Aug 31, 2011

Surfing is Awesome...Scary?



Via the Grind Tv bloggy comes this awesome video of crazy people surfing on gigantic waves.  This looks awesome and a hell of a lot cheaper then a boat full of gas...so, later.




Morning AHHHHHHH

All Star CRB Girl Alex Lauretano is the January model for the Girls That Fly calendar, and yes, this pic is just more proof that she is very worthy of the CRB Girl title. You can pick up this calendar and help get womens pro jumping in more events here.



Note: Lauretano's tattoo on her left hip? "CRB rules"...its written in a unique font.  Don't study it to close, perv.

Aug 30, 2011

Something Seems Wrong

At 1:05 is the important quote

Season Two of The Wire, while under-appreciated by most, has very deep running ramifications for people smart enough to catch on to the juxtaposition of the drug culture vs the docks.

If you watch close, or even not that close, you would see the odd dichotomy between people who "obey" the law, the Dock people, and how their slice of the world, their pay is being slowly eroded by the government, tarrifs, etc etc, while the drug culture continued to prosper.

For those that haven't seen The Wire, its a seminal show that weaves politics, labor, education, the drug culture together in a tight weave, showing how each facet of our life is mirrored off each other and how everything works together.  How clean money becomes dirty, dirty becomes clean, the good people in a bad world are better then the bad people in a good world.  It shines a light on our world that most of us are scared to look at.

Putting all emotion and TV drama aside, the best line of the whole season is at 1:05 of this clip above.   Frank Sobotka is the head of the dock workers union, the people who unload the ships coming into port.  He is fighting tooth and nail for a new project to inject life into his union (and that is a whole other argument) and how his whole argument, all his work, all his shady deals, all the bad/good he has done to try and provide for his family and his unions and how he struggles with it as he watches everything slip away eventually comes down to something as simple as, "we used to make shit in this country, build shit, and now we just put our hand in the next guys pocket"

Its simple and 100% accurate.

Taking all political arguments out of this, building shit in this country is hard when compared to building shit elsewhere.

Duh right?

There is an article on Yahoo and a specific paragraph caught our attention at CRB HQ.  The article, "10 American Industries Still Hanging On" sounds quaint and all, right?  A nice little thing about American business's and their determination to continue to produce their products within our country.  The plucky people who embrace the work and the pride that comes with a job well done.

"oh how cute, they actually sweat during the day...tee hee..im going to get starbucks and masturbate" - said the local town dunce / the majority of people now days.

America was a country founded on doing shit for ourselves, taking pride in doing shit for ourselves.  Rolling up your sleeves and making shit happen.  On a macro level, the steel industry, the car industry, eveything we would make on our own.  On a more micro level,  Roof leaks?  Slap a ladder up and fix it.  Car isn't working right?  Get under that bitch and fix it.  Popped a seam in your shirt?  Fire up the sewing machine and fix it.

Somewhere in the last, say...20 years or so, we have become a culture of paying someone else to do shit for us.  As if we are above washing our own car or fixing our own clothes or taking care of our own shit.  There is pride in doing things for youself, right?  Washing your own car, sure, it may not be as good as they do at the car wash place, but, you did it yourself.  Fixing the driveway, where the cement buckled because of the extra cold winter?  Get your ass outside with some concrete patch and get it done.

Take pride in doing things yourself.  Somehow there now seems to be a shade of shame people feel when they embark on a task themself.  As if they are somehow stooping to a level to perform a menial task.  As if it is below them to clean their own fucking house.  Nonsense, that attitude what made us great.  Getting shit done ourselves.

Its embarrassing for someone to say, "I don't know how to cook, haha".  Thats bullshit, you are an idiot, learn how to cook and take pride in that skill.  Cooking, sewing, normal car repair, standard ass household and life chores are to be embraced, not farmed out to some illegal because you are to fucking lazy or fake proud to do that shit yourself.

WHICH!  brings us to the point.

Here is the paragraph from the article, and its specifically talking about the lone remaining sneaker company that makes shoes in America, New Balance. (Awesome shoes btw)
But all the elbow grease in Norridgewock, Maine, won't keep New Balance competitive if an expected agreement with Vietnam eliminates the tariff on imported shoes, typically around 20%. The region's legislators are trying to carve out an exemption to keep New Balance's factories open. The firm's competitors like Nike and Reebok, though, seeing an opportunity for higher profits on imports and, displaying little sympathy for the scrappy northeastern holdouts, have banded together to fight the duty – or "shoe tax," as they call it. "For products that are no longer produced here and haven't been produced here for decades, there's no sense for consumers to be paying it." said Nate Herman, of the industry's lobbying group.
Not only are we outsourcing production overseas for the vast majority of the products in this country, it appears we are actively TRYING to fuck over companies who produce products in our own god damn country!!

