If you ever get to travel to this part of the country, I highly recommend stopping here (Tamarack Resort near McCall, ID). Wether it is summer or winter, this place is beautiful.  Cascade Lake is right at the base for the resort, and just near that up in McCall is Payette Lake.  The group hear at Pro Peak Sports is awesome, involved in everything all times of the year so it was a blast to get to hang out with them all and see everything that this area has to offer.  The Mt. Provides Skiing in the winter Down Hill Mt. Biking in the summer, and then then lake is right there as well for summer water activities! This group has been very supportive of the Kite and had a lot of fun joining them at there event, and got a few prospective customers even more excited about the kite once they got on it and worked with them.  

This was a rather short quick trip and wish I could have stayed longer but again I have to thank this group for there hospitality! I had a great time!

Riding on Cascade Lake

Back in my old College Town... What can I say its always fun going back and seeing old friends!  I first have to give a bit thanks to Nanci Smith and Sarah Schlatter of Blue Turns Water Sports! I met Nanci after my last year of playing Basketball for the University of Oregon. I knew I wanted to get back into wakeboarding, and I was put in touch with Nanci though a friend knowing that she ran a ski and wakeboard school.  Ever since then I have stayed in contact with her and has become a good friend.  When she found out I became involved in WakeKite she was one of the first people that I contacted to try it, she immediately accepted the kite and is now offering lessons on the kite as part of her program.  

When coming down to Eugene this time, Nanci and Sarah were gracious enough to contact the local paper and TV news station to have them come out and do feature stories.  It was quite refreshing when the TV guys showed up and I knew him, he was the guy who did all of my interviews while playing ball! All-and-all I had a great time and all though the wind was whipping pretty good, we were able to make the best of it and allow them to get some good shots.  

Again Thank You Nanci and Sarah it is always a pleasure to come down and work with you both! 

If you are near the Eugene, OR area I highly recommend looking these guys up at www.blueturns.com for any type of water sports lessons! (including the kite!)

Article in the Eugene Register Guard!

Directly after the Dealer Camping Trip I was brought back up to Sacramento, where I grabbed a hotel near the Airport since Raleigh was flying in from TN for our photo shoot in Shasta... 

The Two of us grabbed a rental car and made our way up to Shasta where we would be meeting the rest of the crew.  We got in Late Friday night, and let me tell you... I knew the fires in California were bad, but to drive into Lake Shasta expecting to see bright blue Sky's beautiful water and shores lined with red rock, and you can hardly see the other side of the lake because the smoke was so thick was one of the trippiest experiences I have ever had... It looked like it should be a winter evening, cold thick with fog, and it was not like that at all... It was supper hot, you could smell the smoke, it was almost like being in the middle of a campfire.  Non the less we picked up our house boat (which I have to thank Silver Thorn Resorts for hooking us up here) and got everything loaded and met up with everyone along with Matt Hickman from Wakeboarding Magazine who was also here to shoot some video for us for there Website.  

Saturday started off great we got up early, the smoke had subsided a bit, and we were out on the water riding right away... We filmed all day, capturing as much action as we possibly could... Everything from our new rider Kyle shredding on the 5.5 kite pulling huge Hoochie Glides, to riding it with a Slalom Ski, Knee Board, WakeSki's and of coarse Ben, Raleigh, and Myself going huge on the 9.0 wakeboarding! 

The trip ended a success on Sunday getting a few more shots in the morning... we came away with a lot of great footage which we will be putting into (along with other clips from the year) into our new video for this next year (look for it coming in Sept!)

All in all you can't complain about a trip where all of us get to come together and just ride!

Here are a few pics from the weekend!

Our home for the weekend! 

So I was invited down to spend a few days with our Norther Cal Rep and Cal Tech Rep to help promote WakeKite at there big Dealer Camping trip that they put together.. Basically every one of there dealers was invited to send a couple people and come hang out for about three days on the delta and come ride, hang-out, and have fun on the Delta.  Rusty Malinoski was also there, along with the Byerly Team! 

