Dec 31, 2012

Vid Day Monday

If you don't like Led Zeppelin then I don't like you. I can only assume that you are a child molesting dirt bag and so you are no longer welcome here. Sicko.

Dec 27, 2012

Vid Day Thursday?

I was going to say you could not pay me enough to do this, but I don't think that is true.  How much would it take to get you to make this climb?  10k, 100k, million?  I would probably do it for a new SkiMasterBu...well, maybe you would have to throw in a ski lake with a retractable roof for year round skiing.  So...maybe 10 million bucks or so.

Vid Day Thursday?

This vid is sick and this guy has hella big balls.

Vid Day...Thursday?

We here at the CRB were off visiting our families/significant others/parole officers for Christmas the same as most of you, so we are way late with vids or posts of any kind this week.  So how about a solid video from the University of Wisconsin Madison ski team.  They may not have made nationals this year but they had a solid team a few years ago when this footage was shot.

Dec 20, 2012

Wakeboard Wed...Errrr...Thursday (18 pics)


So it would appear that I forgot yesterday was Wakeboard Wednesday, my bad.  Suck it up and deal with it, as its now Wakeboard Thursday.  



Lots more wakeboarding after the jump.

Dec 19, 2012

Places I Want to be Right Now (18 pics)


Just got back from a vacation and I want to go on another one.  You should all send money to us so I can travel to awesome places while you sit in your shitty cubicle and count widgets.



Tons more awesome pics after the jump

Dec 18, 2012

USA Waterski Just Got Sexy as Hell



Sherman Schraft, who is on the exec board of USA Waterski and apparently not the biggest twitter user, was either hack/bot'ed or is really trying to sexy up the USA Waterski world, because his account, @SSchraft, shows two retweets from Sex Tube Night!

Aww yeah baby, gimme some of that droid free porn you know how I like it, yeah, turn around, let me see your sexy bikini stores.

Maybe this is a new marketing ploy for USA Waterski, which, after a quick poll of CRB workers, we decided that we are 100% behind USA Waterskis new "BOT PORN FOR ALL WATERSKIERS" initiative.

Shine on you crazy diamonds.


The Balance of Value

Waterskiing, in any of its various forms, is an inherently expensive sport, from the boats, to the gas, to the vests/wetsuits, to the skis, to the wall.  Its astonishingly expensive to live a life of a waterskier.

If you are a surfer, you only..really..have to purchase a wet suit and a board.  Obviously, there are mitigating factors, but, in general, that's your base equipment.  Watersports are most likely, short of waterskiing, just you, your body and a piece of equipment.  Kayak?  You and a boat.   Swimming?  you and a speedo. 

But, waterskiing is expensive.  Boats, even old used boats, are expensive.  At least if they are in any shape to  be driven.  A new Prostar 197 is, what, at least 45 grand for a new one???  Something like that?  That is a big chunk of change even if you are full of money.  

Recently, the B.O.S tweeted out that there is a new Goode Nano ski available, a 66 inch version of their ski.   Because lord knows that the 65.25 and the 66.75 inch ski could never satisfy your ski desires. 

Lets get this straight, a new Goode Nano ski is $1940.  American money. 

For a slalom ski.  Designed for professional type waterskiiers.  People that can run 39 off.  People that get paid for their waterskiing.  People that are really really good. 

95% of us do not need something like this, we do not need something that is this good.  I have a KD 7000 and previously I had a Connely F1.  Both of which, when they were new was, 700 ish for the F1 and somethin around 400 for the 7000, which was 10 something years ago. 

Neither of these skis could I possibly ski beyond their ability.  I am not a good enough skier to ski beyond the abilities of these two skis. 

Yet, people buy the latest and greatest because they think that it can help them get to the 22 off or whatever.  When a 15 year old Kidder Redline is perfectly acceptable and something that probably jives with their individual talent better then a $2000 slalom ski. 

There is certainly a bit of a jump from ski level to ski level, I became a much much better trick skier when I first tried out a goodman trick ski, the tricks that I  was never able to get on my old trick ski, I was able to master on the Goodman.  

Why is this?  It certainly wasn't the cost of the ski, nor was it that I all of a sudden became a better skier, but, because the technology behind the ski and the 15 years of evolution from my old ski to the new ski helped me out. 

