Just want to send out a huge thanks to my buddies over at Pro Rider.  Everyone on their team has been really incredible helping us launch this brand.  From running initial press release on their site to covering the Champion Freeride Team's very first trip.  

Honestly, I'm honored to have such incredible  support from such an amazing publication.   If your not subscribed, go check em out over at www.proridermag.com and send em some coin.  The really deserve our support for the incredible work they do for our sport.  And your not going to find a better bang for your buck as far as waterscooter entertainment and news goes. 

Of course none of it happens without the companies that have always had my back.  Blowsion, Cold-Fusion, Burn Industries, and Hydro-Turf. 

And um....please don't forget Champion Timepieces.  The Fusion is close to production...order one before they are gone!

Hydro-Turf is a tremendous company that has been a long time supporter and partner of mine.  Several years ago we went in to business together when I formed Soft-Deck.  

Through Soft-Deck we have created a line of military specific soft non skid and impact absorbing products that can be seen at www.Soft-DeckMil.com. 

And now we are expanding Soft-Deck's product range to include Hydro-Turf's entire line of products as well as custom cut Hydro-Turf kits for basically anything that floats.  

I'm excited about this because between building custom jet ski kits my other business Champmion Timepieces, that is building watches for the jet ski market, I'm going to be able to spend a lot more time in the waterscooter community again! 

For more information on custom Hydro-Turf kits for boats, jet ski, stand up paddle boards...or anything that floats.  Please check us out at www.Soft-Deck.com 

This was a huge event for me on so many levels.  

Carl and I launched our new business Champion Timepieces...

My newBlowsion builtFP Jet Skis FP1 powered by DASA , full of Cold Fusion components and covered in Hydro-Turf was debuted. 

I got to spend time with the people that got me started in the sport, and great old friends I have not seen in years.  

And went for a few fun little rides on my new waterscooter.  

Here is a great video from Seth Zaluski that really does an incredible job of capturing the event!

Overall, it was an absolutely incredible event and time.  In the 10 years this event has been running, Nick has figured out how to make it bigger and better each and every year without losing the soul of the event that makes it so great.  

The biggest difference this year for me is the incredible level of the riders.  It used to be in years past that the few pros that came in would be clear standouts from a standpoint of ability and equipment.  Now there are tons of pro level riders, and the rest of the crew is just really good and on great equipment.  It is a real testament to how this sport is progressing.   Below is a pic of one of  the "non pros" Jonathan Eastes showing what the Michigan crew can do.  

And while we are talking about the guys from frozen climates who ride for the pure love of it, here is a quick shot of a guy who I certainly to aspire to be like.  Freeride legend, and pro BMX god Mark Murphy...

Of course there are still MAJOR standouts in the pro ranks.  Most notably for me are Zack Bright, Mark Gomez, Jake Bright, Tanner Thomas and the Lawlor brothers.  These guys all pushed really hard in mere inches of water and were major standouts.  

This event from a riding standpoint was a huge success for me,  and  that is due mostly to this crew  

The crew you see here is Jordan Fielder in front, Zack Bright, Jake Bright, Erik Karn, and Jack Bright.   Jack, Zack and Jake drove the Burn USA rig all the way across the country with my new prized posession, that Jordan and Erik not only built, but busted their ass all weekend keeping the boat looking absolutely perfect.  They would have been wrenching on it as well...but they built it so well they didn't have to.  Thank so much guys for making this trip happen and go so well!

FP1 is primered  and ready for some Blowsion Kolors!

While Johnny and GWally have been hard at work making sure the FP1 will look amazing;  Kyle Kennedy from DASA along with  Erik Karn and Jordan Fielder up at Blowsion have been hard at work making sure it will run as good as it looks! 

We are running a DASA 850 stock stroke power valve setup that will be fed with a set of dual 46's via DASA's new billet intake manifold.   

