The Bragging Starts HERE.

[ragboy]

Well we had a great time at the Calif. Surf Comp. Surfdad and others did a great job putting the whole thing together. The only real problem I had was with the small lake and tons of people and wind. However, can't be helped much, especially since its one of the only lakes with water in it right now in Calif. Since our oroville ramp was going to be closed and since we lost at least a month of lake time with the fires, I decided to make a small vacation of this, and we got up there wed night. We were supposed to have the only suite, but we found out the AC broke, so they were going to bump us to 2 rooms. We wanted the suite, because it was same price as 2 rooms, and there are 8 of us, and they allowed all 8 of us in the suite. They gave us an option of 2 kings with private balconies overlooking the lake for all 5 days, or a private chalet, with private dock, but we had to move to the 2 king rooms by friday at noon.

I thought the chalet would be fun, so we did it. It was ok, but the view and private dock could not be beat.

Here is what the chalet looked like from the dock.



Here is the chalet from the lake, with the private dock in front of it. The chalet is on the left.



This is the camera panned to the left, and here is the resort, hotel on left, docks in front, and ramp in middle.



Here is our private dock, and since we were going to be here for a few days, I thought it would be fun to have the waverunners to run around when it was choppy.



My view of the lake/dock from the chalet deck.



The kids def had fun on the waverunners between surf sessions while amy and I got rest.



My crew, gotta love 'em.



Some pictures of other houses on the lake.

[ragboy]

First ones on, last ones off.

We hit the lake at 6am on Thursday, and every day, not knowing if it would be busy or what. It was a good decision, the water was beautiful. Don't get the wrong idea though, this is the ONLY time it was like this. Around 9, boats started showing up. The lake was so small that 10 boats made it choppy. There were MANY more than that on the weekend. And the wind picked up after lunch, and didn't die down til almost dark, and still choppy til after 10pm.



It was a bit chilly.



I have raised my kids since they were young, get in, or I will throw you in. Now, its not even an issue. So much so, that our 3 year old is ALWAYS the first to jump in, she wants to be like the big kids, and she wants to surf, but can't do it yet. So she at least wants to prove she is big by being the first one in, this is at like 6:15 am or so.



RJ was first to surf, he was the most pumped to practice. He lost so much time this season, he wanted to get out there, this is when he first got up, and was getting used to the chill.



But he started to loosen up quick.







He is no James Walker, but he is really progressing.





Cold or not, whitney is always smiling.



Whitney is really working on her lip slides.





Ashley just loves her pretty blue lake, and likes to just carve, with a few touches of slides every once in a while.





And jesse, well her job is just being cute, and bugging t-bone.

[ragboy]

T-Bone and Maddy, and the night rides.

Thomas on thursday and friday, was still not able to free ride for more than a few seconds.



But he braved the cold, I told him all I wanted him to do in the comp, was let go of the rope and free ride for as long as he could, he was up at dawn, and was a trooper.



Here he is, shivering, and finally doing it after several sessions.



TRYING to get back in!



And he did.



Maddy has been free-riding, but her goal was to do a couple of grabs, and free ride without falling. She has a funny technique, to keep her weight over the board, we call it the superman.



The little guys use the cybershapes, because it is much more stable with 3 fins, and is small enough to handle.



Here are maddies tricks, she is getting it.





I call this one the DUMP.



Then her best (she does get her knee all the way down for a couple of secs):



And then the night riding, I mainly left that for only RJ, not the little ones. It was still choppy, but not bad, and my lights lit up the lake. We were def the last ones on the lake, and it was fun showing off my tower lights, they are bright. The inland guys were envious.

[ragboy]

Saturday demo made me giddy.

One of the things I wanted to accomplish this weekend, was to get a real good look at the boats, like the new sanger, and the enzo, and how they were weighted. Do I want to upgrade my boat away from tige to a better wake? or not?

