So after only 3 months I have departed Orlando… I am a bit torn about it to be honest.. I am happy to be going home to get my shoulder sorted out and also to see my friends and family, but I am also really gutted to be leaving Orlando so soon. Here is the last sunset Lake Holden had to offer before I left.

Now I am making my way up to San Antonio, Texas, to do some final filming for ‘In-Transit’. The plan is to meet up with local rider Gabe Lucas to hit up some winch spots and possibly build a rail to session. From there we will head up to the Dallas, Ft Worth area to meet up with Alex Brown, Joey Bradley and the rest of the iwake.com crew to do some boat riding. I have gone over most of the footage that Carnie has of me and I will be focusing on hitting a few ‘Bangers’ to complete my section.

The Trip is already off to a ripping start… Due to unfortunate events Chris’O and Carnie both missed their flight up to San Antonio so I was stuck waiting for them at the airport until their new arrival time 6 hours later. Then we find out that their next flight is canceled leaving me stranded at the Airport without much of a plan.. Here is the little spot I made into my temporary home..

Finally after about 6 hours of waiting I managed to get hold of Gabe who ended up picking me up and giving me a place to crash.. Stoked!

And this is the view I woke up to..

Today I will be heading down to Corpus Christi for the ‘Obscura’ Wakeskate movie premier. We will be rolling down there with a bit of a crew including Myself, Gabe Lucas, Aaron Reed and a few more. Looking forward to a good night!

After 8 days in Texas I will be heading up to LA to catch up with a few friends for about 4 days and then I will be headed home to NZ!!

Stay tuned for more on our In-Transit Texas trip..

I have really been getting into the TV show on Discovery… WHALE WARS!! Good to see a group of people standing up for what they believe in..

As a bit of a tribute we re-painted Dieters Jet ski with a bit of a Whale Wars Stealth theme. Check it.

Really, it’s been two weeks and I don’t have much news!

I’ve got a few more photos so I’ll throw em on and if you don’t mind a bit of rude humour I have attached a iTunes clip of a pod cast from the Ricky Gervais show. Just click and it shooooould work!

—> Knob Eater <—

Otherwise here is a few facts of the place and a few things I’ve been seeing.

I would love to throw a bit of skate photos and a lil clip on but I haven’t been doing much of that because of Uni work! Gah.

But I met a few locals on Domingo (Sunday) and will go for a roll this weekend sometime…so there may be a little skate clip – but it will probably be very chilled out!

These are a few headlines we have been hearing, all from within the city, Monterrey, where I am living and studying…in the last month.

At least six people kidnapped in Mexico hotel raid

A convoy of between 10 and 15 vehicles carrying as many as 30 gunmen pulled into the Holiday Inn at around 2 a.m., Garza y Garza said.A businessman from Mexico City, Luis Miguel Gonzalez, was kidnapped,A hotel receptionist, David Salas, was also kidnapped, together with another hotel employee,A security guard at the hotel was missing,Northern Mexico, particularly the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, have seen a recent uptick in violent activity, much of it blamed on warring drug cartels.

Mexico apologizes after soldiers kill two students

The Mexican government has apologized to the families of two students killed early Friday who officials initially said were drug gang members.

Jorge Antonio Mercado Alonso, 23, and Javier Francisco Arredondo Verdugo, 24, were mechanical engineering graduate students at the Technological Institute of Higher Learning of Monterrey, the Mexican Interior Ministry said Sunday in its apology for the shootings.

Mexican soldiers chasing criminals who had fired on an army patrol shot and killed the students, the Interior Ministry said. Some of the criminals had fled onto the college campus.

There are no official government tallies, but more than 16,000 people are estimated to have died in the drug wars. The vast majority of the deaths are among reputed criminals, with some police and military also being killed. Relatively few of the deaths have been civilians.Even so, the United States and Canada have issued travel warnings, particularly along the border area. The Texas Department of Public Safety took the unprecedented step this year of recommending that students on spring break not go to border areas inside Mexico.

72 bodies found in Mexico were immigrants, officials say

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/world/americas/26mexico.html?_r=1&ref=americas

Them 72 bodies were found today, just outside of Monterrey. Mexico is real! …and it’s kinda freaky being in the middle here! I used to feel safe walking around with my skateboard as a weapon if I was skating at night in Auckland. Here I would rather carry something with bullets in it…

The difference is, these crimes often happen during the day, so it’s basically saying the Drug Cartels don’t give a damn cause they run the show and theres nothing to hide.

Eek!

I just got back from the WWA Worlds where fellow Ronix and Skull Candy team rider Dean Smith won his first major event in the US.. not to mention the fact that it was the WWA Worlds!!!

Dean was first off the dock in the final and was riding against Danny Harf, Trevor Hansen and the Soven Brothers. His run was off the hook with tricks like his huge indy moby dick, toeside and heelside 720s, Nuclear Whirly, front mobe 540 followed by a switch front mobe.. His trick off the Double up was the one that sealed the deal.. the biggest and most legit hoochie glide to backside 360!

Congrats Dean… There is going to be a loose party in the hood tonight!!