But, was the ability of me to get some of my wake tricks that I couldn't master before worth the price of the new ski so I could nab a thousand more points or so in a trick pass?  How do we balance that out?

No doubt that the Goode Nano is probably a infinitely superior ski to the slalom skis that I have spent most of my life sking on. Yes, we are back talking about slalom skis after a brief sojurn into the world of my mediocre to poor trick ski skillz.

Here is where the issue arises, at what point does the incremental increase in output justify the increased input/output monetarily into equipment? 

If  you look at it from a straight perspective, there are what....10...15 people in the world that can properly ski a Goode Nano??  People that their skill level matches and/or exceeds the actual ski that they are on.  

But, for the rest of us, and odds are if you are reading this, you aren't that good.  This is not meant to be a dick thing to say, but, its true.  Are any of us that good that we would need to spend this kind of money?

In fairness, the better skis, the better equipment, the more expensive the stuff the cooler it looks and the cooler we look standing out on the dock waiting for our pull.

Think about it, you come wandering out onto the dock with the purple Kidder Supreme that Kim Laskoff rocked in the early 90's you are going to feel like a chump, but, you come rolling out with....I dont know..some Syndicate type ski, you are feeling pretty badass -JM2 (photo by mommer).

So, where is the balance, where is the value, how are we actually utilizing our money to properly supplant our waterski life with the equipment that we actually purchase.  Can we validate our jobs, the money we make vs. the money that we turn around and spend on thing that we buy for our ski life??

How is this balanced?


The thought is this, from my perspective, I can't ski beyond 22 off on a course, never once have I done it, nor have I felt like I have been close to being able to. Its not a matter of skill (at least in my head),but, its more a matter of ability to get on a course and ski it. I don't give that much of a shit about it to compare cock/breast size with other slalom skiers, I want to have fun and drink a beer.

Thats it.  But, it irritates me that I can't get beyond where I am at.  Would spending another $1000 get me a ski that can get me beyond that level and is it worth that outlay to get me there??

Lets take a look at this from another aspect.  Jumping. 

Freddy Krueger, based on raw numbers, he is a better jumper then Sammy Duvall.   In fairness, this is not a scientific situation, I have not run anything on excel nor do I have a database with numbers, but, Sammy Duvall had a world record jump of 225 feet when he retired, with rumor of him going another 20 some feet in practice. 

Freddy and Dodd and the like routinely go that distance in tournaments now days, on skis that are another 30 some inches longer. Are they benefiting from increased technology?  SURE, of course, are they  equal skiers to Sammy?

That point is debatable, but, in my head, Sammy is the single best skier we have ever seen in any genre of skiing ever.  But, then again, Freddy also makes our panties wet. 

This is the point, technology increases and innovations in skis increases and is that the thing that makes a better skier or is the skier him/her/it self what makes a better skier?

I am of the opinion that I could ski on my old Redline today, and with a bit of working out / cross fitting (i see you Marcus and Karina , and ski better then I ever have and I wouldn't need a brand new expensive ski to get there. 

Then again, just as a good carpenter does not ever blame his tools, only a foolish carpenter still cuts long pieces of wood with an Amish dual cut saw, they use a damn table saw.  

Everything changes as we go on, new technology, new materials and new experiances, all lead to our new and awesome ski life.  How do we balance all that, with what we want?  The latest and greatest equipment can't make up for our own inadequacy  if we don't put for the effort to become better skiers.

So the gist is,what, that we have to balance out the work we put in off the water, with the money that we can spend on the equipment we use on the water.  

If we can keep that balance IN  BALANCE, then we are good.  Don't try and short change the process with just buying new stuff, while understanding that the ski companies put money into designing stuff that also helps. Just keep that balance in mind, and you won't feel guilty about dropping two grand on a new ski, as long as you put in the effort on the other side to get there. 


Dec 15, 2012

Underwater LED lights are sweet


In a forum on the Mastercraft Team Talk site there is a cool thread about installing underwater LED lights, and while the silly lights on cars look foolish, underwater lights on boats are sweet.

I am currently on page 16 of the thread which was active in 2008, 4 YEARS AGO!