Read that last quote from Nate Herman.  Read and re-read it and revel in the absurdity of it.  Read it close and think about it.

Really really think about it.

I will give you a minute.  Think good and hard at how loaded that statement is.

If you don't think to yourself, "fuck that guy", then you need to re-asses your priorities.

We will help out, "For products that are no longer produced here and haven't been produced here for decades, there's no sense for consumers to be paying it."  Thats the exact god damn mindset that puts us into a recesion, causes people to lose their jobs.  Oh, its cheaper over seas, so, lets do that and make more profit.

And, damnit, you can't blame Nike or Reebok, thats their job as a corporation, to make money.  They have no moral obligation to do anything other then rake in bucks.  No, its YOURS as a consumer to force them into doing the right thing and then paying for it!  Paying for it means, yes, your shoes are more expensive but you will buy them anyways.  Its a pay it forward process, you spend the extra money on something made over here vs elsewhere and that reinforces to the company to keep production over here so they hire your neighbor who now has the money to mow their lawn which via gentrification aspects raises the value of your house, so, $5 = $20,000.  See?  Science.

you won't believe it, but, they are actually building wind chimes
We should be a country full of people that want to fucking WORK for everything that we can get, nothing should be our birthright with the exception of the guarantee that we can get out and with our education, work ethic and some smarts make some money.

Foreign companies do not have to conform to the same rules that companies in our own country have to adhere to, minimum wage, oscha rules, unions, etc, and yet, we bend over the couch like a bitch because Nike and whatever want to fight a 20% tariff.

This is horrible, we wish we could really place the exact point that people started viewing our own country as a flea market catering to lazy mother fuckers who get up in arms over Justin Beibers haircut and don't have an opinion when it comes to the erosion of the backbone of our country, the de-emphasis of the values that this country was build on and made us great...all of this which seems to be eroding before us.

It isn't a hippy idealism, its being an American.  Buy stuff at your local farmers market, buy stuff made in your own country, support local business's and learn how to do stuff on your own.

Note: serious, go to a farmers market and buy stuff.  You have never tasted food more delicious then fresh from a market.  Corn on the cob, chedder cheese, milk, eggs, bison meat, veggies, fruit, everything.  Your taste buds will thank you.  Fresh food, farm fresh food, is astonishingly better then food from a grocery store or restaurant.  Trust us on this.  You have never had a smoothie or a burger or a piece of cheese that makes you say "holy shit" like you do at a market.

To bring this full circle, if you are a guy and you are looking to really make an impression on a girl, make her dinner...a real dinner...marinate chicken overnight, chop up the right salad, roast veggies the right way, match the wine the right way, if that girl is worth half a shit being able to do that is worth more then some d-bag dropping a couple hundred at a fancy restaurant.  If your a girl and cook dinner for a guy, again, a real meal that is made with equal parts love and smarts, you are the sexiest god damn thing on earth.  Honestly, even if what you try to make is terrible, but, you try, that is worth twice its weight in douche-bucks.  Its a matter of being self-reliant, working for something without an exact end-point, but, doing the right thing.

This is the concept that we all need to embrace on a daily / life level, its something that will spoke out as we all get older, the mind-set of self-reliance, something to take to heart and impress upon your local representivives, your place of employment, everyone.  Rely upon yourself, rely upon what makes us great at a nation, this mindset will become pervasive and over time become something to treasure, not something to ridicule.

Its Macro/Micro argument, be self-reliant and be proud in doing thing for yourself, and buy stuff made in American and demand that anything brought into our country be subject to the same rules that we enforce over here.

At the risk of sounding like Toby Keith or some other some "AMERICA FUCK YEAH" idiot,  its more that we need to remember the sense of community, the fucking pride in what we are, what makes us great on an individual and countrywide level.  Yes, there should be tariffs on foreign stuff, yes you should be able to make delicious food at home.

Stokes Pro Jump 2011

Why is this on a Tuesday?

