New pics

Been busy, running behind on kneeboard media and I'm feeling a little lazy, so these are all going in the same post.

Here's a link to some pics of Alisa Piper and Jared Bohlen shredding

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000846957404&ref=ts#!/media/set/?set=a.211527085533601.61001.100000289336702

heres a line by by Adrian Meus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0KASazdVcI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

enjoy

Great news!!!

For the readers that may not know... For years International kneeboard competitions were basically the U.S. vs. the U.K. As awesome as the athletes are from these 2 countries, we all desperately wanted more countries interested in competing. In 2010, we were very blessed to have 3 Australians fly to the U.S. to step up to the plate and DO WORK!!! I believe that with 3 competing countries, it was the first true International competion.

Now in 2011... word has it that there are a group of kneeboarders in France that want to partake in International competition. This is HUGE!!! I think we've all set the snowball rolling down a hill and its slowly picking up more strength.

Lets all cross our fingers, and hope to see a new country for the 2012 Ridercup.

-John Haile

Aaron Weible

Here at Kneeboard Magazine, we're all about taking the latest kneeboard videos... that I find on youtube a year later... and posting it for your enjoyment.

I just came across this video of Aaron Weible. This guy has a ton of board control. I've never seen anyone that had 2 roadkills, let alone 2 roadkills in the same line of moves!!!

get STOKED kids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EbLWtA3EpA&feature=related

So I know I haven't talked to you in a while but...

Just wanted to appologize to my fellow Kneeboard Magazine readers. There's been a ton of stuff happening in the kneeboard scene, and so few postings. After I looked outside to see a mob with pitchforks... I figured it was time to start writing again.

So whats been happening? Pretty much nothing, anything, something, and everything you can imagine and more. More info, articles, videos soon... but until then...

What can I do to improve the quality of kneeboard magazine?
Who would like to participate in making kneeboard magazine better?

Kent Hartshorn Article

This month The Water Skier did an article on Kent Hartshorn

http://mydigimag.rrd.com/publication/?i=62605

Go to page 34-35. The words are kind of hard to read so you might want to subscribe to The Water Skier if you want to get the low down of whats happening with (my opinion) currently our sport's best athlete. Congrats Kent you deserve it.

SCHOUNT SCHOUNT!!!

Picture Contest

http://www.facebook.com/#!/overtons find my picture on the wall and "like it". Please and thank you.

-John Haile

Kings of Sketch

So I was out riding minding my own business, when I saw someone floating by big white. Trying to be courteous, I passed on hitting it. I came back around to try it again when I noticed the same person was in the same spot. Then I noticed it was my good friend Alex Clayton and he was filming me. So I came back around and gave it a few hits and he was awesome enough to put me in his new wake series Kings of Sketch. Thanks bro, Shoutout to my bros that killed it and was featured in the video... Alex Clayton, Tim Jackson, Davis Havens, and Jake Pelot.

AKA Forum

http://www.amer-kneeboard.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=84

Get over to the AKA forum. We're talking about the new qualifications for freestyle. Its under the "Rules and Regulations" Tab. What do you think about the qualifications? Get your opinion out there, make your point, and drop your $0.02. Do you have any suggestions? Do you love the idea? Do you hate it? Why are you still reading this? See you over there

Possible Kneeboard Exhibitions

If it were to happen at the Orlando WaterSports Complex on the cable in front of a huge crowd of people. Who would be interested in riding? There's no definite yes... yet... but I think theres a good chance it'll happen.

So please jump into my hypothetical world. Who is in? Keep in mind, the more athletes, the better chance of the organizers noticing kneeboarding and the greater the chance of having it as a competition with a cash prize. Hit me back. -John Haile

American Waterski Awards Banquet

http://www.amer-kneeboard.org/USAWSawardsbanquet.html

Ted Bevelacqua, Kent Hartshorn, Mark Ritchhart, Alisa Piper, and Jared Bohlen all accepted various awards. ( I appologize I wasn't there. I'm going on what I've heard and can see in the photos. It is possible that other athletes may have been recognized, or I may have not mention some awards received).

Ted Bevelacqua- Award of Merit
Kent Hartshorn- Male Athlete of the Year, National Kneeboard Record
Mark Ritchhart- National Kneeboard Record
Alisa Piper- Female Athlete of the Year and National Kneeboard Record
Jared Bohlen- International Trick Record
Patrick Dicus- National Kneeboard Record

Haydn Yates

SWEET BABY JESUS!!! If you want to see someone truly go BIG on a kneeboard watch this section.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/video/video.php?v=1746523775716&comments

Freebies!!!

