One Last Romp, Pro Wakesurfing & Pro Wakeboarding

So the boat is heading to Orlando on Tuesday and so are we in a bit over a week, going to be fun. We are just under 200 hours on the Z3 since the middle of April and are now going to be without it for a few weeks and so we wanted to get in a really good romp and do some camera testing before heading to Orlando to broadcast the MyWake finals. We called some friends and had a full weekend. Sean Cummings, Inland Surfer and Centurion pro rider came out with us on Friday and Saturday. It was just the family and Sean on Friday, we truly enjoy his company and my kids love him. If you are ever looking for wakesurf instruction don't hesitate to call Sean. On Saturday the Harrington family joined us on the Z3 with Sean. Then on Sunday Victoria team rider and up and coming female surfer Vanessa Gonzalez came to surf with us along with old friend Dennis Horton from the Walter Project. I wanted to also plan to get a good wakeboarder out later this week so that I could test camera setups for broadcasting. I have only done wakesurf shore to shore and internet broadcasts up to this point and wanted to make sure I was prepared. Well the Hoffman's rolled past us in their Epic 23V and Raquel is also heading to Orlando for the MyWake finals. She was hoping to get a run behind the Z3 since she had never done so and I wanted to test my cameras so it was a great happenstance, we are RARELY out on Sunday. So we got to surf the Z3 on both sides with various wake shapes to the taste of the riders and than got to watch Raquel throw some of her best tricks. Got LOTS of pics, here are the highlights. The full set can be seen HERE.

First I had Sean and RJ ride so that Amy and I could get some chase shots from the pontoon.


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Sean is Regular and liked it steeper than I thought he would, we could have knocked it down more but here is how he liked it.


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This belongs in a frame.


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He landed Air, some big spins, shuvits, drifters and of course the signature gun show.


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Sean landed his first ever switch backside shuvit and then celebrated.


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He almost landed a another first, but not quite.

RJ rides goofy and launched his Soulcraft Fangtail with an Indy grab that is one of my favorite pictures ever of him.


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Another great one.


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Then RJ asked me to knock the wake down with TAPS all the way down so he could practice his 180s and trying to land another surface reverse. Weighting was not changed, just TAPS.


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Heading into an air 180.


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Start of an Ollie-oop that Sean gave him some great tips on.


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Sean gave some instruction to help little Alexis she rode wireless on her mom's Victoria skim.


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Rob landed a 360 after being laid up for his back for over a month.


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Janelle showed off her variation of the gun show.


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Sean impersonates a 747 to help Janelle on her 360.


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Janelle obeys and lands her first 360!


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NOT! Almost though.


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Jesse rides a skim board for the first time and surfs better than she ever has, I guess I am going to be buying a new board.


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Thomas was working on his walking body variel.


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Sean gave us all a show and had another great session.


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RJ got some air on the 4.9 TWP Bomb Pop with custom softened rails to help him practice his 180s a bit.


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It was blown out most of the day but Vanessa came showing off her new equipment as a new team Victoria rider.


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Vanessa is cute and when She gave me a hug goodbye Amy said it was like beauty and the beast. I told her she shouldn't talk like that about Vanessa, not nice. ;-)


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Vanessa landed 360s, drifter, 540, and almost landed her newly learned 720. I hear she is working on a 1080 and has landed it just recently, can't wait to see that.


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Dennis had a session on the TWP 4.9 Bomb Pop.


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Dennis seemed to like the new rails and almost landed a surface 180 himself.


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Jesse showed Vanessa how she rides her new pink with carbon top 4.2 TWP Bomb Pop that she shares with Maddie.


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Vanessa gave it a whirl.


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Maddie hurt her tailbone but with all the chick power she had to get out and show Vanessa how she road.


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She said she loved me "this much".


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So we drop off Vanessa since she had to head home and we meet up with the Hoffmans. To date we have never used the Z3 for wake boarding but used to wake board a lot on the 24Ve. I told Raequel to treat the boat like her own and tell me what she wanted but she seemed to not want to be a burden and was super polite, too polite. So I just kinda winged it and filled up the front all the way (1000 lbs) and figured 60/40 rear/front should be about right and filled up the rear plug and play sacs a bit over half full which should be about 750 per side, so 2500 lbs total. We had about 1300 lbs of people in the boat on top of that but nothing else, just the stock system with maybe an extra 100 lbs on each rear side, that was it. We drove and found taps 2 (4 on mine, 2 on stock Z3) to be clean and she liked it. She first tried 26 mph and 80 feet of rope and then want to just over 25 mph and 82.5 feet of rope. It was completely blown out and we had to go back and forth in this little channel and you can see tubers and pontoons and all kinds of stuff going on in the pictures. You will also see the Hoffman Epic 23V in the background where her parents and dog were watching. She really liked the wake and showed it by landing some of her best tricks like a moby dick, crow mobe and a few others. So much fun to watch and fun to drive for. Maddie took the pics and got a few really great ones. Going to post quite a few here.


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Here is a great sequence, she would wait to get a spot of decent water and then hit it.


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Some more great shots.


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Sorry for so many pics, I just was amazed we went from an incredible wakesurf wake to a great wakeboard wake without even trying. Way too much fun this weekend. That is why we are at 195 hours now and we are REALLY gonna miss the Z3 for a bit. I have a feeling it may come back even better.

Raequel Rocks!! what a nice treat to be able to see her ride from the boats view, then just from a shore line!

Yeah, it really was. I have seen her buzz by us many times on the lake, her or Shawna her sister. But from in the boat was must more fun. Its been SO long since we have wakeboarded that it felt so weird. First, she was WAY the hell back there and it felt like we were driving 50 mph or something. Its been a while. ;-)

RJ got some air on the 4.9 TWP Bomb Pop with custom softened rails to help him practice his 180s a bit.

Did you get your existing board modified? What is the reason for the change?

RJ loves the bomb pop, but he felt the rails would catch on him when he would finish his 360s or his 180s. Pretty much his only complaint. So Dennis took the 4.9 and softened the rails a bit which helped. I also think he needs like a 4.7 bomb pop, not a 4.9. RJs ideal signature, bomb pop, fly boy is probably 4.5 for his weight but the kids loves a really wide stance and needs more board. The 4.9 I think is a bit too long, and the 4.7 would probably work perfect.