Aug 29, 2011

Vid Day Monday

Spartacus is Starz first attempt at competing with HBO and the other premium channels with original programing. And...it is hella freaking awesome! Its a cross between Cinimax at night and HBO's Rome. And Rome had some decent nudity, but Cinimax goes all sexy time at night and that is what Starz has done with Spartacus, but with blood and gore.

Why are we posting this today? Cuz I dominated the lakes this weekend skiing behind a deck boat, so watching people ski behind good boats today is not for me. If you cant trick or slalom behind a 120 hp outboard on the back of a 24 foot deck boat then you are dead to me. Yea, you heard me! Take your dress off girly man and tear it up, or do what I did and bust out a pair of wake skis and a canoe paddle to ski on, because slaloming and tricking behind that thing is just silly.

Vid Day Monday

When we said we dig tricks off the ramp we should have clarified we meant doing tricks, not just hitting the ramp on a trick ski and exploding.

The Iowa (Idiots Out Wandering Around) state ski team misunderstood us. That can happen, we will make sure to clarify our future video requests.

Vid Day Monday


— MOVIECLIPS.com

Aug 28, 2011

Take a Trip Down Hair Metal Lane

Its sunday, its a nice lazy day to sit around and have a bloody mary or three, maybe go outside and do some landscaping or get that dead racoon of your front lawn...whatever.

While you have your morning coffee, cocktail, eggos...lets take a trip down late 80's music memory lane shall we?  Lets begin our tour in 1989 with a band called Faster Pussycat. Often times this is what I say to by neighbors cat and/or your mom.



In younger days I remember having this album on cassette (remember those) and listening to it when I was delivering newspapers (remember those). They had a song called Slip of the Tongue...as a youngster, the meaning to that song was mysterious and something that maybe I didn't want to know. Getting older...well, it seems to have multiple meanings and both are quite true.

Moving along, we will go forward one year to 1990, this brings us to a band called Nelson.



Oh lord, this does not bring back any good memories at all. This is horrible horrible music. Please god let some band from Seatle come along real soon and cleanse our palletes of this nonsense. Then again, I also cannot live without your love and affection. Barf.

Ok, lets head forward one more year again..this time to about 1991 and we get Slaughter. Pretty bitchin name for a band no? Slaughter. Whoa. Like, if Pantera had some balls this is what they would be called. No, here comes slaughter. SLAUGHTER. RAHHHHHH



How does this dudes voice get that high? Amazing. Whats even more so is that, yes, They are still touring! No, really, check out their wiki.
Slaughter will perform a show at Halfway Jam festival in Royalton, Minnesota in July 2011, with Lita FordCinderellaSkid RowStephen PearcyKixQuiet Riot and Firehouse.
What the hell Ticketmaster?  How did you not clue us in to this??  As if the Chevette would not be loaded to the gills with sandwich meat, cheez its and natty ice as we travel cross country to experience the magic that is Kix????

Speaking of which.   And don't say this song doesn't bring a tear to your eye.  Sing along now, you with your teased bangs and neon colors.  SING IT!!



Oh yeah, there it is.  God that is emotional.  Hope you did your late 80's line of cocaine and cried along.

Actually, screw it.  Time to hook this up to the big stereo and get after it.  brb.

/waves lighter
/smokes Marlboro light
/air guitar
/pukes out window of friends car

Oh, lets not stop here with our power ballad detor, lord knows that this was the prime time in the world for way overwrought love songs.  For that matter, click on any of these videos and check out the suggestions.  Man, just follow the rabbit hole.  If your old enough to remember or to young to know, its a god damn miracle that our country didn't take over the world with this sort of musical momentum.

Anyways, getting a touch out of our comfort zone here, 1992..which is about the time when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, et.al came along to sort of wipe away the shame of the 80's.  Funny how a Warrant or Poison video looked so cheesy next to Smells like Teen Spirit or whatever, CC Deville wearing make up and slinging his guitar around while sitting on a light truss vs. Eddie Vedder singing about some dude shooting up his class.

Regardless, here comes some Saigon Kick for that ass.



Back in school there was a radio station that would play Sunday Night Love songs, think it was a syndicated thing, but, not sure. Regardless, would sit there with candles going and the lights off and just CRANK these cheese ball love songs for a couple hours. It was pretty weird.

AHHH, who are we kidding, we were totally there. Smoking cigarettes, drinking shitty beer and just jammin out. With this in mind, its impossible to look at any kid now days and say they are weird. If you grew up at all around this time in music history, don't fool yourself, we were way the hell weirder and more irresponsible about everything then ever.