As my way of saying thanks, I've got some free stuff that I'm going to sendout to some lucky readers. The prizes will progressively get better, so long as we have participants.

The first prize I'm giving out is a Thicker Than Water DVD. The film might be online, but hey its free and the quality is slightly better on the DVD than watching it on vimeo. Besides that, entering is super easy.

This is how you enter the contest.

1. "Like" Kneeboard Magazine's fan page
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Kneeboard-Magazine/128014410600275
2. Post "I read Kneeboard Magazine" on the wall
3. Tell your friends to like your post.

The post with the most likes by February 13th is the winner. Yes you can like your own post. But I recommend you share your entry with others if you want a chance at winning. Good luck guys and thanks for already spreading so much stoke.

-John Haile

Jared Bohlen

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=177659055605658&comments

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=177659055605658&comments

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=177659055605658&comments#!/video/video.php?v=177658922272338&comments

Call the police, because I have video evidence of my boy killing it.

magazines supporting magazines

Just got word that Frankie is on the Waterski Magazine link. The hard copy will be out in a few weeks. Keep the stoke up on their page and we just may see more kneeboarding articles.

http://waterskimag.com/company/2011/01/27/frankie-panno-rides-new-ho-sports-agent-kneeboard/

AKA Freestyle qualifications

"Nationals would count as the first qualifying score of the season. For example a Men's competitor scores 1900 points in tricks at the 2011 Nationals. This score would be the first of the two required qualifying scores for Freestyle at the 2012 Nationals"

I think its a huge improvement, from the days we had to score it at the event. Fact of the matter is that if you're qualified for Nationals in tricks... you're qualified for freestyle. But... the same can't be said about the state level.

The qualifications aren't a difficult task by any means... they're actually quite easy in fact. But... I'd like to see no qualifications for freestyle. Simply, you showup, you signup, you pay, you ride. Thats what we do for slalom and tricks.

On those rare (and now about to be extremely rare) occasions that someone doesn't qualify for freestyle... everyone does get a lil bummed for that person. I've been there and it sucks when you pay a ton of money in gas, food, entry fees, time etc to go to an event to compete in freestyle and not qualify.

But playing devils advocate, there is a con to my idea... It doesn't reduce the athletes that are at the level to compete in freestyle. Hypothetically if we are getting 4 really strong athletes and 100 with lesser skill. I'm not going to lie, that would be a lot more time consuming and a lot more money in gas that the organizers have to cover, aswell we know the 100 riders aren't anywhere near the level of the 4 strong athletes... it would seem like a waste of time and more hard work.

Back to my opinion, but I think this hard work that would pay off. If we had 100 lesser skilled athletes competing against 4 strong athletes. I think this alone would push the athletes to want to better themselves so that they could compete against these stronger athletes. Its the same reason I think Jr.s should be allowed into freestyle aswell.

Regardless, good job to the board members. This was a definitely a big change for the better and it gives the athletes a lot more breatheing room :)

What is better than 1 hoochie

2 hoochies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPAsIA27sSM&feature=player_embedded

Selling new old equipment

Remember the old days when H.O. had a striker, ahh those were the days. Then in either 2009 or 2010 they changed the graphics and gave it a sweet name, the Element... well I do. Then unfortunately for everyone, they took this board off the market. You can no longer buy this board. Fact is, you would have a hard time finding this baby on ebay... and when you do... you will probably spend anywhere from $200-$300 for it... maybe more if a passionate athlete saw it on ebay. Here's the lowdown. My father bought this thing a year or 2 ago. Never touched it. Mint condition. Now selling it for $150. If you're not convinced this is not an epic deal. Ask Patrick Kimrey. Patrick has rode the Striker since the beginning of time swears by its epicness.

Its now or never

If you have any last minute ideas, critiques, suggesstions for improving the AKA... please send them to any of the board of directors. Contact information can be found on this site. http://www.amer-kneeboard.org/BOARD%20OF%20DIRECTORS/index.html I have already passed along many ideas that I agree with and a few that I don't. And the exchange of information is feeding me like a tick sucking blood. (did you catch that cheesy joke?)

Our meeting is next week. 2011 looks like its going to be an epic year, and one that I hope we can all agree... will be better that the epicness of last year.

