.45 points). Two
weeks later, at the Guadalajara International Cup, she broke the overall mark
again (2,934.36).


It has been awhile since a waterskier has made it into SI, last time I can remember was April Coble back in the '90s. There have probably been some others but none that I have seen, not that I really check it all that often. Regina certainly deserves the recognition, tieing one world record and setting 2, not a bad july for her. Cool vids posted on SI.com as well.

Now back to the swim suit issue...Lets get on this idea Slalom Ski Mag! Who needs talent when you have sweet bodies! Just look at the LPGA or Womens Tennis.

**update**
Since this is friday, we would be remiss if we didn't mention this.

Have a kick-ass weekend, buy a wakeboard and work on whirlybirds! Or, maybe just, get down with your bad self.

Aug 27, 2009

Greatest Waterskier of all time

So I was doing my daily not working at work routine and I came across this, article and vid in which Skip Gilkerson makes the claim to being the worlds greatest waterskier. Now I will not argue that the guy did things on the water that no one else of his era could do. Now there are alot of skiers out there that can do things that were never dreamed of in his day; one ski mobes, 240 foot jumps, ski line 7s, running 41 off, 5 teir pyramids, hydrofoils and so on.

I would argue that greatest skier of all time is a title that no one can really hold. You can have greatest show skier (Skip has a solid shot at that), greatest footer (Mike Seiple? maybe Scarpa?), greatest 3 eventer (Patrice Martin would be my vote), greatest kneeboarder (who cares), wakeboarder (thats a toss up, still a young event), and so on. So how would you decide the greatest of all time? How about cross over atheletes such as Zane Schwenk (show skiing, freestyle jump, wakeboard), Russel Gay (wakeboard, tricks), Daren Shapero (3 event, wakeboard) and many more. But what about the inovators of our sport, the first guys to cut at the ramp, first to hit 100 or 200, first to run the course, first to do a flip on a trick ski, first to do inverts off the ramp.

Tell me what you guys think, I have no idea here. I'm conflicted, does the dominance of a single event (freddy) or the overall skill (patrice) or the ability to be a power in multiple disiplines qualify you as the greatest skier of all time? Is it Sammy or Patrice? Zane or O'Conner, Bonifay or Llewelyn? Ken White (dudes video was sick) Tommy Dorwin?
DAMN IT TELL ME WHO IT IS!!!

Aug 26, 2009

CRB Wake Up - Boat Crashes

Hey look! Another random wake up post! We do it because we care. The CRB = Love. So, here, enjoy a bunch of pictures of boats crashes.







So, yay! Go on about your day with this inspiration! Its a kick ass Tuesday! Wednesday!!

Aug 23, 2009

32 Accounts - The Review

Its really an interesting task to try and review a waterski video when you are a waterskiier yourself, in that, you try to watch the video and think of ways in which to communicate what you are seeing and translate those thoughts into the written word which you pull up on your computerized google box.

Its tough because half the time you think, "Damn, those people are gooooood!!!' Its irritating. And it happens over and over and over, all the skiers in this video are WAY better then I am and you just go bonkers.

Each skier, or group of skiers, has their own little vignette in which they chat about their lives, their ski lives, their competition, etc and its great, but, damn if I didn't forget whatever they were talking about immediately when the ski footage started.

"32 Accounts" is shot so well, the images are so well done that you get wrapped up in watching the skiing and marveling at what you are seeing.

For example, as anyone who reads this site knows, we are firmly on board the Karina Nowlan train for any number of reasons (you can probably figure that out on your own), but, she had her cool little scene complete with a couple old school vids of her skiing as a kid, running around on the beach, etc, but as soon as the video of her skiing now started you just sort of get lost in watching her ski.

Or the scene with Zach Warden and Jon Travers, they horse around and give each other shit and everything, but, then they start skiing and you just go, "damn", of course, this is before June Fladborg punches both of them out. Take that!

I think that is a credit to the people who filmed and edited the movie together, however they set up the cameras, however they thought out ahead of time what angles to use and all that, because you feel like you are right there watching these people ski.

No, thats not 100% correct. We were lucky enough to go to the LA Night Jam this year and seeing the skiers up close and in person is really something amazing. The speed they carry into the ramp, the height, distance, etc, or what they do is not something that can be transcribed onto a TV screen no matter how hard you try.

So, with this video, what it does is not really make it feel like you are there, its different. You get to see views and angles and shots that you would never get if you were there in person. You see how strong the slalom skiers are rounding the buoys or how hard the jumpers hit the ramp and you see these all in such a unique angle that you just get lost in whats happening.

Its really amazing. When it was over I found myself going, "MOAR PLZ!"

I am not sure if it was intentional or not, but, either way, there were a few scenes or vignettes, that provided a break from the ski fest, and in an odd way, it was nice to have a few of these that broke up the video.