How am I so late to the underwater lights game?  Seems like these are the sort of thing that we should have been all over.

Never to late to teach an old dog new tricks I guess.

Check out the thread: TEAM TALK : UNDERWATER LIGHTS

Dec 10, 2012

Vid Day Monday - Fail

I made it about 75 seconds into this video and then i shot my laptop to death.  thats it for today.  go purchase a homeless person a delicious hamburger and quit being such a dick about it.

 

Vid Day Monday - Moar Go Pro

This takes almost a minute or so to get going, and then its pretty good

Real talk.  how come, it appears, so many videos have a long run up to the actual stuff you went there to see?  It isn't star wars or whatever, knock it off with the preamble son!

that being said, this one was submitted to us, and its good, but, cmon man, GET TO IT!


Vid Day Monday - Yelling

This song, is one you have to turn loud.  and the video is insane.  full of half naked people in masks and blood.  which you could have probably guessed from the title.  if not, notice the title, "blood", it would be wise to infer there would be some blood then.

i like apples


Vid Day Monday - I Will Eat Your Cookie

Lets cut straight to the point here, the waitress in this video is hot as hell.  Agree?  Ok, lets move on.  The black keys are awesome and the RZA is fantastic.  boom.  they make a song.  thats it.  c.r.e.a.m.

Vid Day Monday - Some Go Pro Slalom Shit

Here is a video where a Adam Sedlam....something, attaches a go pro cam to his slalom ski and skis around.   its pretty cool.  I suggest watching it, and then, when you are done watching it, you should go to your local sporting goods store and by a small outboard motor to give to you husband or wife to attach to their inflatable boat, don't be an ass.

Dec 5, 2012

Wakeboard Wednesday

Watching this all I could think is they should probably be wearing helmets.  God I am a downer.  Then I thought, this would be cool on a trick ski, so not only am I a downer I am also a dork.

Dec 4, 2012

Ski Schools from the sky (12 pics)

Bennetts
We have been to several of these schools, needless to say they are all worth a trip.  Some of the CRB crew has even worked at a couple of these schools, and there is no better experience than ditching all of your responsibilities and heading of to a ski school for the summer or year for that matter.

Cobles

Swiss Ski School
Many more ski schools after the jump.

Dec 3, 2012

Vid Day Monday

Cool video of Krista Rogers and Ron Goodman. Ron makes some of the best jumpers and trick skis avalable and Krista agreed* to marry the ODBF...so they are both awesome.
*not an accurate statement

Vid Day Monday

Surfers are like skiers, but on bigger bodies of water, with no boats, and they like waves...so really they are nothing like skiers.  Well except they like water...oh hell, I don't know, but the vid is cool.

Nov 28, 2012

Wakeboard Wednesday

I don't drink Red Bull but that does not mean we can't enjoy the bad ass vids they make.  No other company out there puts as much money into promoting fringe sports like ours as Red Bull.  Its brilliant marketing, why spend all the money on ads when you can pay about the same as you would spend on an ad on a sweet video of wakeboarding or sky diving or whatever.

Nov 26, 2012

Vid Day Monday

Yep, this is the life.

Vid Day Monday

This vid has a bit of everything, slalom, trick, jump, wakeboard, dragging on the boom on your balls...  That last part does not seem like a good idea but to each his own.

vimeo hd waterski from evan halleck on Vimeo.

Nov 22, 2012

CRB Gives Thanks 2012

Every year that the CRB has been around we have always taken at least one day a week for a celebration, we occasionally invite over our neighbors from the industrial park compound where we operate, we invite over our friends, we don't invite over our family and sometimes we call  up the strip club and ask them to cater.

They have delicious bacon wrapped crabs.

But, as we come into the holiday season and as we are getting a  bit older and have a few more projects on our plates (bad place for projects), but, it becomes harder and harder to really sit back and reflect and actually give thanks for the things that are awesome.

So, lets run down a few things that we can think of quick off the top of our heads about the last year of waterski.

1) Night Jumps.  This year there was no LA Night Jam, which was a big disappointing around the crb offices, it was the first even like this we had ever seen and were blown away at that time. It got better over time and it was sad when it didn't happen this year.   But, we were able to see in person the Malibu Open and one thing that separates the Malibu Open from anything else we have experienced is that the venue is right in the downtown area of the city of Milwaukee.

