Date: 4/29/03
Words and Photos: Miles Armstrong

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My Little Weekend Photo Gallery

Miles Armstrong

As some of you may be aware, Rookie of the Year (AKA my home dog) Andrew Adkison moved in with Shaun Murray. An excellent opportunity for Andrew to... Okay, okay, it's a sweet in for me to ride and hang with the big guns of wakeboarding. I gave Andrew a call earlier in the week and said I had taken a couple days off and was headed down.

Shaun Murray's house - The Murriott (click to enlarge)

I left early Friday morning from LA (lower Alabama) for my six-hour trek to O-town. When I arrived at Shaun's house, the guys were all on the other side of the lake filming for some video (imagine that). A few moments later, Gerry Nunn pulled up with a boatload in his Malibu Wakesetter and Andrew pulled up with a load of camera gurus in Shaun's new Team Edition Super Air. Andrew's boat was at the dealership getting pimped out. Shaun wasn't home yet and Gerry ran to his house to start packing for a trip to the west side. Andrew gave me a quick tour of their house, also know as the Murriott, which concluded with Gerry ousting Andrew in a little foosball. Gerry lives next door to Shaun and the line is clearly marked with a sign that reads, "The Murray/Nunn Crossing Line."

I grabbed my gear and headed down to the dock with Andrew to load up on Gerry's Malibu and take a set. Wait! Jocko from Wake TV shows up to fill Andrew in on Issue #14 and get a little preview on what he's going to be filming. Wait! Ricky G wants to hop in and get a set. Wait! Ryan Wolfe wants to hop in and get a set. Wait! Keith Lyman (whom I almost didn't recognize because he dropped a good 4-6 inches off the fro) wants to get a quick set.

Okay, now the boat's packed and some good riding follows. Gerry's wake is awesome; steep like a super air, but not as abrupt and very lofty. I was excited to have a good run, complete with some tantrums to blind, crow mobes, skeezer and a switch KGB. Ryan was recovering from injury, so he just did some wake jumps and a couple spins to put a little pressure on the knee. Ricky G didn't have his gear with him, so after a few things in a row went bad, including the huge rash from the A-frame, he called it quits to play it safe.

I've watched Andrew ride a million times, but haven't seen him ride for about six months. There was nothing really new as far as what tricks he was doing, but he now grabs, tweaks and double grabs everything he does. He has really refined his riding. Andrew's very first trick was a wake-to-wake 720. Within about five minutes of riding, Andrew hit the following: whirly, crow mobe, suicide Raley, 313, Pete Rose, tootsie roll, Roll to blind, Moby Dick grabbed (Rob Stru style), KGB, Method heelside mobe, toeside 7, heelside 7, off-axis 5 rewind 3, along with an assortment of all the basic inverts, nicely grabbed and tweaked out. Then I made him punish himself with some 9 attempts.

A very happy Andrew Adkison (click to enlarge)

And then Lyman rides - jaw to the floor. All you can say is, "Jeez, did you see that?!" Keith is my favorite guy to watch ride now. He rides at 85 feet and screams in every cut like he is going to launch a huge Raley. Nope, it's a nuclear glide 20 feet up and all the way out beside the boat when he lands. Again, screaming in on what looks like a toeside Raley cut. Nope, it's a giant method crow mobe, again landed way out in the flats. Huge nuclear tantrums to blind. Even his heelside threes involve a huge cut and go way out in the flats. Since I had done a skeezer, Keith was like, "Hey, I haven't tried one of those in a long time." Then he pulls a huge method skeezer and sticks it. Yeah, that was real nice #$%%^^%$$##.

Day one concluded with a little trip out to dinner and back to Shaun's house.

While all the young guys were sleeping in, the old guy (me) got up early for a jog around the lake. Jocko and David Corwall arrived to film Andrew in his new Chevy Avalanche picking up his new X-star from the dealership. We zipped over to Shaun's to drop off the boat. Then we piled in Andrew's Avalanche and headed over to Winterhaven for a tournament.

Darin Shapiro and Froggy Soven (click to enlarge)

I helped Shaun set up the RV (the one he did the backyard tour in) and commenced to taken some photos of the tourney scene. The little people gathered around Shaun's RV for some tunes and relaxation. As you can see, the Red Bull girls were there handing out drinks and smiles. Shaun was the MC for the day and did a great job at it. He would have no problem with a second career as a standup comedian.