Chris Rossi's scene was all about snow skiing and the camera people certainly have that talent as well, and it was a neat view inside someones life who we all know as a skier but, in a different realm. Plus, he dropped the best quote from the whole movie on us.

"Its not the art of getting scared, its the art of questioning yourself and your abilities, then having the confidence to persevere through that."

Love it. It works on so many levels, but, mainly its not a stupid throw away like, "if you don't fall you aren't trying hard enough" or "I just wanna have fun", its an actual look, from a different perspective on what makes the man tick. It can be applied to everything.

Ray Stokes scene was cool too, as he jumped out of an airplane. Insane. I love it.

The most shocking, thats not the right word, but the only one I can think of, is the Nicole Arthur and Aidan Willers scene. Aidan suffered a pretty horrific crash and his arm was a mess. Its such a counterpoint to the beauty of the rest of the video in that it shows that, yes, this is serious business and there can be consequences. Thankfully it said he regained the use of his arm. :)

Finally, the scene with Freddy and Jaret is, pun intended, very full of win. These two dudes have pretty much dominated the jump scene for along time, and, its really interesting to hear them talk about it. It may, at first blush, sound really arrogant, but, its really not arrogance when its true. These two guys who are from a cosmetic perspective very different. Different countries, different sponsors, different boats, skis, etc, but yet they are really, at their core, the same person. Guys who thought of nothing but being pro jumpers and having accomplished that and accomplished domination within the sport, and now actually look to each other for motivation to do better.

There are a bunch of other scenes as well, not just those, and I have my little notebook filled with things I liked about them. Jotting down what you like about something vs. complaints is so much better. Oh, and Will Asher skis in a suit. Which is most likely not the best for range of motion, but, damn if he didn't look put together!

Here is another thing that I really liked, was that, not everything was slo-mo. One of the things that I don't like about some of the various ski videos I have seen in my life is the reliance on the slo-mo shot of a slalom skier turning a buoy or a jumper flying. It may look pretty, but, after awhile it gets old.

In referencing the speed of the skiers and the strength of the skiers, when you see something shot well in normal speed its even more of a thrill. There was alot of the slo-mo shots in this video, but, a whole bunch of regular speed shots and honestly, seeing a slalom run from start to finish in regular speed from a cool camera angle is fantastic. Again, it really conveys how difficult it actually is.

One of the things I would love to see moar of...err, MORE of is the slalom run, or trick run, or jump or wakeboard run, in its entirety. Quick cuts and everything is nifty, but, there is an awful lot of majesty in a regular speed, full run, shot from a cool angle. Our sport, maybe unlike alot of others, is FILLED with majestic moments that can't always be captured with editing. I know there is a video somewhere on youtube of, i believe, Freddy Krueger nailing a 200 some foot jump shot from some dude on a camcorder and it is probably the single coolest waterski vid ever.

Meaning, the epic nature of what our skiers can do doesn't have to be cut down into bite size pieces, its so good on its own merits and this video does allow for that in places.

Which is probably the best compliment you can give a video such as this, that you actually get a sense of the person skiing as well as how difficult this sport is and how good they are, however they got to that point.

You may be thinking, if you have read this far, "wow, this is really some sort of love-fest" and you would be correct.

Its that good, is it perfect? no. The only perfect waterski video is the one that hasn't been made yet of me beating Freddy and Jaret in a head to head jump competition where I fly 300 feet into a big pile of chicken wings, beer and my future wives. Until then, we should all support the people who do this work, who put forth the effort to make these videos and, instead of tearing things down, compliment what is awesome so future videos, "64 accounts?", will be even better.

Overall, "32 Accounts" is spectacularly shot with awesome skiing a nice slice of humor and humanity as well as a nice look into some of our best skiers lives. Its worth the cost and much like "Gifted" before its a movie that the more you watch the more you enjoy it.

Officer Buck?














Four Thumbs Up!

Where to buy:
Onside Films
Onside Films on FB

CRB would like to thank Tadd at H2oProShop.com and Ryan Saywer both for sending us copies to review.

If you have a product you would like us to review hit up the contact POS CRB car.

***UPDATE***
Check out http://www.h2oproshop.com/ and talk with the man, the myth, the announcing legand Tadd and ask for the CRB discount (free shipping) and he will ship this sweet vid right out to you!