If you have a chance to attend, by all means, do it.   It is an absolutly stunning view and the way the lake transforms from a silly duck pond during the week to hosting the worlds best skiiers is really something to behold.

But, the reasoning to be thankful for night jumps, is simply that these are a thing, they are being webcast, there was just one in Chili recently...right??  Chili?  anyways, this is a thing and it is awesome and the more we do it, the more people are going to notice it and attend and give money and that is never not a good thing.


2)  MTV.  ugh, i know.  Christ.  But!  They have a TV show with the Soven brothers.  They are wakeboarders, which means (despite what USA Waterski has you think) is actually water-skiing!

The reason to be thankful, however, is that while wakeboarding does have a bit more of a mainstream vibe to it, the fact that we have some personalities out there that are even worthy of being on a regular tv is awesome.  This will only serve to strengthen the sport as we go forward.  Further more, if you follow various people on twitter, you can see (as long as their skill keeps on progressing) there are a number of kids out there who do so much to promote the sport without even trying that have cool personalities that we wouldn't be suprised to see more shows down the road with these guys in them.

Its a real good time to be a waterskier.


3)  Cable Parks.  No one that works for the CRB has actually been skiing at a cable park, yet.  Thats a very sad state of affairs, we suck.

However, if you think about it, the biggest barrier to entry into our sport is cost.  Boats are expensive, gear is   expensive, gas is expensive.  Its amazing.  But, with the advent and proliferation of cable parks, that barrier seems like it is coming down a bit.  They are all over the place and don't require quite the same spine of money and government involvement that a "regular" ski lake does.

Hopefully, what this does is allow for people that wouldn't normally get on the water, to strap on a wakeboard or slalom ski or whatever and get out on the water and experiance the thrill of what this sport does have to offer.

4) ODBF.  I'm Dig Dug, and am required by my contract to say thanks to fellow poster ODBF for basically taking over the site.  ODBF started the vid day monday and wakeboard wednesday and whatever the hell else goes on here.  Basically, all the pictures and videos is an excuse to not actually type out words.  Because words are hard.

ANYWAYS

Whats fun though, year by year, is what we hopefully all remember about this time of year is that we hopefully actually take a bit of time to really sit back and be thankful for our lives.

The thing is, every single person out there has shit in their lives, family stuff or relationship stuff or addictions or whatever, there are things all over our lives that are troublesome, but, those things we all deal with.  All of us have problems, which is something to be thankful for. Your individual problems are mirrored by alot of other people out there in the world.  So, you aren't alone in that sense.  and that is something to be thankful for.

But, more then that, the fact that we get to lead our lives in ways that so many people would be envious of is awesome.  Not in a mean way or anything, but, take yourself out of your own body for a second and look at  yourself.

Its amazing.

We get to go ski all the time and complain when we don't.  Thats something to be thankful for.  Thats a pretty cool life.                    

Nov 20, 2012

Its Cold, Lets Go Surfing (19 pics 1 gif 1 vid)






I don't know much about surfing, but from what I have been able to find about this vid this is either the first time a surf flip has been done or it is not...yea, that brilliant insight is what I found on one site.  Thanks for that guys, so on point with the infoz. 

Lots more bad ass  surf pics after the jump.  Click the link yo!

Nov 19, 2012

Vid Day Monday

These guys thought it would be a good idea to get in the water and go barefoot jumping on November 10th in England.  Just for the record its cold in England in November so getting in the water is not the smartest thing to do.  Of course they are barefoot jumping so it is a given they are pretty stupid to begin with.

Vid Day Monday

Something you do not see all that often, Andy Mapple tricking in a tournament.  From the looks of this vid it looks like he has not changed his run since his younger days.  You don't see many people doing this many variations of the line step anymore.

Vid Day Monday

Russian people are awesome drivers...I did not say safe drivers, they are awesome because it appears that they all have cameras in their cars that catch all the fucking terrible driving they do.

Vid Day Monday

Jamie has been right at the top of our sport for several years now, not only is he a bad ass slalom skier but also a pretty cool dude.

Thanks again PJ!