We chose the dual 46 Mikuni carbs for a few reasons.  First, this motor is capable of making a tremendous amount of power and in a hurry.  If we were looking to maximize HP out of this package we would have put on a set of DASA dual 48's and called it a day.  But there are some other considerations for me.  One of those considerations is fuel economy.  We  typically ride a mile or more away from where we launch and a typical session will be somewhere around an hour and thirty minutes to two hours...basically whenever we run out of gas.  Better fuel economy = more ride time = happy rider.  Also, power delivery is as important if not more so than peak power.  Earlier this year I rode Christian Young's Blowsion built Rickter and  totally fell in love with the power delivery on that ski.  It was pretty much right then that I decided I wanted to replicate that motor as much as possible, and we have basically done that with this package.  The final consideration for us on this build was budget.  Because this motor package uses stock cases, and a stock stroke crank it winds up being amazingly cost effective for the amount of power that can be extracted from it!  So sticking with a stockish carb setup keeps things a little more manageable from the $$ side of things. 

The electronics are housed inside one of Cold-Fusion's new Clear View Billet Electrical Boxes anodized in black.  We are running a pretty standard setup with a MSD enhancer.  The Clear View box is an awesome upgrade over stock, not only does it seal way better, when troubleshooting issues, it's awesome to be able to just look and see if electronics have been compromised by water...plus it looks amazing!   That Billet Flywheel Cover from Cold Fusion is housing a Jetinetics light weight charging flywheel to give the motor a little more snap! 

Met a nice guy named Kelley this morning at the harbor.  It was pretty clear right off the bat the guy had great taste because he was wearing a shirt with me on it...

Then we went over to check out his boat.  He is just getting back in to riding after several years away.   A couple weeks ago he bought a shiny new '14 SJ and Blowsion's shiny new light weight billet handle pole and complete steering system.  

The pole looks great on this boat, blue ano matches the stock graphics really well.  And functionally, getting rid of the stock 08+ cable and pole helps handling tremendously.  

Great looking boat and pole.  For more info on this pole check this link. http://blowsion.com/blowsion-handlepole-billet-lightweight-aluminum

The image above is a 1600 x 900 desktop  background that Ludo from Fullgaz made for me years ago.  Just ran across it as I was looking through some old images and thought I would share it here.  
Please feel free to download and use if you would like.  Just right click the pic.  

That photo above shows Blowsion's very own GWally drilling some extra holes in the bottom of my new FP1...someone should let him know I don't need any extra help sinking skis! 

I've been champing at the bit to get on this hull for some time,  and the boys in Oregon have been very busy the last few weeks getting it ready.  This ski will be unveiled at The Daytona Freeride this coming Jan, that will also be the first time I get a chance to ride it.    

As I'm writing this GWally is hard a work prepping the ski for a few dozen coats of paint from the master himself John Dady.  But don't let that picture fool you.  Greg Wall (otherwise knows as GWally to those in the know) has spent countless hours meticulously  prepping no less than 6 boats for me over the years that Blowsion has painted.  We all pretty much have the process down at this point.  GWally will spend dozens of hours making sure Johnny has a glass smooth surface lay paint on.  Johnny will spend at least a 100 hours creating an incredible one of a kind paint job.   And I will do my best to go out and destroy it the first time someone take out a camera...wow what a jerk!

This boat is going to be another one of my themed boats like Blowsion has done for me and one of my primary sponsors in the past.  My favorite was the red GoFast Sports boat pictured above and below.  Johnny did an amazing job of including design elements from the GoFast can in to paint scheme of the ski.  

This new ski is really special for me on a few levels.  First, I'm tremendously happy to be able to come back to ride and promote the amazing companies that have supported me for years, and I'm amazed that even after being away for a few years these guys still have faith in me.  What is more, I'm really excited to be able to promote a product that I have so much of myself invested in, and something I think will ultimately have a lasting positive impact on this sport.  And I'm going to get the chance to do it all on a new hull that was really designed for my style of riding.  

Pete Mcloughlin (former Australian Surf Titles Champion pictured above) and I have been friends for the past 6-7 years.  And when he first conceived the idea for the FP1, we had some discussions about what would make the ultimate Freeride hull for the kind of riding we do.  I never really thought he would be crazy enough to go out and build the friggin thing.  But it turns out he was, and he started a business selling them down under FPJetskis.com.  I'm very proud to say that I have the first one to hit US soil.   Below is a slideshow of the hull as I got it before sending it to Blowsion to be built.  