***UPDATE 2****
I mentioned in the Freddy / Jaret part about the youtube vid that I love. I can't find the exact one, but, here are four vids that illustrate what I was saying. Isn't watching the whole thing from a wider angle at normal speed freaking awesome?
Freddy 1
Freddy 2
Freddy 3
Freddy 4

Aug 21, 2009

Lake Trout Carry Out: now with twice the sword fish

Lake Trout Carry Out is what we are currently calling the random link heap/dump/thing/whatever.
  • McDonald's has a EAME championships menu? Am I the only one that thinks that eating McD's and then hitting the lake is a bad idea? None of you listened to your Mother when you were young and she told you to stay out of the lake for an hour after eating?
  • The Canadian press has been all about waterskiing recently, the worlds probably helped that. To bad they dont know where Canada is on a map...
  • Last stop of the pro wakeboard tour. YAWN..if they are not throwing chicken salads and roast beefs I'm not going. (ed note: damn I'm hungry now)
  • Someone needs to explain to the guys over at Wakeboarder.com that if you have an article about Vetern CRB Girl Dallas Friday you HAVE TO HAVE PICTURES. WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION!!
  • The Hellar sisters are the top footing chicks in the world right now. I saw a vid a few years back of Elane Hellar doing in a barefoot pyro with some guys and they split out and she drops from their shoulders and keeps footing. I have a hard time footing if I hit a ripple, so thats pretty tough. And oh yea shes the first chick to use the superman barefoot jumping style. Who the hell thought barefoot jumping was a good idea anyways? Was someone just sitting around one day and said, "hey so I like footing and I bet it would be cool if we hit a solid object with our barefeet at 45 mph. I mean there is no way that is dangerous"
Stay tuned next week, we have a couple neat things coming. We are working with our boy Horton from B.O.S on an actual real interview with someone awesome and also on Monday we will have a review of "32 Accounts" up for you to read. (Hint: Freaking awesome)

Have a kick - ass weekend! Concentrate on hitting dingers in your softball league and for gods sake, rock out with your (genitals) out.

Aug 20, 2009

Wake up in the afternoon to music

So Dig Dug has better taste in music then I do...well whatever he can die in a fire. Cuz my music vids are funny. And after depressing the shit out of everyone with McFarlan's essay I figured we could all use something funny. And well..this is funny.

The Future...

(This essay was submitted by McFarlan. McFarlan had one of the first waterski blogs and focoused completly on show skiing. This was written completly by McFarlan and does not necesarally represent the opinions of the CRB or ODBF)

The Future Death of Showskiing – or how I learned to stop worrying and love to fall
Malcolm Forbes (of Forbes Magazine fame) said “Failure is success if we learn from it. “
The rest of the quote, lost in time somewhere, probably has to do with failure being the worst thing ever in life, and that you should give up what you are doing and consider reading a good book and collecting unemployment.
I am a fan of showskiing. I was when I took part in it, and have been in the many years since. The innovation, the skill, the crowds....all things that make this truly a family sport. Everyone can participate, from the eldest grandparent down to someone Mark Jackson would want to talk to. I would love to be coming to you today to give everyone words of encouragement about how, thanks to an NBC reality show about “Making the Ski Show”, there are now five-thousand new teams forming around the world, and barefoot pyramid ATB's are the new, hip thing.

Instead this is that long awkward silence in the doctors office after you ask “So I'm going to be Ok....right?”
Your Habits – What You Eat May Be Killing You (or damn, I love bacon)
Trying to keep everyone involved on a large team is tough. Show Directors I have spoken with have used many colorful phrases to describe, ahem, those that demand more than they deserve in the show. Bad Show Directors almost never have this problem, as they let the team rail-road them into something that, at one time, may have been a show, and now has turned into an Iggy Pop concert.
The worst habits in life are things that you do, over and over, that are bad for you, but you find yourself caught in the grips of the addiction. For some it is the bottle, others, abuse, or drugs...the list of vices is endless, from sex to bench to Miami. Break the habit to succeed.
Because so and so helps bring on a giant sponsor on the team, does that mean they are more likely to appear in an act over another person?
Five years ago at think tank you 'accidentally' spent the night in this persons hotel room, does that mean you cut them from every act out of spite? (oh, and I do apologize, I was drunk, and that kind of thing doesn't normally happen to me)
Make cuts. Tell people they can't ski if they really can't. Make them work harder in practice. Make them work harder at anything. I'm sure there are teams right now reading this and not understanding what I'm talking about. hint: If you do not actively hear people being told on your team to improve or else, you are either on a team that has this habit, or you are deaf.
The Numbers – Positive, Negative, and Dividing by Zero.
It all comes down to numbers, doesn't it. What is with all this 'Big Act' (one act show) nonsense. So you found a swiveler that can do a hand turn at 32, a doubles couple built like a tank, and a Pyramid that shows no fear. Throw in a barefooter and a jumper and you then.....take them on the far side of the show course away from the crowd.
Meh
Do it Texas style or go home. The act isn't as impressive as you think (or as it is judged) to be. Sure, as a one trick pony, they all are, but to the spectator, most of the time, it is too much to watch.


Texas style?

When planning a show, try to imagine your crowd as a whole has ADD. (no, I'm not making fun of persons with that disorder, as it is a terrible thing to have to deal with and a very difficult I wonder if the tuna salad in the fridge is still good. I should check that. Is Taco Bell open still? Hey, why am I wearing two different socks anyone with that condition has many things to deal with) Throw one thing at them, at a time, stage center. It will give the audience the best chance to enjoy it, the water the best chance to calm down, and give you great motivation to not fall, because falling is bad.