Definitely have to say that all the dealers had a great time, they were able to out all the Hyperlite product and hang out with everyone! Redbull even helped sponsor the event so it was a great time all around!

Although I was a little bummed as the Wind never seemed to die down at all... Not even through the night.. One of the days it must have been a cranking at about 35 mph... Luckly I was able to get one demo in and have 2 boats full of people to be able to check it out! So we made the most of what we had and was able to talk to quite a few people about it and get some excitement going for sure!

Although I was unable to get any photo's of myself riding the kite here are few just of the event site along with Rusty and Ross Gardner riding!

Ok... 

 So I am a little behind on the updates, but I will try and catch up as best as possible ... Lets see, July 8-11 I was in the Midwest touring around to several different shops to give some Demo's and Lessons.  Over all it was a pretty good trip.  The first day we visited 2 shops Chicago Sea Ray and Redline Watersports. Both sites we were faced with not ideal conditions in terms of wind, but made the best out of it when we could and got some people out and trying it and definitely some excitement from everyone.  I have to thanks both shops for putting together a great turnout of people and there excitement about the product.  

Next stop was on Wend to Action Water Sport unfortunately on this day we were unable to do any demo's or training due to high winds of about 30 mph.  It was great to visit these guys regardless, they are a great group to work with and are very supportive of the kite.  

Last stop was and Thur. to Ride the Wave and again we fought some bad weather (few storm fronts) but were able to get in the water between fronts and get a few people out and on the kite along with few demo's from myself.  Again a great group to work with and enjoyed there enthusiasm for the kite as well.  

I look forward to working with all of these shops again in the future and thank them all for there wonderful hospitality and working so hard to get these demo's put together!

 Also a huge thanks to our Midwest Rep Rick Skinner! I always love traveling with him and learning along the way!  

 Pic of myself taken at the Redline Watersports Demo!

 This last weekend I spent time up in Haliburton, Ontario Canada with an amazing group of people at Ski-Mazing Watersports School. The surroundings here were beautiful, endless lakes, tons of green, trees, and hills, (made me feel very much at home)... And we couldn't have asked for better weather while I was there.

 I connected with Craig Bowker (owner of Ski-Mazing) back in early spring to schedule coming up there to do demo's and training with customers along with his employees.  I can't thank Craig and his staff enough for putting on an amazing weekend full of demo's/training's along with involving me in there weekly Sunday night ski show!  There gracious Canadian hospitality and enthusiasm for the kite were more than I could have hoped for!  The coordination and advertising for this even and myself coming up there was unbelievable.  So I have to send a huge thanks to the Ski-Mazing team for everything and I highly recommend visiting these guys if you ever make it up to Haliburton! I had a great time and hope to make a trip up there again soon! 

 Keep rocking on the kite you guys!  

Giving a demo to the crew there at Ski-Mazing! 

This weekend I made a last minute trip out to the Midwest (Near Flint, MI) meeting up with our Midwest rep Rick to do some exhibition runs at the Mastercraft Pro Waterski Tournament Stop.  This was a very exciting event form myself as I have never really been at a Pro Waterski Comp. The turnout to the event wasn’t as big as expected, but the site wasbeautiful.  Set on the Nautique dealer’s private lake (pics below), everyone who was there was having a great time.  The weather cooperated forthe most part staying sunny during the events; as for myself the wind wasn’t cooperating how I would have liked. Because the event is set on a private lake there is no opportunity to change direction’s if needed (which needed with wind) so I was consistently fighting a cross wind coming up over the trees making it very swirly… I was able to make the best of what I was dealt and had numerous inquires after the demo’s about the kite.  People were very receptive to it, no one had ever seen it before, and the response was nothing but positive.  

Huge thanks to both; The Mastercraft Dealer - Action Water Sports (always a pleasure working with these guys) and the Nautique Dealer - Silver Spray Sports

Event Site:

Well returned yesterday from a 3 day tour in Idaho with our NW Rep Scott... 

