Date: 7/16/03
Author: Scott Alexander

Related Items:
Byerly, Bird, Castelanelli and Cannon Video (Windows Media, 17.4 mb)

As the Nor Cal Byerly demo tour neared, I decided I would drop by and hang out for a while. Actually, to be honest, I really can't just "drop by" the Delta as I live a little more than an hour away, but I figured the trip would be worthwhile and I was definitely right.

I arrived at Orwood just before 9am on June 9th and, as I walked out to the dock, I saw Kyle Wells, who had brought a Malibu Wakesetter demo boat for everyone to ride behind. Being the type of person that always brings a camera on the boat, I decided that this day would be no exception and I hoped that I might get a chance to see Byerly ride.

Just before our boat leaves with its first group of riders, Kevin Bird walks down to the boat with his gear. So we depart and I find myself glad that I brought the camera. Kevin threw down a nearly perfect set, falling only twice and leaving the boat speechless. Before he left, Kevin told me that he would return the next day with his friend Mark Castelanelli.

So the day went on and more and more riders demoed such products as the new Broadcast wakesurf board and the Reef Byerly wakeskate shoe. At 2pm, everyone met back at the dock to load up all the boats to watch Byerly wakesurf.

Keeping to his word, the next day when I arrive at the dock I see Kevin and Mark sacking up Mark's Super Air. We left a few minutes later and I got some amazing footage of both Mark and Kevin. I originally met Mark when Wakeboard TV was at the delta. He and Kevin both rode in front of the camera.

Later in the afternoon, Kevin met up with his friend, Blake Cannon, and they went out for a set behind Ron Depp's boat. I got a third set of Kevin on video plus some nice footage of Blake who landed both a toeside and heelside 3 wrapped, which no one on the boat had really seen before.

After the day was over, I was glad that I had come out. It was good to see Kevin and Mark ride again and I was stoked to see Byerly ride in person. I met many new people and I got some pretty decent video to play around with. I would like to thank Ron Depp and Kyle Wells for letting us ride (and video) from their boats and I would also like to thank all of the sponsors of the Nor Cal Byerly Tour: Hyperlite, Reef, O'Neill and Accurate.

The video (Windows Media, 17.4 mb) consists of two "sections." The first section is the edited section of the video and features the song "In Vain" by Mad at Gravity. The second section is a collection of unedited tricks which I left unedited. I decided to leave this section unedited because I think that it gives a different perspective on the riding than the usual style of editing where you see one trick at a time. The music is "Faint" by Linkin Park.

 Return To WakeWorld News