The Aussie Summer Starts Today!

I have now been back in Australia for around 3 weeks now and I have to say that I am not liking the Melbourne weather one bit!

I have been taking this time to my advantage to do some cross training to try and get fit in my little time off before the Australian season kicks off again.   A month off the board and away from the boat is good and something my folks encourage me to do every year.  It's a chance for your body to recover as well. 

The Aussie Summer kicks off this weekend with a Wakeboard Victoria Round up at Twin Lakes, Mulwala. It will be fun to finally ride again, and catch up with all of my good friends from Vic and see how they have progressed over the winter! I've notice a lot of the Bundalong Crew kept riding right through Winter so I'm expecting to see some progression.

My other big focus this year is Cable.  I am super excited about the development of the sport and the direction being taken with the establishment of Cable Wakeboard Australia.  At last someone is taking the sport seriously and realising that you need to be professional in the way events, judging and formats are managed.   I am setting up a base on the Sunshine Coast and will be using Go Wake's Cable Park at Bli Bli as me base.  

Yep, I'm starting to get the itch back. I also have a new video coming out shortly which I'm excited about.  It will be a BIG summer ahead, can't wait to see how it all pans out.

Wrapping up the US Tour

Had a great end to the american summer, my knee was really touch and go this year which caused me to have to sit a few events out, but still really stoked with how I finished up and really happy with my progress by the end of the summer looking back on how I started out.

The Surf Expo was pretty cool as usual seeing the whole industry get together in one place.  It was really good to catch up with Bret from CTRL as well as Matty and Angie who have been doing the Cable Tour.

I stuck around for an extra week to try my luck in the Monster Energy Triple Crown at OWC and ended up making the semi finals in a cable contest, pretty happy with my efforts going against some of the best in the business, and has also inspired me to take on cable a little bit more seriously this summer.   I will be doing the cable tour as well as the boat tour and I'm really excited about it all.

Most importantly I'm excited to be going home and settling in with my family and be blessed with the birth of my God Daughter, Ayla Rose who is due about when I arrive home.

What a perfect way to end a perfect summer.

Heading North to Train for the World Championships

After wrapping up US Nationals in Ohio, I headed over to Illinois to Cullen Runford's Lake House to spend some time riding on Crystal Lake.  With my knee feeling stronger after a solid month of gym work and physio, we had lots of water time, riding a bunch and hitting double ups and even did some filming for a short video featuring a bunch of Cullen's friends all riding.

One thing that I did take away from the comp was a new Board.  Phil Soven convinced me to try the CTRL RX as opposed to the Supreme that I have been riding since I switched over from O'Brien.  It feels good, I am already in love with it.

The Northwest Herald were interested in doing a story on wakeboarding and our story was a good one to write about.  A photographer and a reporter came to Cullen's Lakehouse to meet up with us and see what we do everyday.  He came out on the boat to see what out lives are all about. Then it was printed on the cover of the news paper. Super stoked about getting some exposure in the media up here.

I have also been staying at Jamie Mccauleys house and riding everyday at his Lake House and on the Wolf River which is an awesome river.  We have been riding everyday, improving our consistency and filming a lot including some footage for my new edit that will be coming out very soon.

I have also been able to spend some time with Lisa Hentz Roller and her daughter KC.  Great family.

Lisa is a sports photographer and has taken some of the shots here in this blog.  I went with Lisa to a fun day on the water at the Mastercraft Boats, Chicago Tournament of Champions where I did an exhibition ride, competed in a stand up board race and had some of the most fun I have had in the US full stop.  What a great family.  Thanks Lisa, you are amazing!

On Wednesday morning before we shredded the Wolf river filming for Ryan Murphy's up and coming wakeboarding short film, 'Do or Die' (you can find the teaser on his Instagram). After that we pulled into Fort Fremont Marine which is waterfront on the Wolf River in an awesome spot. It was round 3 of the Fort Fremont Marine Wakeboard Series.

We had perfect conditions all day and I had a great day networking with a bunch of new people from the area and did some MC duties at the competition which was alot of fun.

I had a fantastic ride standing up both of my passes as well as my wild card trick.  I stomped 3 7's, a 9 and multiple mobe 5s as well as a hoochie to blind. I was super stoked that all this training that I have been doing is paying off!  It was a confidence boost heading into the World Championships which starts tomorrow for me at Pleasant Prairie in Wisconsin.   Lucky for me its only 20 minutes from the house I am staying at.