The weather was beautiful over there (but I guess this was really there first true warm days, so we were pretty lucky!) Our first stop was in Nampa, ID with Idaho Watersports.  The weather was beautiful and not a breath of wind... Got out on the kite along with 3 other people getting on and trying.  Below is a picture of Corey Crum the Pro-Shop Manager/Buyer trying out the kite for his first time.  

Next Stop was in Idaho Falls, at Black Tail  Resivoir (Beautiful lake set down at the bottom of these beautiful rock filled hills) Unfortunately by the time people showed up and were interested in checking out and trying the kite, the wind had picked up.  I was able to get in a demo so that they saw the potential, but was bummed we couldn't get them out and trying it.  (But to say the least they were supper excited about it after seeing it!)

Last Stop was in Burly, ID along the Snake River.  Unfortunately we can't control Mother Nature and the winds were up and blasting all day, thus couldn't get a demo in, but spoke with people about the kite and did a lot of educating.

All and all it was a great tour and got shops guys and a few customers very excited about the product! (Thats the great thing about this product if you try it or at least see it in full action it is pretty darn addicting!)

Thanks to all the shops out in Idaho! 

Corey Crum the Pro-Shop Manager/Buyer of Idaho Watersports Nampa Location trying out the kite for his first time!

What's Up!

So just returned home from Northern Cali where I went around with our 2 reps there and did some demo's! 

First visit was Lake Tahoe (Such a beautiful place!) had a great time here, met at High Sierra Water Ski School and had a few of there employees come out and check out the kite along with another ski school on the lake West Shore Watersports.  Also had a local film crew come and shoot some video and pictures to hopefully air on the local news channel to get some promotion going! All in all it was a great day, got 3 people on it and doing well.  (bellow is a picture of TK one of the instructors from West Shore Watersports).  Everyone was very excited about it and ready to get on it more and have it involved in there schools.  

After this the weather didn't full cooperate (ended up fighting quite a bit of wind the next few days), but we made the most of it, I did 2 demo's to at least show employees of the different shops how it works and what the potential of it is.  

Visited a few different shops, and ended up putting a WakeKite display up for a shop near Sacramento (Larson Marine).  All in all it was a great trip got a lot of people excited about the kite and wanting to either try it more, or get on it for there first time very soon!

 High Sierra Water Ski School!

What’s Up All-

Ok so last week (May 23 – June 2) I was out in Nashville, TNwith Raleigh and absolutely had a blast! It doesn’t get much better than riding with a fellow WakeKite Rider, inbeautiful sunny weather, and taking some photos!!!

On top of it all, we ended up having various riding sessionsthat attracted large amounts of attention.  The first day I was out there (Friday) we did a demo withTNT Water Sports there in Nashville, and our Rep Jeremy Baker was there as wellwith the Byerly Wakeboard Team. After Raleigh and I took a few sets, 2 of the guys from the Byerly Team(Robby Jacques, and Ross Gardner) ended up wanting to give it a try and didgreat… Both had a good time!

For Memorial Weekend, we were up in NE Tennessee Norris Lake(Near Knoxville – Beautiful Lake!) here we rode the Kite all Sat. and ended uphaving 4 different boats follow us around, asking questions, and wanting toknow where to purchase it. 

After the weekend we went back to Nashville and ended upfighting a bit of bad weather here and there but made the most of the niceweather when it was there and rode as much as possible.  Got a ton of great photos andvideo. 

Other than that, just had a great time spending time withRaleigh and Crew and checking out life in Nashville J!

I want to express my thanks obviously to Raleigh and Jen forallowing me to live with them for 12 days! Another huge thanks to PerformanceMarine for there endless support every time I am out there providing us once ofthere boats to do photo shoots.. That is going above and beyond for adealership and it is greatly appreciated!!!

Here are a few pics from the week!

 Robby Jacques on the Kite: