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 :)