Words: Greg Young
Northwest Riders Clothing Co.

June 1, 2008

After countless reminders from friends that my recaps from our Summer Tour are a bit too wordy, I thought this year I might switch it up. At least for our first trip I’m going to try “journaling,” a technique that gives me the uneasy feeling that I should be laying on a twin bed in a room adorned with N’SYNC posters and stuffed animals, spilling my guts to a small pink diary. However, out of courtesy to you, the readers, perhaps a journal format is easiest…as daily life on the road is incredibly busy and doesn’t allow me much time to sit down and record my thoughts. Most likely I’ll still end up rambling on, so at least this format will provide some delightfully short chapters.

June 2, 2008

Well, after months of planning and preparation our first trip is finally upon us. It seemed as if winter would never end, but as all of the errands and packing were crossed off the list the sun finally came out as if to say “hello friends, I’m back and ready to have another outrageous adventure.” I’ve always imagined the sun to be kind of dorky if it were to talk.

The week leading up to today was pretty busy, with a few last minute projects geared primarily around the bus. Although new to us, our bus has been around the block a few times and it seems as if in its former life it might have been a heavy smoker. I say this because after a close examination by a mechanic last week it was determined that at some point the bus had no less than three fairly major electrical fires before we purchased it. We got her back just in time for the Tour, after being almost completely re-wired.

The only mishap today came when Zack and I were topping off the vegetable oil tank on the bus. We travel with a forty gallon tank full of veggie oil, and another forty gallons of reserves in five gallon cans in our rear gear compartment. We had just finished filling up the five gallon jugs when our pump went out. All of our filtration equipment for cleaning our oil is attached to the pump, which meant that we had to do it by hand. I called my Dad for help after Zack had to leave, and it took the two of us over an hour to fill our forty gallon tank (it usually takes less than two minutes), as we had to carry it from our storage tank to the bus a half gallon at a time and wait for it to drain through a small filter. It was worth it in the end though, as we pay $2.00 per gallon for veggie oil and diesel was $5.03 at the pumps. Although we’ll need to refuel somewhere during the trip to Idaho (hopefully with vegetable oil), by using 80 gallons of veggie oil instead of diesel we’ll save $242.40 on fuel.

Our staff for this trip consists of myself, Malibu team rider Brent Starr, and our good friend Chris Hudspeth. Chris is new to our staff this year, but isn’t a stranger to our Tour. We actually met him at one of our first Tour stops in 2005 when he signed up to get some instruction, and he’s been a good friend ever since.

June 3, 2008

Our first day on the road went as smooth as smooth can be. This trip is our maiden voyage towing the boat behind our bus. Despite some slow speeds at the steepest parts of the mountain passes, we made really good time. Towing a beautiful new Malibu Wakesetter behind a matching Tour Bus definitely turns some heads, especially when onlookers get close enough to notice that our exhaust smells like a Chinese restaurant. In addition to simply looking good on the road, this is the most comfortable setup we could possibly imagine. Not only are we in the best built boat in the world when we’re on the water, but traveling thousands of miles with three people in a bus that seats 15 and can sleep six is pretty nice too. Today we took turns driving while the other two could choose between playing cards in the back or sprawling out on one of the couches to watch the scenery go by.

Last night we stayed at a rest stop somewhere in Oregon, and by about 2:30 pm we had driven across most of the state of Idaho to reach the site of our first clinic in the small town of Burley. We were greeted by the always-friendly staff at Idaho Watersports where the manager, Carol, invited us to stay at her house while we were in town. We are no strangers to Carol and her husband Kent’s hospitality. It is something you would be stupid to turn down. We each had some great food and a warm shower, and after catching up with Carol and Kent we headed to bed early to get some rest for our first clinic the next day.

June 4, 2008

Before I opened my eyes this morning, Brent (who is always up earlier than anyone) woke us up with bad news. “Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.” Sure enough, the sky was bright red and jet-black storm clouds loomed in the distance. Despite water temps at 54 degrees and an air temp hovering at about 44, we actually had a great turnout. Although the wind was howling for most of the day, and temperatures were much more conducive to building snowmen than wakeboarding we had a great time. The water stayed surprisingly calm all day and somehow we avoided a single drop of rain.

The clinic went really well. During the second time slot of the day, we helped two kids (6 and 8 years old) get up on a board for the first time. After lunch, we had an awesome group of four people that drove four hours from Jackson, Wyoming just to come ride with us. Everyone had a great time and each person was riding way better by the end of the day.