When building a house, if a frame isn't being held together very well, and something is askew, do you just hammer more nails into it until the whole darn thing works? No, you measure twice, cut once. Why do teams insist on ruining perfectly good acts by adding things to it that do not add to the act in any way, shape, or form. Now I'm not talking about swivel escorts (or escorts that have become swivelers or swivelers that weigh as much as Ford Escorts) because at least you have lines, you have ladies, you have matching costumes etc., I'm talking about the weird strap prefab everything ends up as a four high type stuff. Bring something new to the table. How would your jump act get scored if they came back as a four high? What about your ballet line? Do you see where I'm going with this?

As a gimmick, it worked. Once. Move on. By throwing all these pyramids at your audience, you are ruining the magic of the big final pyramid, especially by 'giving' all your building secrets away to the crowd. Do you know how amazing it is to someone who doesn't follow show skiing to see something like a four high come around the corner, and they have this look upon their face of “how in the heck did they do that???”.

All of you are taping the receipts to the Christmas Gifts on the outside of the box. Great. Now we know exactly how much you spent on us. Thanks for giving us that number. And with that number, you will now be judged. Make the simple stuff look easy and the easy stuff look difficult.
Does your average tourist know the difference between three three high pyramids a four high? Nope. But the Judges do. Little hint teams, Judges do not fill the hat at your home shows, buy ads in your program, or send their children to ski with you all summer long. Now I'm not saying everyone should pull a “Ski-pocolypse Now”, go all native, and show up next year with Disc and Chair acts and Paddles, but ask someone who has never seen a show ever at your next home show what act they thought was the most amazing. It probably will surprise you. Air Chairs man. Freakin' Air Chairs every time.

Do you know why it impresses the crowd. It happens stage center, it is flashy, it is a single thing going on in front of them, and the foil is silver and shiny. Have your sound person play the sound of jingling keys and you could probably make them all drool with the anticipation of fresh ground beef. I don't mean to get all Pavlov on you, but teamwork is also about letting everyone be a star for one brief moment, not about how many members of your team you can get onto the water.

Flow and the pace of the show is suffering because of the lack of this. Two minutes – big act – two minutes – big act – two minutes – big act is boring. I came to see skiing, not an announcer struggle to connect to the crowd. Stand up comedians don't stop their show for waterskiers, so waterskiers shouldn't stop their show for stand up comedians. Oh, and if you ARE a stand up comedian and you are announcing for a show team, boy, sucks to be you.

Up To Your Neck – And out of your minds

Most of you have participated in or have taught people to ski. Some of you have become showskiers because of those sessions. It is one of the greatest things showskiing does over any other sport in the world. We try to teach anyone anything. You won't find the beer vendor for the Vikings trying to work his way up to punt returner in football. It is awesome, high fives, and smiles all around when you get someone up, all shaky legged with that death grip on the handle and that sheer terror face. Wouldn't trade anything in the world for it. Then the person falls. You may have to remind them to raise their hand to indicate they are fine, but that is the way it goes.
For your average spectator, water skiing was something they may have tried once with people who couldn't teach them, or thought about trying, but knew they couldn't or figured they would fall. Some people fall quite a bit when learning to ski, learning to jump, or when they are swivelers. This is where I feel that showskiing has taken a turn for the worse. No, I'm not talking about swivelers, I'm referring to this culture of crashing.

NASCAR is the only event I can think of the compares to the last five years of showskiing I have witnessed. Has the lakes, rivers, streams and retention ponds we all ski in developed some awesome taste that we must drink from it to survive? I don't attend shows for the crashes.
Falling happens, and that goes back to the points above regarding cutting skiers and practice. The current interpretation of execution is “through the show course”. That isn't execution, that is only half the act.

I attended the circus a few months ago, and was amazed at the clean, tight performance. Now I know nothing of the circus, trapeze, cannons, or elephants, but not a single trapeze person hit the net. They do clean, simple grabs and releases, probably of the extent of no difficulty to the terrifyingly insane, but I wasn't one bit the wiser. I'm sure there is a circus judging contest, and I bet that they would call the act elementary at best, but I paid cash to see it, and pretty much that is all they are in it for. Putting on the greatest show they can for you to enjoy.

You could explain to your home crowd (at least those who haven't seen a show before) that the helicopter spin was the most frightening of jumps, as skiers have been known to become dizzy or have their helmets fly off in mid rotation, and killing flocks of geese, and they would oooooh and aaaaaaah. When your skier lands it cleanly, they will applaud and think that is amazing.

Why are you putting out large acts and only bringing half of them back? To the average person, it means only half of the people involved knew what they were doing. Think about it. Do you know what that person who attended that first day of “Learn To Ski” and your 48 person pyramid sucking brine down river have in common? Everything. Both are swimming, raising their hand, and a select few are taking that chance to go to the bathroom.