Well, since we are on this love song kick, lets go big. Cinderella.



These guys somehow sort of slipped under the radar, but, lord watch this video. Epic sweaping nature shots, a random dude on a vestible jamming on his bass, Tom Keifer (lead singer guy) killing it on the piano on a beach, randomly walking around a old west setting bar thing...this has it all.

Good god, these guys are still touring too! wiki

Gotta admit, when this song comes on the iPod or radio or whatever in the car, yeah, totally crank this up and sing along. God, I feel ya brother, I also do not know what I got until its gone. :(

Remember a few songs ago, when we mentioned the Slip of the Tougue song? Yeah, this next one is sort of like that. Not alot of subtlety to it. Smooth up in ya. Good one Bulletboys.

Bulletboys: Yo girl, I am going smooth up in ya.
Girl: What? What does that mean.
Bulletboys: Yo girl, That means I am going to..ugh..you know...take my thingy and put it in your hoo haa.
Girl: Oh..that. Yeah, you got some tact on you. Sorry, allready with Nelson. Would hate to see someone die without my love and affection.
Bulletboys: NELSON!!!!



Lets put all these elements together shall we?

Our final destination down memory lane today is with our good friends Britny Fox...no no, not Britney, its spelled Britny, because E is for homos.  This dudes voice is...grating, irratating, obnoxious? Unsure the proper descriptive term but lord allmighty, the teacher in this video has no control over that class at all.

And who could possibly control a girl school full of horny 16 year old girls who just want to air guitar themselves to completion?



Oh God Yes!

Enjoy your day, and as Saigon Kick would say, Love it on the way, I can feel it in your eyes.

None of this shit makes sense

Aug 25, 2011

Dreds and Bouy Wonder

The Dreded one is...well...he is awesome and we wish he would bring his webcast back. Really that webcast could be just MB and Cris Kodiak and it would be watched by millions.

Corey Humburg is...well I've met him twice, seemed like a nice guy. He is a good skier...um... I don't really have much else here.

But this vid is great, so watch it. And thanks to Janet for the heads up.

Jackasses!

And the Jackasses of the year award goes to...

These douche bags!



These guys deserve to have their ski boat owning rights revoked and be banned from all lakes.

Aug 23, 2011

Footstock - You Are All Nuts

If anyone has never had the chance to make it up to Crandon Wisconsin for the Figure 8 Barefoot championships, you need to get there next year. These guys are not only the best barefooters in the world, but they also can drink anyone under the table.

This barefoot run is pretty damn epic. Two dudes both in their 40s, one who shattered his pelvis jumping last year and broke his neck, also jumping, a few years earlier. (might want to think about not jumping...)



These guys just get beaten on in these runs, the skin on their feet burns and tears, some have trouble walking for weeks afterwards, its ugly. And these old broken down guys beat all the young punks. Bunch of bad asses really.

Barefooting, your doing it wrong.

Morning AHHHHHHH

This is Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg. Not only is she hella good looking but she is also a waterskier. I have already dumped my girlfriend and bought a plane ticket to the low countries. She just has to meet me to know I am the one for her. Hell yea to royal sugar mommas.

/sneaks into her palace
//gets arrested


Aug 22, 2011

Vid Day Monday - Off Sport

Round two for off topic, this time going all the way off sport. I do not have cable (as having it just makes us sit on our couches even more) and so I do not watch much cable news...duh...but this clip is sweet. We try to avoid politics on here like we avoid your dad after that whole "spaghetti incident" with your mom, so don't give us any shit about posting fox news!

Chris Brown is a piece of shit that is supported by a culture that seems to love building up pieces of shit into something they have no right to be.* He beats on women, acts like a fool and his music sucks, but we still give him millions of bucks and give him honors such as being on Saturday Night Live. Yes we know SNL has been god awful for the past 27 years but people still watch it for some reason.

*ie: the fact that Kim Kardashians wedding is somehow important news. And they even gave a show to the whole family, speaking of which if you watch that stupid fucking show I do not want to know you and I hope you die in a fire.

This clip here makes me really like this guy, I am tempted to offer the CRB Minions virginity to him.


Vid Day Monday

Oh how the old days were fun...Mullets, neon sunglasses, boats were not $75k, and watersking was on tv. The good ol' days for sure.

Vid Day Monday - Off Topic

So we have been posting a lot of vids of actual waterskiing recently, we really don't want you people getting the impression that we are really going to stick to the topic.