Carol and Kent invited us back over to their house that night, and about half of the people from the clinic came over to hang out for the evening. It’s always nice for us to spend time off the water with everyone we meet. After dinner Andrew, one of the team riders from Idaho Watersports busted out a quad and a few of us drove to a farm down the road and watched Chris and Andrew tow each other behind the quad up and down an irrigation canal with a nice little drop down ollie. Despite the rain, it was pretty funny watching the two of them take some pretty good spills into the bank.

June 5, 2008

Although today was marked as a travel day on our calendar, there were a few people that weren’t able to make it to the clinic yesterday and we ended up having an impromto half-day clinic. The weather was a bit better, and after all of the participants rode, our staff and Andrew all had a chance to play behind the Malibu for the afternoon.

We lucked out on our way out of town today. We had been asking around about possible sources for veggie fuel, and just before we were about to get on the road, someone called a friend in town that filtered waste vegetable oil. He took us out to his warehouse and was gracious enough to part ways with 75 gallons of filtered vegetable oil for $2.50 a gallon, bringing our total fuel savings for our seven day trip to $432.15.

By the time we rolled into Nampa (one town away from Boise), it was fairly late. We ended up sneaking into the boat launch where we’d be hosting the clinics for the next two days and just slept there.

June 6, 2008

Sleeping 10 feet from the clinic is one of the best things ever. We got to sleep in a bit today (until about 6:30) and after washing the boat we dropped it in and got a nice hot shower on the swimstep before everyone arrived.

The weather today was similar to our first day in Burley, although possibly a few degrees colder. Despite the wind and frigid temperatures, the clinic was almost entirely full and those that showed up found super calm water waiting for them right next to the dam. Today was another successful clinic, and during lunch everyone escaped the cold and enjoyed their pizza in our nice warm bus.

Somehow we ended up being on the water for about 12 hours and crawled into a Mexican restaurant in town at about nine to warm up and grab some dinner. Today is the first day I can see life on the road catching up to us a bit. We’re having a great time so far, but bedtime seems to be getting earlier and earlier and I could hardly keep my eyes open at dinner tonight. Maybe this journaling thing is the cure to a long article since my entries are getting shorter and shorter each day.

June 7, 2008

I don’t think I was awake past 9:45 PM last night. We all slept for a solid nine hours last night and were up early enough for Chris to get a quick set in before the clinic started. This morning was finally sunny and a bit warmer. When I saw that one of the first riders had brought us all coffee, I think a tear came to my eye. With one sip of the piping-hot, delicious nectar we were back in full gear and ready to roll. Two of the riders in the first time slot had never tried a scarecrow before and within twenty minutes they were each throwing huge ‘crows left and right. The next two riders off the dock were doing huge toeside wake jumps for the first time in their lives, also everyone seemed to be throwing down new tricks all day and everyone, especially our staff, was stoked. I think the weather neared 70 degrees, and with good water and great riding it finally felt like summer.

After a really fun day on the lake, we pulled out of the parking lot right on schedule to start the long drive home. With a gesture reminiscent of biblical times, the locals had slaughtered a cow to celebrate our stay in Boise (or at least that’s how my version of the story goes). They sent us off with three of the most massive steaks I have ever laid eyes on for us to BBQ on the way home.

After a week of pretty trouble-free travels, we had our first unlucky break right as our journey home began. Somewhere in the thousands of wires in the bus, we had a short. Within a few hours, we started losing accessories one by one. First the side door of the bus kept blowing fuses and the compressor that keeps it shut while driving wasn’t getting power. We solved that problem by ratcheting the door shut with a tie-down strap. Next our interior lights went out, followed by our reading lights. Then our rear AC went out. Until that point, all of these things were minor inconveniences (although we couldn’t get the door to completely seal which created a steady and loud breeze through the cabin). There is an alarm that usually goes off if you put the bus into gear while the door to the storage compartment is left open. Somehow the short in the wiring caused this incredibly annoying buzzer to sound every time I tapped the brakes. For 600 miles home, every time we needed to slow down, an alarm came on that sounded like you’d touched the edge while playing Operation.

June 8, 2008

We drove for about 6 hours last night until we hit a rest stop about an hour from the Washington border. All of us woke up around 5:30 AM this morning, anxious to finish the drive and get home to rest before we started work the next morning. Mechanically, the bus ran great the whole way home, but that damned buzzer sounding every couple of minutes was enough to drive us insane. We limped across the finish line at about 11 o’clock this morning and after cleaning up I think I’m going to sleep for the rest of the day.

If you live in the Mason Lake, Tri Cities, or Issaquah, WA areas (or just feel like taking a road trip), please join us for our next clinics on Mason Lake, at The Mud Hole, or out on Lake Sammamish coming up July 11th, July 13th-14th, or July 15th-16th respectfully. Register online at NorthwestRiders.com.

We’d like to 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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