liquidforce.com blog

Collin put together a new video on the teams recent trip to Germany for Wake the Line contest, check it out!

http://www.liquidforcefilms.com

Liquid Force and Fantasy Action Sports League have joined forces to provide great prizes for FASL Wake Players. Liquid Force will be giving away a complete board / binding set up to the One Team that scores the highest points in the Premium Event or Season Games (Free Season not eligible). The wakeboard setup will be given away at the conclusion of Stop #5 of the PWT Tour.

In addition, Liquid Force will be providing great prizes for the FASL Event Games covering PWT Tour stops 2 ? 5. The prizes being given away for these games include LF ropes, handles and vests.

To sign up for these and other great prizes, not to mention cold hard Cash, go to:

www.fantasyactionsportsleague.com

About Fantasy Action Sports League: FASL is a collaboration of Board Sports professionals and industry insiders bringing you a Fantasy Sports Game you can call your own. FASL has already given away Thousands of Dollars in Cash and many more Thousands in Prizes. Visit www.fantasyactionsportsleague.com for your chance to win today.

About Liquid Force: Founded in 1995, Liquid Force quickly became the leader in wakeboard products and apparel. Liquid Force is dedicated to relentless innovation, progressive design, maximum functionality and unparalleled quality. As part of the Motion Water Sports family, Liquid Force owns Straight Line Ropes and Handles. Supported by a superior team of athletes, Liquid Force events include world famous BROstock and Maven Sessions.

364 2nd Street, Suite 7
Encinitas, CA 92024
PH: 760 943 8364
FX: 760 943 8972

WWW.LIQUIDFORCE.COM

Pleasant Prairie, Wis. – After several hours of postponement today, due to severe weather, the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour kicked off its first day of action in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., hosting qualifiers for the Jr. Pro Men’s division. The postponement forced Tour organizers, World Sports & Marketing to reschedule the Pro division qualifiers for tomorrow, Saturday, June 20.

The top amateur riders from around globe hit the waters of Lake Andrea at Prairie Springs Park today for the Jr. Pro Men’s division qualifiers. Nearly 30 riders competed within five heats in the opening round, advancing the top four riders in each heat onto the next round of the contest. Among the 20 riders to move onto tomorrow’s Jr. Pro Men quarterfinals is Bob Soven, who posted a perfect score of 100-points to win his heat today. Bob, younger brother of defending Pro Tour champion Phillip Soven, will enter the quarterfinals as the top-seeded rider.

Daniel Powers, Phillip Aslinger, Danny Burnstein and Aussie Jarrod Askew also won their respective heats today to advance onto the quarterfinals.

The MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour continues tomorrow Saturday, June 20 from 9:30am – 4:30pm, and ends on Sunday, June 21.

For schedules, results, standings, photos, videos, athlete bios and more, please visit www.allisports.com.

The MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour is organized by World Sports & Marketing of Orlando, Fla. The Pro Tour has the support of the following sponsors: MasterCraft, Rockstar Energy Drink, Mona Vie, the U.S. Air Force, Indmar, Billabong, Hyperlite, CWB, Ronix, Liquid Force, Gator Boards, Oakley, Ride the Wake, FUEL TV and Allisports.com.

Sent in by another lifelong LF rider, love the dedication…

The carriers were loaded and the rails were wet down to start the action at the WWA National Wake Park Contest. With a stacked final heat including the world champion Reed Hansen and cable stars like John Raurk no one knew what would happen.

Kyle Hyams took to the water first and did not disappoint. He nearly landed a clean run, but not wasn’t able pull off the kickflip in the last turn. That fall opened the door for Bret Little, who was riding with a broken rib. Bret shuved onto the OWC box with ease and landed a clean frontside flip, spreading fear amongst the other competitors. Next up were John Ruark and Andrew Pastura, but they just couldn’t pull it together; both suffered uncharacteristic falls. Steve Campbell has had a hard year in the contest circuit so he was hoping for a strong finish. Coming off the dock strong, he stomped a huge 540 shuv to frontboard on the box and cleared every obstacle clean.

Last off the dock, Reed Hansen knew what had to be done. He went out and in normal form landed numerous flats tricks and a huge 3 off the kicker. With the stand out run of the day, the crowd knew that Reed took home the gold. The taste of victory in his mouth, Reed threw a victory V-flip off the large kicker and stomped it clean. Though his judged run was already over, it made things that much better. As it turns out, that was the first time he’d ever landed the trick and he said, “It would of been nice to actually land it in my contest run.”