So here is some of the coolest bike riding we have ever seen. If I had 1/100 of his skills I might not fall down while riding in a straight line all the time.

Vid Day Monday

Claudio gets very close to a huge out the front here. When my tips start to do that I end up crashing and then crying in the corner for the next few hours.



Thank you to Tony Lightfoot for the video

Aug 17, 2011

Front to Back Breaker

A new show skiing trick that has come into use more and more in recent years is harnessing skiers to other skiers. One of the coolest ones is called the "back breaker", where a barefooter tows a jumper. Normally this act is done with one a front barefooter, some teams do it with a back barefooter. Now Australia has stepped it up with the footer doing a front to back while footing. Pretty bad ass actually, the front to back is an incredibly hard trick on its own but having a harness on only ups the difficulty.

Aug 15, 2011

Vid Day Monday

This may not be a vid from either of the nationals that took place in the last week but it is a show ski trick at the Malibu open, so it includes both events in a way. And its shot on a go pro camera so I love it already.



Thanks to the Freestyle Jump Tour for the heads up.

Vid Day Monday

So somebody has actually posted some vid from this years show nationals, it is the second 5 high we will post today. There are only a handful of teams that have ever done this pyramid as it is crazy tough and people get hurt when this crash, but the Rock Aqua Jays from Janesville WI are the standard in showskiing and were the first to build the 5 tier pyramid.

Note: They claim to be the first ameture team to build a 3 high pyramid, this is false. The Min-Aqua Bats from Minocqua Wisconsin built these for several years before any other team.

Vid Day Monday

This vid like the 5 tier pyramid vid are not from this years nationals because peeps are to slow to upload and I was to drunk to take any vid at all. So we rule...at getting drunk and not doing our jobs.

10 guys around a boat is crazy. This boat is also kinda crazy, its got a juiced up engine and a ton of weight on one side of it to keep it from rolling over from the pull of the skiers going around.

Vid Day Monday

Its not very easy to find vids from AWSA nationals, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER PEOPLE! How are we going to find random stuff to post if no one posts their vids? We want big jumps, sweet flips and awesome crashes! GAWD!

Speaking of crashes, this is Dean Chappell getting his crash on at the 2009 nationals.

Vid Day Monday

This past week was the AWSA 3 event nationals in IL while this past weekend was the show ski nationals in WI. The midwest really is showing its waterskiing might right now. The CRB crew went to show ski nationals because...well because they have a beer tent.

Of course show skiing always holds its nationals in the midwest, it has only been outside of Wisconsin or Illionis once and that was in Ohio. 3 event nationals has been held all over the place, in the 50s it was even held on the public lake I grew up on (no, none of the CRB crew was alive then). We have a video of a jumper getting killed hitting the side curtain at that nationals, and no we will never post that one as it is very ugly.

Instead of ugly we will post some awesomez today. First off is the ultimate in show ski team work, the 5 high pyramid. I was told once that these pyramids put somewhere around 1000 lbs of pressure on the center base guys shoulders. Pretty sure it would suck to ski with a Yugo on your back. But hell, lets do this thing.


Aug 8, 2011

Vid Day Monday

Damien took a huge out the front at the Malibu Open this weekend and the CRB brings it to you in full shaky hand held shaky technacolor glory.

Vid Day Monday

This vid was sent to us via twitter and is well worth posting. A fun use of a Go Pro Camera, shooting from under the ramp surface. Hella flips and spins and all that fun freestyle jumping jazz.

Seeing and Skiing life as A Dog

Lets Go!!!!
As you get older in life more and more you tend to say, to whomever is around you, “wow, where did the time go, it was just yesterday we were puking behind the dumpster!” and in reality it was, for some it was yesterday, but for many of us it was 10 years ago.

Time does just have a tendency to go by without so much as a passing glance.

We begin to notice a flake or two of gray in our hair, a pound of two on the scale, and less ability to make excuses for dumb behavior.

Sure, when you are in college its easy to say you stayed up all night drinking or playing video games or hooking up…exploring the boundries of your physical limits, but, as you age you no longer have this as a salient answer to your bosses query into your bullshit that day.

When you are in your 30’s you can’t tell you boss, “Bro! serious, I met this chick and she was totally into me and we did like 100 shots and then we went to her place with her roommate and got awesome! High Five Bro!”

That type of thing gets you fired, it does not get you a high five.