So I asked on saturday, if I could get a demo, and give RJ a ride. Jeff was more than happy, and dennis and bre horton (also walker project sales reps) took us for a ride. The wake was def nice, but talking to dennis, and seeing the wake close up, it was clear that my tige as good or better, and would def be better, if I really get better with weighting it, and learning the best for my boat. RJ def felt the same way, he said the lip was not there like ours. Was nice to see him say he liked ours better. I didn't have the camera, just the iphone, and didn't take pics of RJ.

But wait, there's more. So Jeff (surfdad) pulls up and asks me if I wouldn't mind being the chase boat on sunday, and if he could use a waverunner, no problem. He has Chase Hazen, and his son James on board. They want a few minutes on the Sanger. So Dennis asks if I don't mind staying on the boat for a while so we can give them a pull. OK, so thats like the equivalent of Angelina Jolie asks me if I don't mind if she removes her top. So said yes as cooly as possible, and I saw RJ ready to bust a nut when James and Chase were getting into the boat.

And this is why I love surfing.

Chase went first, and it was amazing seeing him close up, I have seen him before, but from another boat, but still close. This time, I was in the back corner, as close as possible. There was no stereo, and the sanger was pretty quiet....

flashback....
When I was 17, and learning to surf, I had an experience that I always remember, and kept me surfing for several years. I was on a local beach on Oahu, called Ala Moana. I was dark, and had a local motion board, so the locals didn't bother me. I was nervous, but held my own, but would give up the wave to any other local if we paddled together, to keep from getting jumped by 10 locals. When I would pull back on the wave, some of these guys were incredible, and they would catch the wave and pull an ariel right after the first drop. This would sometimes put their board in the air, and fins right in front of my face. It was bitchen looking, and it sounded amazing when you heard the board carve then it made a pfft at the top of the wave, went silent, then landed again.
End flashback...

When chase cut and caught air, I heard that sound, and bought me all the way back, it was very cool. He caught it so effortlessly, just hit the ramp, up at least 18 inches, and back down the ramp. He also had a move where he cuts up the wave and flicks the board back so hard, it sprays everyone in the boat. I had to risk dropping my iphone, so I got a couple of ok pics.

This is him finishing that signature move.



About to get air, timing is REAL hard on the iphone.



Barely got his launch.



Then James got up. Same sound, same amazing air, but he also has such a style on his board, effortlessly pulling shovits and other great stuff. I wish I had a video camera. Stills do NO justice. Especially with an iphone, and you are afraid you are going to drop it in the water, I got the timing, but totally botched the framing.





James also has one of the most beautiful boards out there, I love that green and white combo.

Anyway, I walked away with a great time with RJ, he wasn't my son for a while, he was just my buddy.

Also, I came away with the realization, I can have one badass surf boat with the 24Ve, and am going to keep working on it to make it awesome. Gonna be fun.

On a side note, there were a lot of other issues I saw with the Sanger, but I will post that later.

[ragboy]

Almost done, I swear.

So during our demo we spent a lot of time talking with dennis and bre. Dennis gave me lots of great advice on weighting, and I have already purchased 800 lbs of pop bags, more on that some other time.

Bre, his daughter was a treat, and reminded me of my bubbly whitney. She really enjoyed RJ riding, and was surprised he was only 12, and thought he might like her board over the loogey. Now we have wanted to try the bullet before, but haven't had the chance. So she lets RJ try her board, which is based on the bullet, but is the James Walker Pro model coming out soon. So she offers RJ to try, and he does, and instantly you can see how much more responsive the board is, and he is getting off the wake into the air better and more consistently. So she offers to let him ride it in the comp. He wasn't sure, but I said what if you have time to practice, he says ok, she says ok, but ding it and she will kill us. So we promise to baby it.

So we did a night run, and a morning run with the loaner.

Took him a bit to get used to, but he was digging it. You really have to adjust your feet on the board with this one, but he picked it up pretty quick.





And the next morning.



Finishing a 3, on his first attempt on this board.



No straps on this bullet!

[ragboy]

The competition

I don't have pics of the kids competing yet. Bre was taking pics from the boat, and told me she would get them to me. I will post when I have them. But here is how it went.