Well Reed, looks like you’ll just have to settle for the title of national champ instead.

1st Reed Hansen
2nd Bret Little
3rd Steve Campbell
4th Kyle Hyams
5th John Ruark
6th Andrew Pastura

If you are part of the million viewers that watched Rob and Big, you would know that Rob Dyrdeck got famous mostly because of his dog that actually skateboards. Sure you could credit his actual skateboard career, but I’m going have to say it was actually the amount of dog lovers that watched his show. In the same grain, not many people know yet that Kyle Hyams has been training his dog to wakeskate.

Kyle knows you probably can’t make millions wakeskating, but if you had a dog that wakeskated and could get like the billion dog lovers to watch your dog wakeskate. So congratualtions Kyle for finally figuring it out!

Dont worry PETA, no animals were harmed in the pictures. Kyle assures me that when out on the lake his dog has the appropriate PDF. So next time your crusing around the Maitland chain and you see a dog wakeskating, you’ll know who it is.

Looks like it’s time once again for another installment of “A Day In The Life Of…” It’s definitely my honor to bring you this one, and not just because the last one included me as one of the subjects. Now I get the opportunity to do one on someone else, the guy I looked up to in wakeboarding since I started getting into the sport. Ben Greenwood is the king of freeride with his very unique flowing style and his profound skill of poking out a grab with just about every single trick he does. If you just watch this guy ride once, you will quickly see why he is on almost everyone’s top list of favorite riders to watch. You’ll also understand why he was the 2005 Alliance Rider Of The Year.

I met Ben when I first moved to Florida and started working for The Wakeboard Camp. Just over two years have gone by since my move and I am safe in saying that Ben is a good friend of mine. So let me take you into a day in the life of the man, the myth, the legend: Ben Greenwood.

We got started in the beautiful small town of Clermont, just outside of Orlando, at the local Duncan Donuts. Ben goes there about three to four times a week and orders the exact same thing every time; coffee with cream and sugar and a ham, egg and cheese bagel sandwich. I’m not kidding. I think they might know him by name there!

Trevor Hansen
After our breakfast, we headed down the road to The Wakeboard Camp where we both coach and where he keeps his boat. The whole staff had to be there early for an annual staff meeting, but as soon as that was over, it was time to shred. Trevor Hanson came out and joined Ben, Bob Sichel and I for a late morning ride with Ben’s Supra and the camps PWC to shoot photos.

Trevor started things off by consistently landing everything he tried with out even a blink of an eye. I think he finally took a fall like 10 or 15 minutes into his set. Crazy!

Once Trevor finished his gnarly dancing, Ben started suiting up while Bob and I messed around on the PWC. Ben was completely on point and gave me nothing but art in front of my camera. I even got to witness a couple moves I’ve never really see Ben do. After Ben completely brought the house down with his usual standout riding, it was time for Bob and myself to ride.

Bob just absolutely killed it and was throwing some super dope looking indy frontside wrapped 3’s that I got to see from a different angle for the first time. After my slightly injured self finished up riding, we headed in to grab some lunch.

The afternoon plan was to head into Orlando and meet up with the UGP guys for lunch, but you all know how things never go as planned in this industry, so we had to get lunch ourselves and then head over to the UGP offices. Ben, Bob and I jetted over to Ben’s favorite deli in town, Chef’s Table, where he got some sandwich that was basically a thanksgiving dinner in between two pieces of bread. It looked quite interesting, but I played it safe and went with the pulled pork sandwich.