-John Haile

OWC shots

Just a couple of shots of my boys, Jeff Roberts and Jake Pelot killing it at odub

The Boat Show Giveaway

http://hosports.com/news/news/ho-skis-boat-show-giveaway

Boat shows are currently happening everywhere. Go to one. While you are there ask yourself, "What should I do with this 150 dollars I have?".

Well you should look for an H.O. rep and spend it on some new shwag that'll make you look as fly like a G6. If you're already looking good, you can spend it some new gear to keep you shredding all summer long. But why would you specifically go to H.O.? Well you won't just be getting some nice stuff, but you'll also be given a chance to win many other prizes in their contest.

After your purchase, talk to your H.O. rep about the promo code that you can enter on their website. Once you've filled it out, then you're good to go. One lucky second prize winner will receive an H.O. Agent kneeboard. You can also be lucky by winning any of the other prizes aswell. Winner will be announced on April 15th. Good luck friends.

Rogue Fly In 2010 Part II

CHEA!!!

Tony Klarich- kneeboard foil

This clip may be 7 years old, but I bet you haven't seen anything like it.

skip to :14 to see what I'm talking about, then watch the whole video because its still sick!!!

Money on my Mind

The really cool thing about kneeboarding is that I can guarantee you that nobody and I mean NOBODY does it for the money. Infact many of us spend a ton of money and time just to go to an event, HAVE FUN WITH FRIENDS and leave and anxiously await till the next one to do the same thing.

But hypothetically, (lets jump into the imaginary world where kneeboarders are paid grossly ridiculous amounts of money and we're all still complaining because we're not getting paid enough...sounds funny doesn't it). If there was any money in kneeboarding events....

I don't like the winner takes all idea. Its weird that Parks' event was done that way, because Parks mentioned in a previous interview that he hates that 1st-3rd get paid ridiculously well and the guys that still shred and spend so much money to compete would get paid jack in comparison. Those athletes either break even or they spend more to go to an event and lose. Contests should take more from the top and spread more of it down. That way the guys that don't make podium would still be motivated to actually compete. Hopefully if theres ever an oppotrunity to win money at a kneeboard event, I hope its spread out fairly amongst the competitors. Everyone's happy.

Snap back to Reality. We may or maynot ever see money in a kneeboard contest. Personally could care less. I mean it would be cool and helpful for me, but its not like it'll ever replace the reason I ride.

Funny thing happened today, someone asked me how much money I make if I win a kneeboard event. They were baffled when I proudly gave them the answer. All for the Passion. :)

Spread the Stoke and keep riding for fun.

Points on Moves and Events

Having judged some events, thought I'd throw my 2 cents out on how I'd like to see events in the future run if I was dictator of kneeboard events.

Points on a move. Is it wrong? Yes and no, depending on the situation. I've watched someone throw a perfectly gigantic 360, and another rider throw a tiny one wake 360...funny thing is... on paper its the same thing. I don't like that.

But lets get real here, kneeboarding needs points and the trick event for International competition. When a country flys halfway around the world to meet up with other countries to compete for the Rider Cup Trophy... There is no way on God's green Earth that the winning country could be settled on freestyle scores. ESPECIALLY in a close race. Being a judge would be the worst job in the world. Kneeboarding needs points and the trick event for International competition.

What about Nationals and State and other events? I'm glad I asked that question. These are the kind of events I could see a successful all freestyle event with multiple rounds. Theres not as big of a bias fear in these contests, because generally everyone agrees with whoever won and if they don't agree, they can get over it... they didn't travel across an ocean or anything and they can wait till the next comp.

While I'm attacking this subject, I'm going to make a critique our freestyle event. Seond lap and doubleup are setup perfect... but why make the first round like a mixture of tricks and freestyle instead of all freestyle? Overall I think we did a good job of keeping freestyle freestyle. In the grand scheme of things, it is extremely rare that it would make a difference, infact I can only think of one time that I thought it made a difference... but I digress.

So with that this is what I think events will be like...

Internationals- Freestyle and Tricks
Any other events- Freestyle

Inside or outside the AKA, kneeboarding could definitely use a ToeJam, Wakelab, All or Nothing, and Move of the Year contests aswell.

You may have noticed, I didn't mention flipout or slalom. As fun as I think those events are. I honestly don't think they are spectator friendly events, which is what our sport needs to focus on.