Words: Greg Young
Northwest Riders Clothing Co.

June 12th

It hasn’t even been a week since we were last on the road, and I’m already getting antsy to leave again. I don’t know if it’s just the chance to travel with your buddies, the ever-changing scenery, or the scary addiction to gas station cuisine that one develops…but once you get a taste for life on the road it never stops drawing you back. The weather hasn’t been much better this week, so I’m really counting on the weatherman’s predictions for sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 70’s. Although Zack (Clark) has been an owner of the company for a few years, this clinic will be the first he’ll make it to since 2005. It’ll be good to have him along for the fun, especially since he’s been putting so much time in at the office lately and hasn’t had a chance to be out on the water much. As soon as he and Brent get done with work this afternoon, we’re hitting the road in hopes of arriving in Coeur D’Alene a day early and getting a chance to get some riding of our own done.

June 13th

We didn’t leave Bakes last night until about 8:30, so we ended up sleeping at a truck stop somewhere outside of Moses Lake. We rolled into Post Falls at about 9:00 AM, and stopped at a local eatery where we each ordered a BBIT (Best Breakfast In Town) from the menu. Hauser Lake is pretty close to I-90 and following breakfast we arrived there just in time to see the water turn to crap just as quickly as the wind began gusting to 20 mph. Brent took a set and despite some pretty ugly conditions, he showed Hauser Lake who was boss. In four years of doing these clinics, this was sadly the first time we’ve ever had an entire day to kill ahead of time. With worsening riding conditions, we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves for the rest of the day. We ended up sitting around the parking lot of the boat launch all afternoon eating Brats and enjoying some frosty beverages.

Eventually the wind died down and we spent the evening cruising around in the boat enjoying our day off. Just as we were settling in for the night, we had a visitor stop by the bus and chat for about 20 minutes. His name was literally JimBob (no exaggeration) and in between a couple of cigarettes and a few tall cans of Busch Lite, he shared the extended version of his life story and how he got into boating. For a quiet first day in a small town, it felt good to make a new friend.

June 14th

Today was the first day its felt like summer this year. The sun was out early and our staff each got to take a set before the clinic started. Our first riders of the day were a family that until yesterday had our location confused with a lake in Montana (where they lived) that was also called Hauser Lake.

Conveniently, they had a private plane and decided to simply fly out to our event rather than driving across Montana to get here. The conditions were 100% better than yesterday, with glassy water sticking around throughout most of the day. In similar fashion to the morning group who had traveled hundreds of miles to see us, our afternoon group was a family that drove five hours from Puyallup just to ride with us for two hours. We were pretty stoked to have people go to such lengths just to come wakeboarding with us and learn a new trick or two.

After the event, and after we each took another set behind the Wakesetter and then drove into Coeur D’Alene for a little get together. Matt Robinson from 3F2 and WakeFirst.com invited us out to his house for a barbeque with some of his family and friends. He put on quite a spread and we got to catch up with Matt, Idaho ripper Rick Knott, and some other wakeboard brethren over more food than we usually eat in a week on the road.

After a short Guitar Hero jam session and many games of “Shake Face,” we were off for another night spent at the boat launch. Shake Face is an awesome game that Rick Knott taught us a few months ago, but basically involves entirely relaxing your face and shaking it vigorously from side-to-side while a friend poses while holding up a fist. If you take a picture at the right second, you end up with a great photo of what looks like your buddy clocking you in the mouth. Its pretty entertaining.

June 15th

Today was almost as hot as yesterday, although the water didn’t stay quite as calm. The Maus brothers came out and ripped behind the Malibu. These guys had a ton of style and from what we hear have not been riding all that long. Keep an eye out for them in the future.

We also had a couple of return customers come and join us. Brenda, who rode with us yesterday came out and took some awesome crashes trying to stick a backroll. A guy name Sean, who came to a clinic in Seattle two years ago, drove out to join us and after a few attempts nailed his first invert ever, a nice lofty backroll. We didn’t realize when we scheduled today’s clinic that it was Fathers Day, so our signups were a few spots away from being full. We hit the road a bit early, and made it home before it got too late. Our only mishap of the trip came today when we realized that we pumped vegetable oil out of the wrong barrel at our office, and rather than nice clean veggie oil we accidentally pumped a bunch of sludge (water, food chunks, and fat) into the tank for the second part of our drive. We had to do the whole trip home on diesel, which was a bummer, but I don’t think we did any long term damage. All in all, the trip was fun and relaxing, and it sure felt great to see our first glimpse of summer weather.

We have just added some new clinic dates to the 2008 Summer Tour. We added a Mason Lake, WA stop that is only about a week away and still has spots available. We will be hanging out at Brent Starr’s place and will enjoy what should be great conditions. We also have put a stop down in Wilsonville, Oregon on the Tour at the end of the month. Head on over to www.northwestriders.com and sign up now for these…or any of the other upcoming clinics throughout WA, OR, ID, and MT. We look forward to seeing everyone and enjoying some sun and wake.

We’d like to again thank all of our sponsors who make our adventures possible. First and foremost thanks are in order for Malibu Boats. Our 2008 Wakesetter 23LSV is the best boat ever built. A huge thank you to Titan Wake Accessories for our awesome tower speakers and board racks. Slingshot Wakeboards has been incredible this season as well, if you haven’t tried their boards or bindings yet, you need to. Thanks also to Bakes Online, Sol Sunguard, Straight Line, Red Bull, Hyperlite, and of course WakeboardNorthwest.com. We know that we have the best jobs known to man and we couldn’t do it without these sponsors.

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