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.