Because as time does go on we are expected to do things in a responsible manner, go to bed at a reasonable hour, ease off the hooch, maybe find someone who wants to spend time with your janky ass and make a life for yourself. Within this peculiar life search for what is appropriate, years go by and you fall out a touch a bit with your friends, you neglect your bitchin idea of fixing up an old Jeep and mudding, you shelve you big plans for a rock band…you start to take a bit more measured approach to life.

Unfortunatly within that paradigm you also lose a bit of what made you who you are, who you were and you look in the mirror one day and go “WHOA!, who is this square bastard!

This evening, outside the satalitte CRB office, we were taking our dog for a walk, nothing major, just stretching the legs, going to the mailbox, letting the pooch take a dump in the neighbors yard, and having a beer.

Dogs never have this same existential crisis, their sole mission in life is to seek out the awesome.

Everything to a dog is awesome, or a new adventure, or something they need to explore, piss on, have sex with or take a nap by.

"sup ladies, yeah, I got this"

This is pretty much the timeline of our walk, to and from the mailbox with a slight detour to look at a cool truck in the parking lot.

12:15 – walk out the door. Dog: “Hey, I gotta poop over here!” Me: “Damnit dog you were just out!”

12:17 – Dog done pooping

12:18 – Walked through breezeway. Dog: “Yo! Whats in this door?? No? ok, fine, whoa! That insect is crazy!”

12:19 – Take a left onto the sidewalk, drop envelope, me: “shit”, Dog: “whats up? You ok? Yeah, just a envelope, cool, hey check out this Jeep isn’t it dope? Nevermind, SHIT!, I gotta get out in front of you to make sure no robbers or gangsters or anything try and steal your beer and/or money!”

12:20 – Me: “Jesus Christ dog, take it easy” Dog: “huh? Yo, hustle up! Ahh, gotta piss hold on”

12:22 – It was a long piss. Dog: “Hey! Can I go up these stairs? What about those stairs? Who do you think is up there? OH! They have a big grill with a smoker thing on it, think they left a chunk of beef on it for me to eat?? Whats that noise? A door closing? Hey, Mister! Coming out of the crappy Dodge Stratus, you wanna scratch my back and/or ears and/or give me a treat? Hell yeah!!! Gimme some of that!!”

12:24 – Me: “ok dog, quit bothering the nice man” Dog: “son of a bitch, I would cut you if I could…NEVERMIND! Yo! What about those stairs?!?!, I gotta check that out, can i? Can I? Can I?

12:26 – Walking by the pool, a couple people are polishing off a bottle of wine and laughing. Dog: “HEY!! HEY GUYS! Just saying high and seeing if things are cool, not to be a dick but can I get in on that drank???” Me: “Dog, get over here, leave them alone, don’t bother the people getting drunk at the pool”

12:27 – Make it to the mailbox, drop shit everywhere because dog is at end of the leash trying to go onto someones porch and figure out why their windchimes are chiming.

12:30 – Checking the mail, throwing away junk mail. Dog: “dude, I gotta chill for a second” Lies down and falls asleep.

12:30 and 30 second – Me: “Dog, lets go” Dog: “Hell Yeah! Lets do it! I got some shit to explore! Hey, can we go on a car ride later?” Me: "No car rides, we were out all day, besides, daddy has had a few beers"

12:31 - Dog: "There is hella junk in that garbage can! I really really want to chew up some of that newspaper" Me: "lets go dog, I wanna go check out that pick up over there, its pretty cool" Dog: "whoop, thought we were going this way, i'm with ya bro, hell yeah thats cool, lets go look at that, bet it has aftermarket exhaust"

And then we just repeat everything in reverse.

Dogs are crazy like that.

But, not really. Dogs don’t have the built in, with time, jaded factor that a lot of us get. Things are always new and awesome to dogs. They are always hungry for more food, more exploring, more fun.

Take your dog for a walk someday and just watch them and how they act. They want to know everything, even thought for the one millionth time they go and sniff the neighbors door or stare intently at the tree that sort of kind of looks like a spooky monster.

Dogs are the antithesis of “professional” adult. Always looking to play, always feeling the wind in their hair and never asking for anything in return.

"Get me a fresh beer will ya? Im Parched!"


It would be a nice personality trait to have. Granted, it would not really work in modern society, you have to pay your bills and work and make dinner and clean and make your bed and all the other shit that is required of a person, but, the crux of a dog attitude is the same.