So, who was on hand for the tournament? They are in order to how they finished in their heats.

Red Bull girls (click to enlarge)

Heat #1
Keith Lyman
Steve Edwards
Nick Weinacker
Scott Ferwerda
Steven Paul

Heat #2
Froggy Soven
John Perterson
Daniel Mavrey
Megan McNeil
Wes Brisco

Heat #3
Andrew Adkison
Chad Sharpe
Chris Laske
Rusty Malinoski
Ben Greenwood

MC Shaun Murray (click to enlarge)

Heat #4
JD Webb
Jonathan Nadolski
Eric Ruck
Zane Schwenk
Robin Friday

Heat #5
Shaun Murray
Derek Grasman
Kevin Henshaw
Keith Lidberg
Loren Levine

Heat #6
Travis Stewart
Philip Combs
Darin Shapiro
Trevor Hansen
Jeff Weatherall

Andrew signs some autographs (click to enlarge)

To take a quote from Shaun, the "Narcoossee Posse" won the tournament. Recently Keith Lyman moved from Winterhaven over to Shaun's lake (off of Narcoossee Road). Keith won first place and $3,000 worth of stereo equipment, Shaun took second and $2,000 in cash and Andrew got third and $1,000 in cash.

We all left quickly, so that Shaun would not have any help getting his RV packed back up. A surprise birthday party was awaiting Shaun when he got back to the house. When we got back to Shaun's, Andrew and I had to get a couple sets in. Everyone slowly arrived and the party got under way.

Parks Bonifay (click to enlarge)

Of course, Parks Bonifay tapped the keg and got the party going. There was general socialization, cards and beer pong until about midnight. The beer pong was particularly fun. It's like regular four-player ping pong with beers on the table. If a beer got hit, you had to take a swig. If the ball landed in the cup, you had to finish the beer off. Believe it or not, there were tons of shots into the beer cups.

Then it was off to the dock. I brought my homemade potato launcher with a little starter fluid for ignition amazed everyone at the 300-yard shooter. Shaun even took a turn and launching a spud.

Shaun makes a toast (click to enlarge)

The cake was brought out and we all sang happy Birthday to Shaun. Shaun toasted us all with some tequila. Then the party really started. Shaun begged for no one to sue him and for everyone to move out to the hurt track - I mean the dirt track. Dallas Friday and Chris Heavener started things out with a little "Queen of the Hill." Then there were a couple mini 50 bike races (it's about 1:00am).

Danny Harf and Parks were trashing the 50's with some pretty big jumps. Then Shaun ran to the top of the hill and announced, "Straight from the west side, I give you Ricky G!" Ricky comes flying down the driveway, hits the ramp and, to everyone's amazement, he does a back flip. The party raged on until about 4:00am.

Orlando Watersports Complex (click to enlarge)

The next day was the finals of the tournament I mentioned above. While Shaun and Andrew got ready to go to the finals, I broke away to go hit the cable park. The cable park was nice and empty so I got all I could stand in about three hours. There were several additions since the last time I had been there (September 2002).

From there I took off over to Clermont to go ride with the Kyles. You can't go to O'town without hooking up with the Kyles! They picked me up at The Wakeboard Camp. The lake was a bit rough so they took me through a couple secret shortcuts over to another lake where we had it all to ourselves. Mark demonstrated his new found love for wakeskating, while Kathy did a little of both. They even talked me into a little wakeskating after a couple wakeboard sets. After we rode, they took me out for dinner.

Andrew called and gave me the results of the tourney. He also told me they were headed over to Shaun's for more riding, but I was pooped and couldn't board anymore.

Shaun, Andrew and I watched a couple of movies that night and called it quits. Andrew had to take off to a video shoot for MasterCraft the next morning. I packed up and gave Shaun a big thanks for his hospitality. Shaun offered to give me some pulls around the lake, but by this time I could hardly move. I shook his hand and headed out.

As I was cruising down the road back to Alabama, I couldn't help but think to myself what an awesome weekend it was...and these guys live it every day. What a life!

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