Here is a quick preview of some the billet and other goodies fromCold Fusion that will be on this build.  Carl makes components that are nothing short of highly functional works of art.   

The final piece of the puzzle will be  an arm ripping, yet surf reliable DASA 850 power valve.  The motor will be built by Kyle at Dasa and tuned by Jordan Fielder at Blowsion.  Jordan has been a tremendous addition to the staff at Blowsion.  He is a former IJSBA Pro Ski World Champion and is an amazing tuner!  I had the great pleasure of riding Christian Young's Blowsion built Rickter with a DASA 850 that Jordan tuned...and power on that was as close to perfect for a surf boat as I could ask for...so I had to have the same setup in the new build.  

Wonder which one is mine???

I'm really looking forward to jumping on this thing about one month from now in Daytona.  Till then I will post updates here as I get them.  

And if anyone else wants to give er a go in Daytona either find me or make your way down to the Blowsion booth on the beach and tell em I sent you.  

Over the years I've written lots of articles for various pwc magazines and other media outlets,  most of which are now defunct.  Come to think of it...all of the outlets I've written for are either extinct or teetering on the edge  (PWI, Watercraft World, Jet Skier & PW, Watercraft Performance.)  Geez, maybe that means I'm the  problem...never the less.  I do like to write from time to time, and I would like to have a place where I can look back and find some of my older articles.  So I'm going to go through and post up some of my old favorites here.

The other reason for resurrecting this blog is because I started a series of articles on a guy who is an absolute hero of mine, Randy Laine.  Randy's story is one that is really important to me, and really important for the history of freeride, tow surfing, and surfing in general.  But the site that ran the first article, has gone quiet, and I'm going to continue the series here because at least then I know that it will exist in some form.  I'm going to post the original first article as I wrote it here and continue the series on this site.  The second article is almost ready to go, but will not be up for a few weeks. 

In the mean time  I will begin to post up some of the older stuff, and a few newer small articles and thoughts I've been kicking around.  

This is quite honestly the hardest pieces that I've ever tried to write. And it's certainly not for lack of content as the footnotes to RL's life could fill an encyclopedia volume. Rather, it's been so difficult for me because of how important I feel it is to tell his story correctly.

Randy was there at the beginning of professional surfing and traveled the world as a pro. He was there for the birth of the jet ski in the Carlsbad lagoon and went on to be one of the guys to define Freeride as we know it today. He has ridden waves on his ski larger than anyone else on the planet, and he is a member of the IJSBA hall of fame. He and his brother were the first guys to tow in to waves with a jet ski, and he was there the first time Cortez bank was ridden. Through all of this, some how he found time to help bring surfing culture to the main stream through his work at Oakley, film movies with John Travolta, and raise a beautiful daughter.

Randy Laine, his life, career, and influence on the action sports world can't be summed up in a few pages worth of text and pictures, so I'm not even going to attempt to do that. But what we can do is give you a little glimpse into the life of a guy who truly is an icon. Someone who went out and unabashedly blazed his own trail where none had been in the past. He laid a great wake for so many others to follow.   

In this first installment of our profile on RL we are going to focus on the early days of his career on personal watercraft. Starting at the very beginning with the birth of what we now know as the stand up Jet Ski in 1972, and ending with some of RL's crazy antics on the North Shore in the mid to late eighties. Let's take a step back in time, to the birth of our sport, and relax as RL tells us about what it was like in the beginning.

“It started out, I was just a surf bum hanging out watching the guys tests,” Randy tells me in his typical slightly self deprecating manner, as we sit on the porch of his house overlooking the Carlsbad lagoon. It was in this very same lagoon, some 40 years ago, that RL first got a shot at riding some of the original Jet Skis that Kawasaki was durability testing here in 1972, prior to their release to the public. When the test riders went on break, often times RL was able to bum a ride. “A couple times when I first started doing it...I'd end up full throttle up on the cement.” Which... in all fairness, is pretty typical for how most of RL's test sessions with Kawi ended up throughout his entire career. He then went on to say of his first ride, “I immediately started day dreaming about how this was going to interact with Surfing.” And there you have it, the seed for what was to become Freeride, was planted. But it was still going to be some years before RL really began to explore the limits of the Jet Ski in the surf.