Ben and UGP’s Wann Chong and Cason Lehman
From lunch, Bob went back to the camp to coach in the afternoon while Ben and I drove out to UGP. UGP just signed Ben onto the team, so we dropped by to say, “What’s up?” and to check out the new clothes for the season. When we first got there, we dropped in on our friend/ex-camp coach/Ben’s next-door neighbor and another holder of the greatest first name on earth, Cason Lehman. While we were at UGP, Ben got to check out some of the new stuff and the owner of the company, Wann Chong, came in to hang out with us. At that time, I thought it would be a good idea to do a small interview with Ben and ask him a few questions about his new sponsor and anything else he wanted to talk about. Ben was down with an upside down frown…

WW: Ben, how would you say our day is going so far?
BG: Well, thank you for asking, Kaesen. You are growing into a fine example of a gentleman. Our day is lovely. The new haircut makes me feel like a BAMF! (laughs)

WW: Is this really how it goes in your life?
BG: I would say that this is a typical day, but in saying that, I mean, like a typical day that fits into one of the categories of “typical days.” Like if we chose tomorrow it would be a typical day where I would try to ride in the morning, then head to the airport to head out for a demo. Or if we chose yesterday, it would have been pretty boring for the WakeWorld viewers to see a day where I ride a few times, then spend the rest of the day on the phone and the computer.

WW: Can you tell us all where you are from and what brought you down to Florida?
BG: I can. I am from the great white Northeast. Grew up in a small town in Massachusetts and learned to waterski and “Skurf” up in New Hampshire, to give you an idea of how long ago that was. I went to college in upstate New York and decided that when I was done I would go crazy if I got a desk job and didn’t at least try to spend a few years doing what I loved. It was a pretty heavy decision for me at the time considering I was a broke college graduate coming off of a year hiatus from riding because of a broken ankle with no clue how the industry worked or if I was even good enough to make it. My buddy Craig Kennedy up in NY gave me my first coaching job the summer that I graduated from school and had a friend who knew PJ Marks at the Wakeboard Camp.
I came down to check it out, bumped into Keith Lyman and, two months later drove my ‘93 Chevy S-10, “The Li’l Mule,” down and the rest is history, as they say.

WW: So you recently signed with UGP clothing. How has everything been since the switch?
BG: I did, I did. So as not to burn any bridges or anything, I’ll just say I moved on from a program that I was very proud of building and learned a lot about how the other side of the industry works. It is really fun working with a smaller, local company that is truly passionate about the sports they are involved with. It’s also pretty rewarding to help out a brand that has been in the sport for well over 10 years and try to bring some more validity to their already solid program.

WW: Any future plans with you and UGP?
BG: Yes, there are plans to release a signature line of apparel within the semi-near future. We are also in the process of getting a line of vests going that I am really excited about working on.

WW: How does it make you feel when people title you as their favorite or most stylish rider?
BG: To me, there is no greater compliment. It is cool to win awards and contests and all that, but nothing feels better to me than when someone tells you that you are their favorite rider. Someone’s “favorite rider” is kind of a big deal. I know that I felt that way when I was back home in New England. When it comes to people complimenting my style, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…I am just trying to emulate what I have seen before and learn new tricks that I can apply a different twist onto.

WW: Was there a rider that you looked up to for style when you were coming up into the sport?
BG: Yes, everyone that I saw ride on video! I looked up to every person that was doing what I wanted to do and would try to figure out what was different about their riding from the next guy. I recorded every ESPN “Hot Summer Nights” wakeboard contest and watched every video I could get my hands on. I would say that the people who stood out to me as far as style goes would be Greg Nelson, Matt Staker, Eric Schmaltz, Josh Smith and, of course, Scott Byerly. It didn’t mean that I wasn’t a card-carrying super fan of Darin Shapiro and Shaun Murray, but I always saw myself riding more like the other guys.

WW: Any big plans this summer that you want to share?
BG: This summer is a little different than summers in the past, meaning that there are a few less events to do as companies are scaling back on sending riders all over the place. I’m cool either way. I love to get on the road and meet new people and ride in new spots, but I also love being home and riding behind my boat and learning new stuff. Film-wise, I’ve got a few things in the works, one of which may or may not be top secret, and others are more focused on the online release thing.

WW: Shout outs?
BG: OUTS!!!! Get it? Of course, I would like to send bro-hugs to Liquid Force. I have been with them the longest out of all my sponsors and we continue to move forward and work on new products…Spoiler Alert! It has something to do with your feet! (laughs) StraightLine has been really fun to work with on my signature rope and handle. Supra,
many thanks, as always. UGP, looking forward to wonderful future together. SkullCandy, thanks for making my music sound better and supporting the sport that we all love. Marine Products, the coolest shop on the face of the planet! And last, but, of course, not least, The Wakeboard Camp. I would not have had the chance to ride and learn as much as I have about the sport and the participants it is lucky enough to have without you. (sniffle, tear wipe)

As we said our goodbyes and left the UGP offices, Ben was eager to get back to Clermont and ride again. Of course, our plans were almost ruined by typical I-4 traffic, but we still made it back with plenty of cloudy, late afternoon summer weather.