Nov 16, 2012

I Want A Cabin (19 pics)


Growing up my family had a cabin we would go to every summer.  This is where I fell in love with skiing and also fell in love with the peace and quiet of nature while floating around on the lake.  There is nothing like a warm summer afternoon on a glass calm lake, and then tearing it up on a slalom ski.  

There is a cool blog from a few years back on the NY Times website that follows a guy building a cabin on a pond in Maine.  Very good writer and a great read.  



More awesome cabins after the jump.

Nov 13, 2012

ODBF Rants Are Fun

The NHL is locked out and that is lame.  The sport seems to have a short memory, they should be the number 3 sport right now, right behind Baseball, who also cost themselves the number one spot with a strike in '96, but instead hockey is behind basketball.  Fucking basketball?  Those guys are a bunch of whining floppers, hockey is a real mans sport.  Fighting is completely acceptable, how cool is that?  Instead of learning from their last strike/lockout where they made sure they would sit at the bottom of the big 4 pro sports the dip shits have gone and done it again.  Its like they are actively trying to drop below soccer or just out right fail as a viable business.

This is a blog about waterskiing right?  Lets talk skiing then!

Waterskiing has seen itself go from ESPN (which is a cesspool now anyways) to OLN to no TV coverage at all.  Contrary to what my boss believes the blame goes up hill in situations like this.  The IWSF is a fucking terrible organization that takes 10 times more out of the sport than it contributes.  USAWS is better...but not by much.  They want new people in the sport, or so they say, and their method of getting new people is to shun the top of the sport and focus on....nothing it appears.  The only real bright spot in our sport right now is the NCWSA and even that is only really bringing in new blood in the Midwest.  The East and West have done decent jobs of building their regions, the South Central blows goats.  The talent and incredible staying power of ULL and ULM are undeniable, the three Texas schools have stuck around and stayed fairly competitive year after year.  But the fact that the south can only field 5 teams consistently is embarrassing.

Unless of course you are former regional chair of the SC region Joey Mc
Don't be a sore loser buddy.  Those kids are absolutely pumped they are going to Nationals and yes, we are a six team region, but our five teams are consistently good, year to year.  I'd rather have five of the best teams in the country with four other schools working to have teams, than 5 mediocre teams and 45 schools will tiny team. 
2012 Western Regionals had 10 teams.  Midwest teams have to qualify for regionals and 16 teams qualified out of 34 teams that competed at their conference tournaments.  The Midwest sent 8 teams to Nationals this year, 6 of which qualified for Division 1.  The South Central Region had 6 teams compete, not including LSU that made it to nationals last year and prompted the Skifly comment board post from Joey above.  The East had...I think 8 teams...hell I don't know because I can't find the final score sheets anywhere.  Why would they post the scores on USAWS or NCWSA websites when its more fun to look at this nonsense and try to guess.

Note to Florida, just because you are in the East and I said your region is doing OK does not let you off the hook.  Every university in your state should have highly competitive teams.  Instead you field 2 teams...its just sad.  USAWS promotes the sport so poorly that they can not even convince college students in the "waterski capitol of the world" to form teams.   

To move skiing forward we need to push youth skiing as much as possible.  But how do we do that?  The same way we got hooked back in the day.  We saw people skiing and said "holy crap that is bad ass, I want to do that", then we begged our parents to spend a fortune on a boat, skis and ski schools.  We saw Sammy, Carl, Andy, Cory and the rest on TV or at public lake pro tournaments and got hooked.  Skiing was in the public eye because there were people pushing it to be there.  Not so much AWSA as private groups that took the initiative and pushed us forward.  AWSA back then was not the driving force are it is unlikely that USAWS will be that force now.  We have seen some positive movement in recent years, some private people getting things moving in the right direction. Lets hope that we can continue on the path that Dana Reed and others have started.

For fun go to ProWaterSkiTour.com and enjoy slalom ski mag...wait...what?  What exactly is Waterski Magazine doing with that URL?   Your guess is as good as mine.

/rant over

Lets watch hockey goalies fight!  Hell yea

Nov 12, 2012

Vid Day Monday

I often get guff for taking so long to get ready when its my turn to ski. I blame that mostly on the fact that the water is cold here at the north pole and it sucks to jump in.  To avoid being anything like me you should watch this vid and do the opposite of everything these guys do.

