Congrats to Jim Bottrell!

Our Marine buddy finally landed backrolls-- and from what I hear they were nice, big and easy! God knows you have worked hard at that trick (now go out and start nailing hs w2w 180s!) Couldn't have worked out better for a nicer guy especially since he's going to be redeployed back to Iraq here shortly and as we know from the Wakeboard mag article, pretty tough to ride even if you are able to smuggle your board, bindings, rope and jacket onto an ammo container bound for a warzone!

Nice job on the inverts, Jim! Feels good, huh?
Ride hard till you leave, and we'll look forward to having you back stateside ASAP.

Nice work.
Stock up on Wake mags and get some pics of yourself riding if you can.
Take care.

wow jim! great to hear you landed that trick. congrats! sorry to hear you're being redeployed - be safe and back soon.

cheers

I don't know who I'm more stoked for; Jim for landing his first back roll (plus 3 or 4 more), or me because it was behind my boat. They truly looked effortless- slow, floaty (is that a word?), and big.

That is what wakeboarding is all about; the stoke, fellowship, family, and the occational hard crash.

Good luck Jim.

Congrats Jim !!! Maybe we can get together and ride before you leave.

Hey, thanks everybody. I appreciate the support and congrats.

You would not believe how long I worked on that trick - at least 150 failed attempts (most all of them landing on the board though - just sliding out, stuffing the leading edge, or losing the rope).

Most of all - I wish I knew what I was doing different that day vs. all of the other days. Thats frustrating in itself.

Thanks to Sean for having me out on his boat - always nice. I appreciate the fact that he remembered to bring the swimstep this time. Sure wish I could upload the pics.

BTW - its not set in stone that I will be going back to Iraq. My battalion is going but they need an operations officer to stay stateside (and I happen to be the operations officer - LUCKY ME!!! because I have already wasted 13 months of my life in that area of the world and have no desire to go back).

If I do end up going - I've looked at satellite images of where my battalion will be going and (although I cant say where it is) the place is right next to one of Saddam's palaces that sits on HIS PRIVATE LAKE!!!! So you bet your butt that a wakeboard and all equipment will be shipped with our gear again. I've already gathered the intel on the water quality and its 98% pure with NO PARASITES this time! Havent figured out the boat part yet but I am confident that I am resourceful enough to find one if the need arises.

Also, if I do go - plan on another WBM article with some action pics with a palace in the background. I'll let everybody at wakeworld know ahead of time.

Thanks again everybody.

Jim:

Sounds like a great place for a USO event next spring/summer. Get a bunch of the pros, men and women, to head on over and put on a show, sleep in Saddam's house, eat his food-- now that would be a helluva Wakeboard Mag article! Could get the locals involved: get a Sunni mullah and a ••••• mullah to battle it out riding behind the boat by seeing who can knock over who with a boat fender.
Could have a "Miss Taliban" swimsuit contest.
Nautique would probably donate the boat- and the government could fly it over like a tank or Bradley.

That's funny, Dave's filter red dotted the word Shi ite!

(Message edited by stormrider on December 31, 2003)

(Message edited by stormrider on December 31, 2003)

That would be a hell of an event with pro's riding in front of the palace (its beautiful by the way - right on the water). That would definitely get some coverage.

Except for the miss Taliban swimsuit comp - I dont really want to see that. haha

Good job, Jim! I knew you had it in you. Now if you could please come over to my house and teach me that trick...

Jeff,

When is a good time to send in my app for the Canyon Lake wakeboard club?

Jim,
Why don't you just print it up, and bring it with you next Sunday, when you come ride with us?

I will be in Vegas this weekend - sorry. I can do it if the offer is good for Sunday the 11th (or Saturday for that matter). Talk to you soon.

Oh, and as far as teaching you that trick - I have no idea why the attempts were successful last weekend - I have no idea what I was doing different so it could have been a lucky day.

As I recall, when I went out with you a month or two ago I was still gun-shy from my horrible backroll crash that gave me double vision for a while. Hopefully next time the only thing feeling the impact from my backrolls will be the bottom of my board. We'll see.

Next Sunday (the 11th) is the day I was thinking of (Sean Jackson? thread). You're in.

(Message edited by socalwakepunk on January 02, 2004)

Sounds good - I'll check out the thread