Back to the camp once more where Ben met up with photographer Joey Meddock for a quick little photo shoot. Joey Meddock has been shooting photography in this sport for years and years and years. He is one of the most respected photographers in the biz. It shouldn’t really come as a surprise if your favorite wakeboarding photo was taken by Joey. Meddock also just came out with a photo book, which has 175 pages of his most famous and favorite shots from the past 10 years. It’s a pretty amazing book that you can purchase on his new and improved website at meddock.com. Check it out.

So during the photo shoot I just hung out in the boat and took some shots of it all going down. It was really cool to see the two work together to make sure they get the shot they want. Great team work! Once they got the shot they wanted, we headed in and covered up the Supra to call it a day for riding.

Since it was almost dark and the day was coming to an end, we headed across the street from the camp to the local spot, “Sports On Tap,” to have some dinner and a few beers with the rest of the Wakeboard Camp. It was a nice little touch to end the perfect day. So there you have it and now you have a taste of what the life of Ben Greenwood is like.

The world’s best in wake congregated at Lake Powell this past weekend for Liquid Force’s annual BROstock festival. Fueled by Monster Energy, 2009’s BROstock proved to be bigger and better then expected once again! Twenty four of the best riders including Shawn Watson, Shane Bonifay, Rusty Malinoski, Phillip Soven, and Danny Harf came for the contest, but stayed for the fun and festivities.

The weekend kicked off Friday with a progressive wakeskate demo that featured the likes of Aaron Reed, Danny Hampson, and Brian Grubb, among others. The crew took it to the backcountry, where they sessioned over rocks and natural terrain. Earlier in the day, the pro wakeboarders got a chance to get accustomed to the monsterous wake of the LF BROstock edition Supra 24’, as they had a 2 hour practice session. The night concluded with premiers of both Collin Harrington’s Box of Fun and Billabong’s Out of the Pond to a boisterous crowd watching on the 36’ screen and sound system set up in the desert!

Saturday kicked off early with the LF DJ throwing down the beats for round one of the double-up contest. Round 1 started with 24 riders riding in heats that would eventually cut the field down to 16. From round one, the format switched to head-to-head as the 16 remaining riders would battle it out to make it into the round of 8. Once in the round of 8, all riders would be getting paid. Needless to say, the competition was definitely heating up. With the Supra 24’ BROstock edition the official towboat of BROstock, all competitors were guaranteed a consistently giant wake and that lead to some serious boosting!

After a semifinals round that eliminated Ben Greenwood, Harley Clifford, Jeff Weatherall, and Shane Bonifay, the final 4 consisted of Danny Harf, Chris O’Shea, as well as Liquid Force’s own Bob Soven and James Balzer, the spoilers of the event. Balzer, know for his wakeskating prowess, was a last minute fill in for the event as another rider backed out due to injury. He continued to impress round after round and was a definite fan favorite. Bob, the 17 year old phenom was impressive all day as he was able to take down some of the industry’s best, including Rusty Malinoski and his older brother Phillip. In the finals, Balzer stomped a clean backside 540 while Bob threw down a huge toeside 900 to claim the 3rd and 2nd spots on the podium respectively. In the end, however it was Monster Energy team rider, Danny Harf who dropped a wrapped nose grab backside 720 to claim the top spot. He had consistently been landing what was considered one of the most stylish and progressive tricks all day and was rewarded heavily for it. In the process, Danny walked away $12,500 richer and put his name in the history books of BROstock, a contest that is widely becoming known for producing some of the most progressive contest riding ever!

Be sure to tune in to FUEL TV August 25th at 8:30pm to watch the BROstock show and relive all of the action!

Thanks to all 2009 BROstock sponsors including Monster Energy, Liquid Force, Supra Boats, Dragon Alliance, Alliance Wakeboard Magazine, FUEL TV, New Era Cap, and Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas.

For additional information, be sure to head on over to www.liquidforce.com/brostock09.htm

Bob Soven

Danny Harf

Harley Clifford

Party Islands

Shane Bonifay

Supra BROstock Edition

The Winners!