I do not want to get into what the judges are interpreting and what they should score, but if my opinion was asked (it wasn't) and my advise was taken (it won't) is that execution is everything that left the dock, came into shore to be introduced, unless doing so is utterly impossible. If half or more of the people fall, that isn't half of your execution points gone, that should be all. You didn't do anything. You swam. If you turned in before the tournament (act 12 – sixteen people fall of the dock and we have a single three tier that falls coming into shore over the ropes of the others) that would be the only way you would get any execution points. And this leads to my other issue...

Out Of Your Minds – And out of your hands

My only proposal in this entire essay I wish to be addressed seriously is this. Now it goes a little bit with execution, but only for this regard. In any act that is in an oval or has a corner involved, if more than half of the skiers (like say 10 or more) have fallen and the ropes are dragging (IE the number of ropes in the water are more than the skiers) the act should be released or everyone should let go. From a safety stand point, reaching down to pick up handles, large knots, crossing bundles of ropes, and tight corners, this has lead to injuries and falls. What exactly do you hope to accomplish with half of your people gone from the act to begin with? There is no salvaging a five high if over half are gone. Oh, I remember why you do it....
Rewarding poor half attempts with difficulty and execution points has led directly to this unsafe and dangerous tactic by teams to put something together to make the act work. It is one thing when one couple falls from the dock, but when you lose half the act, you have lost the act. Release it, make everyone let go, and move on.

If your team does not have resources to devote to picking up a mess like that, then keep the acts down to those that don't turn into messes like that. Imagine this last nationals if every team that lost half an act had to release them or make them all let go. And those acts got scored zero on execution and zero on difficulty. If you went to the circus and over half the trapeze artists fell, you would imagine they sucked eggs, correct? Well, I saw Nationals and....

I'm sure at this point eyes are rolling “What, release half the act if the ropes are dragging?” but seriously, think of the savings in regards to fuel, the risk of injury to skiers (letting go of the rope or a controlled fall of a pyramid is much nicer than crossing the waves with a bundle of bouncing handles in front of you), and the quality of the shows in general.

Teams won't slap those extra four high pyramids on the water if they are shaky, if they know the risk is that they will lose the whole act. This is a ski show folks. Making the simple look difficult, and the difficult look easy.

Everyone agrees the best ski shows are ones where you look at your watch and you can't believe the hour is up. The worst ski show is one that you look at your watch and wonder if they will get the ending pyramid picked up in time for the final dance.

(about the author – McFarlan used to do stuff, and now he doesn't, but if he did, he probably wouldn't do it with your team because you aren't the type of people he would associate himself with. He still has T-Shirts for sale http://www.cafepress.com/banswivel.28851057 but has yet to sell a single one.)

Aug 19, 2009

CRB how to

While Im on a video kick how about a how to on a trick that I seem to be completly incapable of sticking.



I dig the concept behind these how to trick vids. Trick skiing is the often overlooked or completly ignored bastard child of 3 event and by far my favorite event to do.

Also notice the great lake conditions and clean water that Kevin is skiing on...

very nice!

Then take a look at the water from the Ukraine tournament this past weekend.


Kevins lake is just a little bit better then the Chernobyl polluted river site from the pro event this last weekend. When I argue that events should be on public waterways I did not mean in the public sewers...

Practice practice

Looks like peeps are pushing freestyle jumping again. I saw two freestyle jump comps this summer and I love it. For years no one had the motivation to push the limits as there was no reward for it. But this summer there were multiple guys throwing mobes in the tournys and now here is another guy landing one. Looks like Paul Oconner has pushed skiers to start trying crazy stuff again.

Aug 18, 2009

CRB Off-Topic - Songs That Make Me Want to Be a Drummer

Going way off-topic, off-sport this morning with this...most likely because I just sat through another Cubs loss and I would rather take out my anger pretending to be a rock drummer then do something more destructive.

So, here is my list of five songs that make me want to rock the hardest. There are a bunch of songs out there that make me dream of being a rock star, face-melting guitar, or lead-singer shit...whatever that means, etc, etc. But, here are songs that make me want to get my John Bonham on.

1) Metallica - One

Like there would be any other song then this. Have the double bass drum and just go nuts? Yes please. No one can say that back in the day when this song came on the radio, or wherever you first heard it, you didn't go, "God Damn...what was that?!" Then beat the crap out of your brother with a wiffle ball bat. Oh and the video is bad ass, when your 8 years old, these dudes put the fear of god in you.



2) Foo Fighters - Everlong (from Letterman)

Ahh, you may have thought "oh, a Foo song, it must be 'My Hero'" Wrong you are young grasshopper, while thats a solid tune, this version of this song from Letterman after he got back from getting his ticker fixed is awesome. Taylor Hawkings rocks the snot out of his drums. FYI, did you know he was the original drummer for Alanis Morrisette? haha, what a dork!! No really, check it out!