Pro Men Final
1. Dean Smith (AUS) – 78.33
2. Phillip Soven (USA) – 73.33
3. Trevor Hansen (USA) – 66.67
4. Danny Harf (USA) – 58.33
5. Bob Soven (USA) – 45.00

Pro Women Final
1. Nicola Butler (GRB) – 81.67
2. Amber Wing (AUS) – 75.00
3. Raimi Merritt (USA) – 65.00
4. Hayley Smith (AUS) – 56.67
5. Melissa Marquardt (USA) – 50.00
6. Meagan Ethell (USA) – 41.67

Pro Wakeskate Final
1. Reed Hansen (USA) – 94.67
2. Brian Grubb (USA) – 83.33
3. Stuart Shinn (USA) – 71.67
4. Danny Hampson (USA) – 53.33

Jr. Pro Men Final
1. Nick Galotifore (USA) – 83.25
2. Steel Lafferty (USA) – 80.75
3. Daniel Powers (USA) – 80.50
4. Raphael Derome (CAN) – 80.00
5. Freddie Wayne (USA) – 75.00
6. Michael Dowdy (USA) – 50.00

For the press release and for all results go to www.allisports.com

This Weekend is set to be a huge one here in Orlando Florida.. The WWA World Championships are on at OWC and everyone is in town for it.

I will unfortunately not be riding in it due to my shoulder injury but I will certainly be there to cheer on the gang.. No doubt it will be a huge Pro Men’s final with heavy hitters Danny Harf, Rusty Malinoski, Phill & Bob Soven, and Harley Clifford who seems to be unstoppable with insane new tricks like the wake to wake 1080 and toeside backside 7… not to mention 5 different wake to wake 900′s seen in the video below.

After the Worlds mayhem is over I will be checking out the annual ‘Feet On Fire’ Barefoot comp which is only for people from the wakeboard community.. Always fun to watch and a good party.

Following that I will be heading up to Texas to do some final filming for my section in ‘In-Transit’ before heading back to NZ to get my shoulder sorted out.

I will check back in with the Worlds Results after the weekend.

Hi Guys, just a quick update after the Burton open this week. It was an interesting comp with the weather rolling in this year and making conditions a bit rough but the Cardrona park boys worked their magic and we got through the low visibility n slushy snow and the first Slopestyle comp for the Open series was done n dusted. I managed to get back on the podium this year, one spot up from 3rd last year. So stoked to say the least. ;D

Burton Open 2nd place, one up from last year

Check some footage from the first comp of the season the NZ Burton open.

http://www.nzsnowboard.com/articles/886/exclusive_video__burton_nz_open_slopestyle_finals

Then the pipe was the next day, so jealous as they scored the good weather. Ipod and Kelly took it out. sick work in that stunt ditch guys whahoo

http://www.nzsnowboard.com/articles/888/exclusive_video__burton_nz_open_halfpipe

So with some help from Massey Univeristy (thanks Wesley Higgins for making it happen!!) , I flew down to Queenstown for 3days to compete in the Export 33 Parklife invitational rail jam- and what a time I had!!

Above- Joram giving the camera some love!

Firstly, just to be back snowboarding for this short amount of time was enough!! To tell you the truth, I now understand what people mean when the say a break is as good as (or better) than training….. after being off the snow for over 6months and my first drop in back on my snowboard being in New Zealand’s most prestigious rail jam of the year things could have been hmmm, lets just say average to poor!! I was stoked, I landed everything I wanted to land along with a trick I have never tried before!! That’s gotta be good right?

Above -Me, starting off the night with some saftey tricks – front board!

Above- Stephi with a front 180 out

Finishing up in 2nd with props to Stephi Luxton from Wanaka, NZ who took it out, whether she was aware of it or not she encouraged me to push my riding (even though I was ‘surpose to be taking it easy’ -there’s my competitive streak coming out) and to Liz Hogland from the USA who was also in the finals.  Joemack and Nick Hine tied in the men’s snowboard division, each collecting $1000! Good times were had!

And of course with every good competition theres a good after party… with VIP riders bands on our arms hooking it up with free beer/entry the works it was hard not to have a good time!

Queenstown hadn’t seen snow for close on 6weeks, it decides its prime time to put it on just for me! Haha, Sunday we had a couple of hours shredding Coronet with supposably 45cm but even as most was wind blown it was still a solid 20cm!! GET SOME!

Popped over to Wanaka for my last night for BBQ and catch up and probably having more fun than whats good for me head back bright and early to ship back to Auckland and back to study for my 2000 word essay due….

It hurt to leave, -trust me!! but anything that keeps me away from the snow while I’m still “technically” injured is good! -I know, why did I compete in this comp if I’m not %100 right?… good question, my answer… – quite simply because I am incredibly stupid but also lucky at the same time as didn’t do any damage and am still in one piece. Damm it was worth it!! So fun…

Don’t do what I do- do what the Dr says!! =)

See you Queenstwon and Wanaka- hopefully very sooooooon!

When your talking about progression in wakeboarding you instantly think of Ronix… But this is just going a little over the top.. I guess thats how we roll at Ronix…

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/video/video.php?v=1449484250077&ref=mf