Northwest Riders 2007 Summer Clinic Tour - Montana “Part I”

NORTHWEST RIDERS CLINIC
“MONTANA-PART I”
by Greg Young
Photos : Brent Starr

It seems as though another summer has flown by as fast as they always do. I know that we still have another month or so left of good weather and riding, but for all of us on the Northwest Riders Summer Tour, the end of August marks the end of our days on the road. What better place to end a few months on the road than a drive thru “the Treasure State.” That’s right, I’m talking about the “Land of Shining Mountains:” Montana! In fact, the story of our trip is bigger than the Montana sky, meaning I’ve got to chop our tasty tale in two (conveniently named Part I and Part II).

This is the trip that our whole staff refuses to miss and one that, despite the work, feels like a week-long camping trip with the guys. Our travels would take us about 12 hours from Seattle to Great Falls, followed by a drive on the outskirts of Glacier National Park to just outside of Kalispell and Whitefish. Our team, consisting of myself, Brent Starr, Sean Kilgus, and our buddy Ben Lee, left on two separate days. With clinics on Tuesday and Wednesday in Great Falls, Brent and I left on Sunday so we’d have plenty of time to stop along the way to camp and do some wakeboarding. Sean and Ben had to work Monday and drive thru the night to get there in time.

Brent and I took his truck and new camper, and with boat in tow we headed out with a hungry appetite for adventure. We stopped along the way to buy the critical supplies: bagels and cream cheese, beer, water, string cheese, coffee creamer, deli meat, a $9 fishing pole, powerbait, and a 15” flat screen with which to hook up the DVD player and Playstation. Our first nights stay was at a lovely campground just outside of Couer d’Alene. Our camp host promised us that we would see a herd of dees and probably meese (those are what we decided the proper terminology for herds of deer and moose were). Despite our best efforts of looking out the windows constantly and even driving around looking for meese, we came up empty handed. Down but not out, we continued across the smokey hills and plains of what seemed like an endless land. We had heard that there were forest fires burning throughout Montana, but neither of us expected it to be so bad. Some parts of the drive we could hardly see a half mile in front of us because the smoke was so bad. A lot of highways were closed, but somehow managed not to get lost. We arrived in Great Falls Monday afternoon just in time to take a tour of the Missouri River where our clinic would be the next day, and also had enough time to ride for quite awhile too.

While Sean and Ben drove straight thru the night, Brent and I took full advantage of the media center and after a restful night awoke to a full pot of coffee and the river only 500 feet from the front door. The clinic didn’t start until 11 o’clock, giving Brent and I enough time to take a morning set (something that doesn’t happen as much as we’d like). The river there is really nice, it’s completely glassy and there are literally dozens of deer (or dees) eating along the shoreline. As the clinic went on throughout the day, we were the only boat on the water, it was over 90 degrees, and the conditions stayed perfect until the sun went down. The hospitality from everyone at Missouri River Marine was outstanding, everyone made us feel right at home from beginning to end.

Day 2 of the clinics was nice and full, and really fun. Every single person learned something new, whether it was the five kids that did their first surface 180’s, or the guy who landed a scarecrow. It’s always nice to get out of town and meet some new people. I spent almost an hour talking to a 12 year old kid named Jon about harvesting wheat (I now know quite possibly everything there is to know about harvesting wheat, and am considering demolishing my driveway to put in a winter crop). Our Malibu Wakesetter handled the mighty Missouri like a champ, and once again the sun was out all day and the water was a solid sheet of glass. I even had time to sneak in a barefoot set (off of the boom) with a great Montanan barefooter named Jerry. I’ve never seen anyone do a deepwater start backwards, or barefoot backwards while crossing the wake at 42 mph, and I never want to try it myself. It was pretty unreal to watch though.

We owe a huge Thank You to all of the people at Missouri River Marine in Great Falls, MT. Dave, Larry, Marva, Julie, Clay, Darryl, Kim, Ben, Bruce, and anyone else I either misnamed or left out. We can’t thank you enough for your hospitality or hard work on the clinics. We would like to thank all of our sponsors who allow us to have the most fun jobs any of us could imagine. Thanks to Malibu Boats for our beautiful Wakesetter, Extreme Trailers for a great way to tow it, Titan Wake Accessories for some rocking Alpha 1 speakers and the super-handy swivel board racks, Westwinds Tower Accessories for our ultra bright aimable tower lights, Slingshot & Hyperlite for a truckload of demo gear, Bill Baker and the Staff at Bakes Marine, BFY Productions, DieCutStickers.com, Northwest Riders Clothing, and of course Wakeboardnorthwest.com for following the action.

To read other Northwest Riders 2007 Summer Clinic Tour recaps, click on the links below :

Northwest Riders Summer Clinic Tour - “Take 1″

Northwest Riders Summer Clinic Tour - “Take 2″

Northwest Riders 2007 Summer Clinic Tour - Madras, OR Recap

The Northwest Riders 2007 Summer Clinic Tour is Sponsored by : Malibu Boats, BAKES Board & Ski, Northwest Riders Clothing, Hyperlite, Westwinds, Titan, BFY Productions, DiecutStickers.com, Slingshot, WakeboardNorthwest.com

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