3) Led Zep - Immigrant Song

Despite linking to "when the levee breaks" above there is no way I could pick that song, its my ring-tone now, so whenever I hear it grab my phone. "HELLO??? HELLO??? ANSWER ME DAMN YOU!!!" Then I realize I am yelling at a text message. which is stupid.

Anyways, Zep is the best. Don't fool yourself with any other band ever, sure, you could look at some old blues dudes, delta stuff, and see where Zep got their swagger, but..whatever, these are the four dudes who put this together. Imagine being alive back then and having these dudes roll through town. phew.



4) Beastie Boys - Sabatoge

Hell yes. The beasties rule, despite one of the dudes having the C. This is not an easy song to play on my steering wheel (All CRB employees drive company issued Mini Coopers), there is no way you can tell me that the little part in between chorusus, the DUH DUH...DUH DUH. part, you smack whatever you are standing by. Its the best. NO ONE DENIES THIS!!



5) Guns N Roses - Paradise City

I had a paragraph all written up for the White Stripes - Seven Nation Army, then this song came on the Itunes and I was transported back to 6th grade homeroom. Our super rad teacher man had a TV in there and we would watch MTV everyday, the entire room totally rocked out to this song.

Granted, this version isn't the video version because some jerk won't let it be embedded but, man, when I was younger I wanted to be Steven Adler. Just sitting back there and beating the shit out of his drums. Oh hell yeah, thats a rock star. Not this nimrod Matt Sorum they replaced him with. Nice drumming with The Cult you bum! Give me my drugs and crazy! However, he suffered a stroke from drugs and is on Celeb Rehab, so there is that. boom boom, TAKE ME DOWN TO THE PARADISE CITY!!!



So, there are my five. As I got to typing I realized that I had about 100 other songs that my steering wheel takes the abuse from, bands like, The Gaslight Anthem, The Hold Steady, White Stripes, Your Moms Band, etc. So, any suggestions?

Oh yeah, I know that none of these songs are even remotely current, but, they stick in my mind and make me want to drum. There is a ton of cool new stuff, but, it hasn't quite made its way into my brain enough that I can drum on my steering wheel correctly. Yes, I am that person that you drive by and I am going off.

Finally, just for the ODBF, here is one final song that makes me want to bang, ugh, something.

6) Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down

Amazing enough, this is a awesome song and it has a really poignant video for it. Right after Johnny Cash died they released the vid with a bunch of rock star types in it, Iggy pop, Kanye West, The dude from Coldplay, Kris Kristopherson, a girl i don't know, Terrance Howard, FLEA!, Common, the dude from Maroon 5, Chris Rock, Justin Timberlake, Kate Moss, Sheryl Crow, Dennis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, Amy Lee, the dork from buckcherrry, the Dixie Chicks, James Taylor, Bono (being weird), Shelby Lynn (who I love), Anthony Keides, Travis Barker, Lisa Marie Presley, Kid Rock, Jay-Z (still a dork), Keith Richards (still a zombie), ZZ Top Guy, some girl I dont know, Johnny Depp, Jerry Lee Lewis (WOW!), Owen Wilson. Its amazing. And yes, I watched the video and typed out the names as quick as I could.

Then this vid came out and all you can think, if your a dude, "To bad Johnny isn't alive to see this, he would LOVE it!!"

Seat girls - RJ41 Productions from RJ41 on Vimeo.

Lake Trout Carry Out - Tuesday Edition

Lake Trout Carry Out is what we are currently calling the random link heap/dump/thing/whatever.

  • McClintock rocks the house at Canadian nationals the week after she takes 3 golds at the worlds. Wait...nationals is after worlds...how does that make sense...? oh, the US did the same thing? ok then its all good.
  • SMU defensive linemen throws "back flip" on a wakeboard. Thats alot of meat to be hucking around!
  • Why you should drive slow when on the lake late at night...unless your naked barefooting, then its all good.
  • I have no idea what all the german in this poster says, but it rules, so just enjoy it!
  • Keith St. Onge sets world barefoot tricks record. That guy has skills, freak on the water.
  • Pretty sweet air show vid with some skiing going on as well. I am going to guess that lake Michigan is not a great lake to ski on. Just my guess

  • Note...Fixed picture to make it less unsafe for work. The CRB should't be where you go to get your nudity fix anyways. Save that for your moms house! HI-OOOO!! To see the real poster click here.
Have a kick ass tuesday. Don't get fired. Learn how to fly an airplane






Aug 17, 2009

Guess Who - Crummy Monday Edition

Anyone seen the video on Funny or Die about the people who work at a place called I.F.H Monday? No? well, here, watch it. Thats what its like here at the CRB international house of pancakes today. We were going to blame this condition on booze, or the CRB brand pool party yesterday, but instead we will blame it on, oh why not, society and our parents and whatever else emo vampires cry about. Oh, video has NSFW language, and poop.




So, anyways! Guess who the driver of this boat is! If you get it right you recieve four coupons from the 70's and 150 CRB points, redeamable at the gift shop.*


*we don't have a gift shop or coupons

Aug 14, 2009

how are they going fast enough?