It was REAL choppy, not just chop, but rollers. I felt bad for t-bone. But he got up no problem, and on first run, dropped rope at end, and fell right away in chop. On second run, he dropped the rope about halfway in, and actually free rode for a bit. It was tough, and I was very proud of him, he practiced hard, and gave it all he got.

It got even rougher with maddie, all of a sudden it was like school was out, and boats came from everywhere. I tried to chase them all but no way. She rode free almost the whole second pass, and did at least one grab, she did great.

They got 1st and 2nd, but were only little ones.



Then came RJ, he is real hard on himself, so I tried to prepare him for the chop, and just told him to do his best. He probably won't be able to try 3, but hopefully some nice carving, good lip/power slides and maybe an air or 2, just a bit of air. He did it, I saw sky at least once on each pass under his board, and he attempted a 3 at the end of his second pass but didn't land it.

Whitney did great, she carved it up, and did a couple of slides, she did good, I don't think she fell at all, or maybe just once.

RJ and whit both got trophy's, RJ took first, and 2nd place was good. Kept stealing RJ's eye also, had to keep slapping him to concentrate. ;-) She was cute.



Ashley did great also, didn't fall, did her thing, didn't get a trophy, but did good.

Jesse managed to get in all the pictures, like this one.



Ash got to emcee the giveaways, she is holding the mic.



Maddie and Whitney got to help announce, here is maddie with sean cummings.

[ragboy]

We won, we usually do.

We have good luck at these things. Won 2 surfboards, and special racks for the warehouse. Funny, whitney won a calibrated board, their first surf style, not yet out. Mike more than made up for last year with my family, and was especially nice to my kids. Whitney wants to put a calibrated sticker on the boat!







Here is a pic of Whitney trying out the new calibrated, she likes it, and wants to keep it.



Oh, and she got it signed by James Walker, ain't that cute.



And RJ trying the SMED. He liked it, but not more than the loogey, or the JW pro.

[ragboy]

And some great shmoozing.

I came away loving my Tige even more. I think I put 35 hours on it, and 10 on sunday. It is going to progress into one badass wakesurf boat. Got lots of great tips from the walkers and the hortons and others.

Mike from calibrated wants to talk about building me a board like whitney's, only longer and thicker.

Sean Cummings seemed to really take a liking to my kids and remembered us from worlds last year, and knew we liked inland boards. He got a real kick out of maddie and t-bone. He was dissapointed to hear about RJ using the JW pro, and that I was planning on buying one. He told me about the new carbon rail loogey, supposed to be better and faster. He offered us to come down and spend a saturday with him, and he would have all the boards to demo. So we are going to wait on the JW Pro decision until that demo, since we have been loyal to inland thus far. We will see.

[ragboy]

OK, I swear this is it.

Had a great time, lots of pics. Sorry for the long post, but I am very proud of my kids. And also, I hope that it helps bring more of you guys out to some of these competitions, either wakesurfing or INT, or WWA, they can be a lot of fun.

Finally, here are some random pics. Starting off with ashley. It is a running joke, she is the mellowest surfer, but somehow always seems to have the most dramatic falls.









Lights out for jesse on one of our night rides.



FIN.

[TRD]

Awesome! Looks like you guys had a great time. Congrat to RJ and whitney.

We are just learning to surf. Still not able to let go of the rope.

[da.bell]

Great picture and awesome experiences. Wish I would have went just to watch and visit

That lake is crazy. My friends MB took a wake over the side windshield around noon time. I have never seen that before. But you are right, 10 boats and all the crazy people down there causes that lake to get messed up quickly.

Rag, you have some cute kids.. Just make sure the shotgun is close because there are going to be some boys that will want to come over. And Jesse is so adorable. Can I adopt her????

I am still laughing about the Calibrated comments. Just too funny and how 1 year can definitely turn things around.

Thanks for sharing. Awesome....

[jwanck11]

Thanks for all of the picts... it was like being there with you guys!!!

Congrats to your kids!

[SPBFAN]

Looks like you had a blast and what an experience.

[akdoc]

Looks like a great time! I might have to make a trip with the fam out to nor cal next year from Kansas!!

[samw]

Great Job rag nice pics.