If your snowboard season has ended, and you are ready to put your board away for the year, please don’t throw it in your closet or under your bed without preparing it for summer storage. Preparing your board for summer storage will save you money, it will allow you to take your board out at the beginning of next year ready to rock, and I believe every board deserves some TLC. Enjoy the short video I put together to show you how to prepare your snowboard for summer storage. Next up; wakeboarding season!
Keeping it raw and straight to the point, the S4 is a sweet ride. I rode this board not knowing how it was going to react and I was generally pleased. The S4 is a smooth buttery ride. When on edge it would bite like a rattler. For surface tricks, it was easy to break free which allowed me to slide effortlessly all day long. Taking this board to the wake you will notice that it holds a consistent edge all the way through the wake, and when you stand tall at the tip of the wake you better be ready to get boosted. With a pop that is always the same, you can be assured to come back down with a soft landing. Forgiving landings are huge when you take into consideration the speed that the S4 carries. This board holds speed all the way through the wake, and soaring into the flats is not an issue. In the end the board preformed better than I though, and it also has killer graphics. Liquid Force, Phillip Soven, and their team built a killer board that has a Bay Watch attraction of Pam Anderson running on the beach!
If you have never wakeboarded before this is not the board for you. Get a cheap board to get you out on the water so you can start to learn your riding style. If you are looking to advance your skills and take your game out into the flats, go to the store and pick up an S4. Wake to wake riders be careful of what you are getting into. You can tame it, but can you tame yourself?
After a long night of thinking and dreaming about snowboarding, you wake up, jump in your car, and speed to the hill. During the car ride you are jonesin’ to get out there and your mind is full of every new trick you are about to throw down. All geared up you flop your butt down on the lift and it takes you for a ride to the top. Taking one warm up ride, you jump back on the lift and head to the park ready to flip, jib, and tweak out some grabs. Standing at the top of the park, you yell DROP and go for it. Everything is perfect right? Wrong!
What’s wrong? Well before you yelled drop for that first time you never took the time to scope out the jumps, rails, or obstacles you are about to hit. Without checking the park before you shred it up, you put yourself in major danger. It is hard to tell what the kickers are going to be like, speed is always an issue, you never know if the rails are going to be sticky, and all of the landings or take offs could have been changed from grooming the night before. Because of these issues, I believe you should speed check every jump. You at least need to scope out the obstacles you want it hit before you take them on for the first time.
Believe me! From my stupidity of flying down the park without ever checking anything out or speed checking a jump, I tore my knee to pieces and it has never been the same. The jump I hit was one that I knew, and one that I have hit many times before. With confidence I b-lined straight for the jump, hit it perfectly, floated through the air, and watched the landing as I passed it by. IDIOT!!!! So keep this speed checking lesson in your head, it is simple, and it will save you many days of pain and anger from not being able to board. Boarding everyday, all day, is many of our goals, and being smart about what you do will get you there a lot faster than being an idiot like I was.
In an economy that seems to be swirling the toilet bowl, it pumps me up to see $60k to $100k boats roaming the water everyday. Where do these people get the money to own boats like this? Are the boats paid for, what do the owners do? Do they live on the boats? So many questions go through my head as I watch these boats fly by. I must also say that I am completely jealous of the kids who get to grow up and ride behind 2010 Malibu Wakesetters or Air Nautique 230s.
Lucky for me, my family has always owned a boat. The boat they proudly owned was a 1988 Larson that looks as if it just came off of the lot today. As I grew up this is what we had, and no matter how much I tried to convince my dad he needed a new boat, I knew it was not going to happen. He always used a great line on me as I would rant about trading in for an upgrade. All he would have to say is “This one is paid for.” Enough said! He did pimp out the Larson with a homemade pylon that made a world of difference. Now in my late 20′s and still wakeboarding, I get amped to go back home and rock the Larson.
What I want you to get from this short story is that you do not need the best boat, you do not need the biggest wake in the state, and you don’t have to spend $60k to have fun learning how to wakeboard. If you don’t have something to get the rope off of the back of the boat, I suggest upgrading to a tower, or making yourself a pylon. Other than that get out there, give it a try, and have fun wakeboarding. I learned nearly every trick I do today behind the Larson, and you can do the same! Sometimes the best things in life are the things that you think are not good enough. Take another look at that boat that has been sitting in your backyard under a tarp for years. Get it out, shine it up, and get out there with the big guys. If you are good enough, you will find yourself mysteriously riding behind $100k boats.