This boat has to have some redonculus engine in it. How the hell are they holding enough speed to pull 11 guys footing behind an inboard?



So apperently when boss man is out I watch 4 hours of you tube ski vids. Well why not, who wants to do work? NOT THIS GUY!

Aug 13, 2009

Big Dawg on the intererwebs?

Looks like the boys over at Nautique are webcasting the finals of the Big Dawg series. I am really loving this webcast kick that waterskiing has gotten into. Untill we can get everything on TV or some sort of OnDemand style programing, the webcasts are the way to go.

Hmmm, OnDemand...if the local High School sports in my area can have an ondemand channel why cant waterskiing? That would be the shiznit! I command someone with motivation and fewer South Paws in their system to look into this and then let me know so the CRB can take credit for it. DO IT NOW!

Note: We removed the video because of the dreaded Auto-Play, which is annoying. Instead, click on pic to take you to the actual vid.

Thanks to SkiBigDawg for the heads up via twitter. The webcast will be of the Sweet 16 and elite 8 starting at 6:00PM EST.

Tony needs his own show

Tony Lightfoot has been hard at work all summer, announcing and lighting up the YouTubes. His interviews are great and give all of us a great view of what is going thru the top dogs heads. You can see how they are constantly thinking about what is coming up and what they need to do to get on top of their event.

Dodd is already planning on the next worlds. This guy is great, I meet him at Bennetts ski school when I went there for spring break. One of the most level headed and dedicated skiers I have met.




Check out Tony's channel. Keep it up Tony!

or if you prefer pics of the wicked hot Bar Refaeli then click here. IT IS WELL WORTH THE CLICK!! I think I will name here a new CRB girl. But you ask "does she even water ski?" to which I reply "She is wearing a hot ass Bikini! for god sake does it matter?"

So there you have it, Tony does interviews and Bar Refaeli is hot. Thats the facts.

Aug 11, 2009

So, there was alot of waterskiing last weekend.

Let the CRB tell you a story. It starts with beer, ends with predictable results. We embedded a correspondent at all the major tournaments last weekend, more specific, the two we could think of and had them file reports on the haps.

Now, Embedded Correspondent meant something very different for our people, they got to the bedded part and thought they could just get laid all weekend by whatever they happened upon at the bar, and tell us that.

While the stories were enjoyable, it doesn't really help capture anything tangible (other then a possible std), so we will do it on our own with smart ass comments and 1/2 thought out ideas replacing anything important. Its our style really.

Waterski Worlds
First of all, what the hell is with the Worlds? Granted its people from all over the world, but, if you win that tourney, say like, Freddy Krueger and you won the jump portion of the competition (weird huh?), why would you then go to Nationals? Is there some weird time/space breach that we don't know about but the awesome skiers do? See waterski mags tweet.

Whatever, for the results. Normal CRB attributes and blog behaivior is gone, because this is for some COUNTRY PRIDE!! USA USA USA!!!! So, Karina and Angeliki? We love you but, its on now....

And USA World Domination continues with Freddy Krueger winning Jump and Chris Rossi taking third in slalom and....

/flips pages from results
/shakes it
/throws on ground and lights on fire

What the crap USA? Thats it?

Full results here. Its just the podium people, but, they are the best anyways.

Tony has about 80 billion vids to check out on his youtube waterway, so, please go check it out for some more love.

Tonys Tv Station

Also, you can rewatch the whole damn thing right here! DO IT!

Update: we removed the webcast, the damn thing had auto-play and that shiz is annoying. but here is the link in case you would like to indulge.

Worlds Replay

Show Ski Nationals
Show Ski people doing show ski things. Living where the CRB outpost is that I am currently holed up in, you don't have any show ski teams around. Everyone has seen a Sea World or a Cypress Gardens and they are pretty good and all right?

Whoa. (audio is effed)


Wow (skip ahead to about the 2min mark)


But only if there was something that shows it in a more overall light. Boom.


So, yeah, there is video for all.

Aug 6, 2009

Tony Lightfoot is a Youtube maniac!

Tony Lightfoot does yomens work in the presentation and production and promotion (any other P words?) and currently in the great white north doing stuff for Worlds. Most of the stuff with video he uploads into his youtube channel which has a bunch of great stuff, like an interview with the Larsons then a bunch of chilly looking skiers from this past week or so. This one below is currently our favorite, simply because he caught Alex Lauretano in front of a bunch of port-o-(whatever the hell their names are).

Dude! Give her a second! :)



Looking around we could not find one with Angeliki Andriopoulou, which makes us sad.

P.S, we got turned onto the vids via Hortons Twitter (who else?!) but what was best was the tweet...
Alex Lauretano & Tony Lightfoot find the bathrooms at worlds http://tinyurl.com/l8x9ep
Tee-Hee

Aug 5, 2009

Worlds on "an internet" - UPDATE


The fine folks at The Pro Ski Tour.com, who are doing the lords work, we assume have worked their guru magic and got the Friday, Saturday and Sunday portion of Waterski Worlds onto the ESPN 360 machine.