Thanks to PJ McMillan for another great vid!

Do you have a sweet vid you want to see on the CRB?  Hit up the contact lion and send it over!!

Vid Day Monday

Go Pro vid again?  Hellz yea bitchez!  This one comes in from the Chain Skimmers show ski club from Conover Wisconsin.

Chain Skimmers 2012 from Iando on Vimeo.

Vid Day Monday

A couple summers ago a group was trying to bring freestyle jumping back to the pro tour, I did not hear of any events at pro stops this year but did get to see some of the guys go huge at the show ski worlds.  The quality of the skiing at worlds was close to what these guys were throwing in this vid.  Hopefully it will make a comeback again soon.

Slalom World Record Tied

The best round of any record tournament ever was run this past weekend at Swiss Ski School.  Jon Travers ran 1/2 @ 43 off, Nate Smith ran 1 @ 43 off and Will Asher tied the world record with 2 @ 43 off.  As far as I can tell, with the crappy resources our sport has, there has never been a tournament where 41 off was run 3 times in one round.

Nov 5, 2012

Vid Day Monday

Hella freaking bad ass!  This would freaking rule!

I would probably have a heart attack if I did this but fuck it, sign me up!

Willard with Smokes from Ryan Voight on Vimeo.

Vid Day Monday

A week ago or so we posted a video of Mitt Romney skiing and asked why skiing was associated with the uber rich, then I watched the begining of this vid from Republic Wake Park in the Philippines said "LOL poor people".

Vid Day Monday

A snowmobiler doing a flip over the top of a skydiver...sure why not?

Nov 2, 2012

Tearing Up The Course

PJ McMillan sent us another bad ass vid.  This way is fantastic in so many ways.  First off the skier is our boy, the dreaded one Marcus Brown.  Secondly, well its Marcus so the skiing is hella bad ass.  The vid production is very well done, PJ has produced some of the best vids out there.  And lastly we love cool places to ski and the lake he is skiing on is sweet!

Also this footage would have been used in one of PJs movies but the recording industry is a bunch of hard nosed jackasses and thus it was not used.

Nov 1, 2012

Slalom Is All That Is Holy

Ian Perry is a new skier on the CRB radar but after watching this vid and seeing how easy he makes 38 off  at 36mph look he will be a contender in the big dog 34 mph world in the coming years.  Ian turns 35 so will be in the 34mph ranks starting next season.

Thanks go to PJ McMillan for this sweet vid.

Oct 31, 2012

Only The Rich Ski?

Mitt Romney has taken guff for the following video. Some pundits said it shows he is too rich to understand regular peoples needs or some shit like that. He may be hella rich but how does skiing behind a fishing boat prove you are to rich to understand societal problems? Most of our readers (all 4 of them) know that skiing is an expensive sport but we all love it and find ways to pay for it. Most of us are not in the 1%, the 5% or even the 10% but we still ski. Is water skiing really considered a sport for just the uber rich?

Oct 29, 2012

Vid Day Monday

Good high school football teams are often made up of a couple decent players that might make it on a crappy college team somewhere and a bunch of chumps.  This team apparently is made up of a bunch of crappy blockers and one good gymnast.

/flips while flipping

Vid Day Monday

There is something in the water in France that turns everyone there into bad ass trick skiers.  This girl is probably 3 years old but got really big after fallout from Chernoble turned her family into giants.  Not only is she big for a 3 year old she is also a solid enough trick skier to stomp all over me if she were given 10 seconds and I was given 17 minutes or my run.

Vid Day Monday

This is a Go Pro edit from the Min-Aqua Bats ski team in northern Wisconsin.  Some pretty sweet shots in there, plus a bunch of dancing to Call Me Maybe...god I hate that song.  Bad ass flyover by an old WW2 era plane with barefooters underneath.  Hella cool.

Vid Day Monday

Show skiers do lots of crazy stuff, the around the boat act (ATB) is up there in the crazy list. Never smart to be in front of a moving boat, but the Sarasota show ski team does it well. 5 guys skiing backwards around the boat and an 11 man ATB are both very impressive. Somewhere in the CRB archives we have a vid of a 13 man ATB also performed by Sarasota.

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...