Randy moved to California from Va Beach in the summer of 69 in search of better waves, and to build a life and name for himself in the burgeoning So Cal surf scene. That “surf bum,” as Randy called himself, quickly became one of Southern California's top pros and most influential figures.

Randy's competitive surfing career peaked from 1977 to 1979 when he competed on the IPS (International Professional Surfers) world tour, which was the precursor to today's ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals).  

While RL was focused more on surfing than anything else in his life, he did find time for a little motorized fun. Throughout most of the 70's when Randy was not surfing, he was racing motocross or bumming rides from friends with Jet Skis. Starting in 73 he began venturing out of the lagoon and into the surf at Tamarack, but it wouldn't be until 1979 that RL finally got fed up with breaking bones in the dirt and eventually bought himself a 440.   

At the same time I was on (the IPS) tour, I'd come home and fool around on the Jet Skis. I started realizing that I like(ed) having a motor...it was kind of like motocross on water...the jet ski had the speed and excitement of a motocross bike, but I could ride it on the waves like a surfboard.” “Really...it was motocross and surfing that lead me to choose jet ski Freeriding.” But at the time, “there was no category for jet ski Freeriding, I was a loner...I was the cult rider.”

Those early days as the cult rider were pretty rough, recalls Randy. “I was doing it by myself. There were times when I would get home at 10:00 at night because I had to swim my ski for miles” after the inevitable break downs that happen riding in the surf. But RL wasn't deterred, and before long he was in good company.  

One of his first mentors early on was Doug Silverstein. Doug was a test rider for Kawasaki and won the first jet ski race ever held in Mission Bay, San Diego in 1977. He would go on to be the first National Champion in 1978 and he successfully defended his crown in '79 and '80 as well. Doug “taught me quite a bit about how to ride properly...using technique and precision” remembers Randy.

In 1983 Randy and one of his band mates (yea..of course RL was in bands also) and riding buddies, Tony Milikan, coined the name WaveBusters for the tight knit group of riders who were just starting to go big in the surf. Randy recalls that the group was made up of “mostly R&D riders for Kawi. Vello Lippand, Norm Bigelow, Doug Silverstein.” Pretty soon, the WaveBusters were getting hired by coastal cities all over Southern California to perform at ocean festivals. The biggest event the WaveBusters performed at annually was the OP Pro surfing contest starting in 1983.  Even as that event evolved into the US Open of Surfing, Randy still performed demos into the early 90's.   

Like most professional surfers, Randy made the yearly pilgrimage from the mainland to Hawaii every winter starting in 1972, but it wasn't until 1985 that he began to ship a ski over. “It was a major logistical exercise” to pull off, but RL sent a ski over every season from '85-'90 until he finally figured out it was easier to “just leave the damn ski there.” Those early days in Hawaii (up to about 1990), were when he was able to ride “Rocky point, sunset, pipeline, off the wall, backdoor.” These are the absolute most famous waves in the world. But because of who he was, who he knew in Hawaii, and the fact that he was still sort of the “cult rider” (meaning he was more or less on his own with Herbie and a few others), he was able to pull it off.

Those days in Hawaii, for RL to be able to do what he was doing, it wasn't just who he knew it was “Da Hui” he knew that enabled his North Shore antics from the mid eighties on. RL describes Da Hui as “a group of guys known to kind of...um...keep things under control.” Suffice to say those guys ran the lineups and there was no way that any of what RL was up to on his waterscooter would have been tolerated without their blessing. One thing that needs to be understood is that by the time RL first shipped a ski to Hawaii in 1985, he already had 12 season of being on the North Shore as a very well respected surfer. Because of his time and experience there, he was friends with some core Da Hui. So, that first season when he sent a boat out, guys like Squiddy Sanchez, Frank Ramos, and Brian Surrat took RL “under their wing” and wound up becoming Freeriders themselves.