For those of you not in the know, ESPN 360 is sort of a streaming TV service that uses one of the internets to beam you sports goodness to your computerized google machine.

Note, the above use of "an internet" is from noted international playboy and enterprenuer, Rykert of Lake of Sin fame.

To make a short story long, his dad figured that, in effect, there are many different internets and you have to be connected to the proper internets to get to specific sites. Which is funny. But, this is the best part.
Whether this is the greatest of all possible worlds, as Leibniz argues, or the existence of multiple worlds, and the possibility of paths betwen them can lead a mortal to wage war on heaven. There is still just one internet, in this world.
Anyways, ESPN 360. Click on that link. I believe that you do actually have to be connected through certain internet providers to access it. The CRB runs the AT@T internets and it works for us.

Go forth and be merry.

UPDATE:
Good lord, this webcasting thing is spreading like the sars. Show ski nationals will also be beamed right to your firefox box. Click here for the details on that.

Chris Parris is a wakeboarder?

I snagged this vid from over at The Ball of Spray, and the conversation between the anchors brings up some interesting points.

First off HEY FAT ANCHOR GUY HOW ABOUT YOU DO A BIT OF RESEARCH BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH!! Just ask your coanchor what her story is on! Its slalom skiing not wakeboarding!

The chick seemed to have at least some sort of grasp on what she was talking about (pssst CBS 4 make her your lead anchor!). She points out one of the main issues that we all see; no crowds at 3 event tournaments. As she points out the world record holder is skiing in this event and no one is there to watch, why is that? Skiiers in Florida call the state the capitol of waterskiing but they cant even make it out to watch pro tournaments? Come on now guys if we cant support our own sport how can we expect the general public to attend.

oh and YAY Physics!



Aug 4, 2009

Canada likes its waterskiers

The Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of State (Sport), today announced
that the Government of Canada will provide funding of $250,000 to the 2009
World Water Ski Championships through Sport Canada's Hosting Program. He was joined by Ted Menzies, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance
and Member of Parliament (Macleod).

"Our Government is proud to support the 2009 World Water Ski
Championships at Lakes of KastynStone, which will bring together 205
athletes from 40 countries," said Minister of State Lunn. "This event will provide participants and spectators alike with an outstanding opportunity to enjoy the highest level of water sport competition, and I wish all our athletes competing the best of luck."


"Sport strengthens individuals by enabling them to develop skills such as
leadership, discipline, and perseverance," said Mr. Menzies. "Today's
announcement is another example of how our Government is supporting sport
participation and athlete development here at home."


The Worlds are recieving $250,000 canadian, which is about $4 US (I got that
number by multiplying 250k by the current exchange rate of "i have no clue" and
came up with $4) from Sport Canada Hosting program. Well that is really bad ass,
at least some countries understand what Waterskiers can bring to the table. To
bad its our cold neighbors to the north and not our own. USAWS has spent years
and quite a bit of cash trying to get in with the USOC and as far as I can tell
for all their efforts they have been told to die in a fire. While a quarter of
million is not a ton of money I am betting it will go a long way to helping the
Worlds come off as a successful venture for the LOC.

So far it looks like the Canadians are doing this whole thing right. And the
CRB wishes them the best and lets hope they get those 20,000 person crowds
they are looking for. Lets make skiing what it is meant to be.

If you remember about 3 years ago the College Worlds was to be hosted in the US in some small town in Wisconsin. Well that could be used as an example of...well...how completly incompetent all involved with that were. That may sound harsh but why would any governing body award a tournament to a site that had not even begun to be built and had not even had basic surveys run by any environmental agencies? Things come up and projects get delayed and shit just does not always turn out the way it should. But hell, at least the Canadians picked a site that actually has water at it.

Links

worlds website

worlds press releases

Canadian Gov't press release



Note:
Here is the link to a twitter account for waterski worlds.
Waterski Worlds Twitter (LINK)

Aug 3, 2009

Free Premiere of 32 Accounts


I was going to talk about how the 32 accounts were going to have a free viewing on Wed August 12 in west palm beach but then I read the poster and realized that really makes no sense for me to say it again...hmmm
For years only wakeboarders seemed to understand that there is a good market out there for watersport vids. Well Todd Ristorcelli led the way with Edged in Water and a series of awsome vids have followed and well it looks like "The 32 Accounts" will be even more bad ass.
At some point we will get our review on and possibly actually let you all know what we think. Our we will drink 14 jack and cokes and pass out in the back yard...one of the two

Its to Dang Cold!

Enjoy this weather you hot piece of ass! Dispatch from the CRB weather desk Guess what???  ITS COLDER THEN A WELL DIGGERS ASS OUT THERE KIDS...