Northwest Riders Summer Clinic Tour - “Take 2″

NORTHWEST RIDERS TOUR “TAKE 2”

words by Greg Young
photos by Bryan Myss

Ok, so I admit that my last posting tipped the scales in favor of being way too long. I wrote it in one sitting and probably should have tried to read it myself before submitting it. To make it up to you the readers I’ll attempt to be brief, but without straying from my dedication to be wildly entertaining, smart, and provocative. Not that I’m off to a great start at brevity, but here goes…..

After our semi-grueling schedule brought us through the untamed wilderness of Idaho and Eastern Washington, we had a chance to hang out at home for about a week and a half and catch up on some work and sleep. The break flew by and we soon found ourselves due back in action for a few clinics on Lake Sammamish in Issaquah, WA. The clinics were for our local dealership and one of our sponsors, Bakes Marine. The week started with a nice little surprise when I went to pull the boat out of my back lot and not one, but two, of our trailer tires were completely flat. Not fun to fix in the rain, but I got it worked out and fortunately it was the only complication of the trip.

Monday morning came early for Brent, who had to be up at 3:30 and on the road by 4:00 am to make it to the lake to meet me. I almost felt guilty sleeping in until 5. Bakes had completely sold out of spots for the two day event and our first customers arrived promptly at 7:45. We were on the water by 7:55, which I commented was probably the first time that anything in the history of wakeboarding had ever started early. Although the day was a bit on the overcast side, we were fortunate enough not to get rained on and actually had pretty good water throughout the day. All of the people that showed up to ride were super cool and we all enjoyed spending the day hanging out with them. Everyone rode well and improved a lot, most landing at least one new trick for the first time. Two of our riders will even get a chance to see themselves on TV. KING5 NEWS came out and filmed for an upcoming segment that they’re doing on the Bakes Northwest Invitational on July 28th.

We finished right at 5 o’clock, just as Bret V, Thomas Olson, and Spencer Norris arrived to hang out for awhile and to try to squeeze in a sunset photo shoot. The water had gotten pretty gnarly by then, but we enjoyed the company and actually got some pretty good photos in. The boat went in the water at 7:30 that morning and stayed in until almost 10 o’clock that night. We finished the evening at the one restaurant in town still open and headed to bed.

Tuesday morning greeted us with a delicious treat, as the first image of the morning was Bret V walking towards our sleeping bags with fresh smoothies in hand. Although I thought the idea of Bret blending up fresh fruit at 6 in the morning was almost as fruity as the smoothies themselves, they were actually really good. He even tossed in some fresh mangoes and pineapples, a real rarity in the home smoothie making category. It was at least 70 degrees by the time we started that morning, and the weather continued to get nicer and nicer as the day drifted on. Another great crew of people joined us for the day and the water again stayed nice until the afternoon set. We had a blast hanging out with everyone and again saw a lot of people really improve their riding. Sean Kilgus (BFY Productions) wasn’t able to join us for our trip through Idaho, but he was in town for this one and brought out his newly wrapped VLX, which looked sweet. People were able to hang out in his boat while they were waiting for their turn to go out and ride, which was definitely sweet since the weather was so nice.

If any of you out there haven’t been to one of our clinics, you should check out our schedule and come out to one when we’re in your area. Each day is just as much about kicking back on the boat and hanging out with friends as it is about going wakeboarding. Not only do you get to wakeboard or surf behind a new Wakesetter LSV all day, but you get to have a pro rider (Brent Starr) watch you and tell you what you can work on to take your riding to a whole new level. After that you get to hang out on the beach, enjoy a free lunch, and network with other riders in your area. If you’re there around noon, you also get to pile back in the boat and watch Brent take a set and see one of the best riders around do what he does best. Our next clinic is at Lake Billy Chinook near Madras, OR on July 30th and 31st. Call Madras Marine at (541) 475-2476 to sign up.

NORTHWEST RIDERS SUMMER CLINIC TOUR SCHEDULE
(These dates are the remaining NWR Tour stop. You can still sign up for these Clinics)

JULY

28: Bakes NWI (Wake) - Renton, WA
30-31: NWR Summer Tour (Wake) - Madras, OR

AUGUST

12: NWR Summer Tour (Wake) - Cour d’ Alene, ID
14-15: NWR Summer Tour (Wake) - Great Falls, MT
17: NWR Summer Tour (Wake) - Kalispell, MT

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

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.