Even still, who Randy was and who he knew were not the only reasons he was able to ride these incredibly famous waves. Keeping peace in the water at these places or anywhere else is about respect and etiquette. When asked how it was that RL was able to ride these incredible places, he responded by saying, “I'd go out on big days, and I would go out in between crowds, or on an outer reef day. And because I surfed, I knew to stay away from the crowds.” That approach of minimizing his impact on the surfers, coupled with the relative novelty on the Jet Ski and his friends, are what enabled Randy, and a very select few others, to ride places that no Freerider will ever ride again. At least not the way these guys were able to. That was an incredibly special time in the history of our sport.

There are so many mind blowing stories from this time in RL's life. There is one in particular that is just so far outside the realm of possibility today, that it is laughable. “One of the coolest things I did...is I rode pipe on a gigantic day during the Pipe Masters.” “It was one of the last years that it was still legal to ride, or they hadn't come up with rules [against riding.] And what was happening was Pipe was gigantic, it was so big that Off The Wall was closing out. Everyone was on the beach watching the Pipe Masters, I wish I could remember what year it was, it was mid eighties. Well, I was sitting out about 50 yards over from the pack, or the heat. And when a set would come I would take off and I would go right. So I would ride these closeout rights Backdoor in to Off The Wall. I was out there probably close to two hours.” And when he was done, he pulled the ski up on the beach and watched his brother Wes Laine surf his heat in the Pipe Masters.

Randy's high profile in the personal watercraft world and his great connections led to him doing “a bunch of odd jobs for Kawasaki” from 1984-1990. But the same wild-man attitude that drove him to do crazy things in huge surf might have hindered his testing career with Kawasaki just a little bit. “They sent me to Tokyo...and we ended up going to Saipan and Okinawa...I got in trouble though because I ran the X2 up the beach into the jungle by accident. I was trying to spray these Japanese guys. They had these big wigs from Japan over there watching, and it was the first year the had X2 come out. And so without checking the ski out, I just took it and went blazing out into the surf. And as I came back in I was going full speed at the beach. I was going to do a turn and spray all the Japanese guys...what happened is the steering cable popped off. So I hit the beach, at like however fast the x2 goes, and literally the Japanese guys had to dive out of the way or they would have been killed. And I went flying so fast up the beach, I went all the way across the beach into the jungle...they thought I was trying to kill them...so they were pretty upset that I sanded down their boat and I almost killed them.”  Without missing a beat, RL goes on to say “but that was kind of the story of my career at Kawi testing, because every time I would do testing, I got in trouble.”

Randy is a wild man and a trailblazer. These early years of riding were an incredible time in the history of our sport and RL's contributions to Freeride during these years were unmatched. But the best Freeriding of his life was yet to come. We will explore those years and RL's history with tow surfing in future installments.  

So...it is about that time again.  I've spent the last several years working on building a business outside of the personal watercraft world, Soft-Deck.com.  This business went through some iterations before finally finding it's directions as a supplier for the military and law enforcement community.  Through the building and development of Soft Deck, I felt that it was important to keep a pretty narrow focus on only that.  Which meant basically putting my riding on hold until I felt I could again dedicate time to the sport I love.  Thanks to having some great manufacturing partners in Hydro-Turf and RMS Laser that have helped me build this business, I now have the time to dedicate to riding again. My last contest was Blowsion Surf Slam in 2011, and I fortunate enough to walk away as a winner from that event.  Even though I was unable to attend the final stop of the IFWA World Tour in Brazil, I still finished the year in second place.  I've ridden a little here and there, but nothing all that serious...till now. 

This weekend will kick off the start of my training and riding again in earnest to prepare for what will be the launch of new project I'm associated with.  I can't say much about the new project just yet, but I am tremendously happy that my role in this venture is a promotional one.  The best way I know how to promote is through my riding, and I'm looking forward to having a very full 2014 back with my freeride family.  We will be announcing the business this coming January at The Daytona Freeride
 where we will also be unveiling my brand new Blowsion build FP1 from FPJetSkis.com.

I'm really looking forward to a great 2014 and beyond, and I'm tremendously grateful for those companies that are helping me get back in the water.  Cold Fusion, Blowsion, FP Jetskis, Dasa Racing, Hydro-Turf, Burn Industries, and Fullgaz.