Take a second every so often and look around and take in the wonders of what is around us.

Awhile back, years and years ago now, back when still apart of a show ski team, I remember being out of the showcourse and just riding back there and looking around, taking in the sunset, looking downcourse and seeing all the people that were there to watch the show, seeing the people on the shorline with their kids having a picnic, hearing the motor from the boat burble along as it churned away, seeing the bar and the people smiling and drinking, hearing the announcer faintly pump up our arrival in whatever act we were doing and, instead of, concentrating on making sure that I am ready for this act and that I had to change costumes when I land and be at the back dock right away and hoping that my jump skis were in the right place, I took it in and “holy shit, this is awesome!!!”

These are the things we can all learn from watching our dogs, just experiencing things on the daily, the wow of seeing something you see everyday but being interested for no real reason.

I have read a couple sad articles that people write after a pet dies and they talk about the love they brought, the comfort they provided, the family aspect they were apart of, but, that is something that you don’t need a tragic event to experience or remember fondly.

Your dog, and waterskiing in a slight way, provide that daily. The window into a more innocent world, a less cluttered, a less hurried, a world with more wonderment, a world with more fun in it.

I like to try and think of the exact thing going through my head when I leave the top of the jump ramp, hitting the pop just so, and flying. Everything came together just so and you are soaring, you don’t think about bills or work or anything, its just joy.

This has to be what a dog thinks at all times. You know the feeling when you get home from work and your dog is overjoyed to see you? Or when you say, “wanna go outside?” and they jump up like crazy “Yes, hell yeah, lets go outside dude!!”

There is a genuine joy to a dogs life that isn’t burdened down by life. Waterskiing has a similar vibe, when you are behind the boat it’s a simple joy.

We do lose sight of that sometimes, I think, in trying to get that next buoy, or that extra 5-feet in the air or hit that next trick.

Not quite stopping along the way and realizing how amazing it is that we can actually do what we are doing.

We are cutting towards the ramp and going to crush this jump, or looking at a set of stairs and wondering if there is some beef on the grill we can eat.

It’s a simple joy, but, it’s a great joy that dogs know intrinsically and we sometimes have to remind ourselves of.

Aug 4, 2011

Malibu Open

Well it is that time of year again, time to head off to the Malibu Open. We have loaded up the contact lion with all the essentials and its time to hit the road.


This year the Malibu Open has added womens jump which is hella woot! Now they just need another couple sponsors and then they need to add mens and womens tricks and it will really start to look like what a Pro Tour really should be.

The water at the site is a little lower then last year and might lead to the water rolling a bit, but whatever this event is taking place in the middle of a large air show, the crowds should be bigger then anything we see anywhere else.

Of the three events being run by Dana Reed this year this should by far draw the largest crowds, The Global Invite was at a busy public beach and had solid crowds, the Katy Ski Jam or whatever its called will be a waste of time with small crowds on a private lake. It sounds like the local organizers of that event have paid no attention at all to what has worked in pro skiing in recent years. Pro events do not draw people on their own, we are not a big enough sport with enough major backing to get the big turnouts with out setting up in a public location. Of course there are some people in our sport that refuse to believe they are not always right... Dana has the right idea, others...do not.


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But screw it, lets get to the show ski state and watch some skiing! woot!

Aug 1, 2011

Vid Day Monday - Your Boat is Sinking Pt. 6


Just sinking everything.

Obvious questions.

First of all, no one anywhere around there had a truck with a winch on the front and just pull that whole mess out?

Second, is this the standard procedure for launching a boat into the ocean? Seems like there would have to be a smarter way to do this then bury your explorer in the ocean.

Third, Dude, just beach the damn boat and wait till the waves ease up a bit.

Vid Day Monday - Your Boat is Sinking Pt. 5


20 second intro = not neccesary. Slo-mo = bad. Power turn then going underwater = Awesome

Vid Day Monday - Your Boat is Sinking Pt. 4


That is a phone call no house boat rental agency wants to get. "bro, your boat sank, its tied up to a dock, Im going to get a beer"

Vid Day Monday - Your Boat is Sinking Pt. 3


Audio for this one is screwy, but, this dude really needs to rethink how he anchors his boat

Vid Day Monday - Your Boat is Sinking Pt. 2


Easier to fish that way, just get on their level

Vid Day Monday - Your Boat is Sinking Pt. 1


Turn on the bilge pump, you will be fine.