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90% of the time the ability to land a trick is decided by the time you leave the wake.  It was another big weekend of wakeboarding in the Land of Lychees.

Found out that Sunday would be last time we be riding in ZS for this season as the reservoir will be letting masses of water out for some construction uses. Fortunately, Michael had arranged another site in Dong Guan for the hardcore winter riders to fulfill our riding crave.

We had a pro guest coach in town for the last two weeks.  As I was out on biz trip last week, I met him for the first time on Saturday.. He is a big lad but young, as in every American pro rider. It was real fun to have him around. I can definitely see the change in attitude and commitment among the wakenutts.

Mickey, kept up his intensity to get the Toeside backroll ride.. It is all about riding up the wake progressive and let the slope scope you into the air as kick the board away from the boat.. I am sure he needn’t any facials for a while after all the face plants he had sustained. But it is good for him since face plant only meant now all he needs is work on getting a better height.. ToeWeng also went for the toeside backroll and he came awfully close.

Little Julian has been a revelation since his return from Florida. This time, he up another notched landing a toeside frontroll on 10 attempts. It was simply a joy to watch him ride fearlessly into the wake..

Sunday was really fun as Matthew, VL and Andrew all came up and we had a blast.. VL’s still working on his mobes n dicks.. Ha ha..    Andrew , Matt and I all gunned for the tantrum.. Although I still haven’t stick mine.. My confidence has grown a lot… Now instead of fearing the wake and the uncertainty of the rotation… I am more focus on trying to get the landing right … So far, I am still unable to absorb the impact to ride off standing up.. However, it is a lot better than before as I now can actually see the horizon, implying that I am at least upright on landing…. My confidence also helped me ride strong up the wake and hence… it gave me a more consistent pop up, flicked up..  Learning the trick-flip by crashing incessantly after take off really help… 

VL highlighted to me that he realized that I have a lot more power in my ride than before and it was encouraging to hear that from him since he is Mr. Consistency and power when it comes to riding.. Riding strong as I mentioned in the last blog has had a positive effect on my riding.. Well, my knee suffered as a result since going big also meant going out to the flats and the impact on knees on landing can be hard. My tendonitis on my left knee really bugs me post ride because it gets imflamed easily .. Guess it comes with age..

Raleys, what can you say….  Chicks dig them.. People who has done it says it is not hard, while those who haven’t will forever remain on the awed-side of watching the stars fly..  Think in Wakeboarding.. How high one can go depends on size of his balls or hers… not literally, but it is all guts.. guts to try the first backroll, guts to take a wake-skate wake to wake, and guts to let it all out in a raley… Julian, and Andrew tried it on Sunday…. Taking a wakeskate on a raley attempt… Jules did ok..  Gutsy kid…and even hough I wasn’t on the boat at that moment…I saw the video footage of Andrew’s close brush with castration.. I am sure his wife wouldn’t like that..  On his take off…. Instead of flying away, the skate stay right between Andrew knees.. and he had to use his kneee to hold it… or he would have come down on it…. Right in the nutts…

My nuts got really banged up over the weekend as I kept landing on it… but my pain would be no where near Andrew’s if he wasn’t able to break free from the skate… Phew..

Post ride with the wakenutts is always cool as we talked about the day, our ride, pros and cons and other riding gossips….  We went to a si-chuan place for hot-pot.. The ma-la pot is 80% chilli oil, 20% soup base.. Thus evening after a day had passed, I could still feel the oil swimming inside me and this morning,  oh my fire-ass!!!!

weekend summary….

Another fantastic weekend in Zeng Seng… 

Water’s flat, sun’s shining.. good riders all around.. it was another sweet weekend…

My ride was so so.. It really started crapy as I had lost my backroll again.. Somehow, my arms were just not strong enuff to hold on after i have landed… it seemed that i have been landing pretty heavy on all my pops off late, backroll and grabs… and my arms wore out too easy as i try keep my ride in control.. I no longer slip onto the descending surface of the second wake but to the flats which my knees bore most of the force of the impact when i just to land and ride off.. Nevertheless the hangtime and the height i got nowadays is just wicked. It is like a drug… I know it is not good for my knees and yet everytime, i kept trying to see how much more air i can get.. .. Today i  paid the price as i  am walking with a limb. My ligaments behind my left kneecap’s had became inflamed and time is the only medicine… Anyway back to the ride.. What surprised me was I had a better ride on Sunday then Saturday. Usually on Sunday’s , my body hurts like a Bach as the muscles try its best to recover from Sat’s beating… Anyway, Sunday, i rode strong… despite the hard landings, I enjoyed all the air-time i get from going big, got back my rolls.. I even puckered enuff confidence to try the tantrums again…  all the trampoline training has been benficial…. Now, i am able rotate smoother and I don’t go blind on landings.. but… I still can’t figure out how to position myself to land the sucker… most of the time i would hunch onto a L-shape posture after coming around and looking right at the water. . and next thing i know.. i hear a "thud" , drop the handle.. and into the water.

Ho Long came up to china for the first time.. He had a monster ride… Big raleys and backrolls and scarecrow… he has a monster approach.. literally raley based edging up the wake for everything, even his 360.. Super strong riding.. I really like his scarecrow..  it was relentless..

Johnson had a monster weekend too…He came close to sticking the tantrum… He is finally riding like the Johnson i knew when we first met many yrs ago..  Aggressive and fearless…

Bridget is getting really close to her first backroll.. she is now able to get her rolls to rotate fully and on Sunday, she was landing on the flats, but she was not able to stick them yet… Now all she needs is time to familiar herself with the landings and the handle position and she should on her way to claim the 5000 prize Michael promised… however they was a little incident in which one of her attempts kinda took her totally out. It was an awkward faceplant, after losing control in the middle of the rotation. It left her concussed on the surface of the water as the guys dived in to hurl her back to the boat… …. she was fine after a while and was already thinking of riding again after two hours…. NOW THAT’S dedication…

I am glad to see Tai hou back in the water after an injury layoff..  He hurt his knees not too long ago… but seem to be one the road to full recovery… Mickey, is riding stronger than ever… If he were to put a few more pound into his frame.. i am sure.. he should be the first guy in the gang to land the indy mex roll and toeside backroll.. He attempted the toe backroll and it looked good… Unfortunately, he did have the momentum to achieve the full rotation and face planted.. but I was stoked just by the fact he tried..

PoPo has been incredible.. His commitment to riding better has been really commendable… Saw him in action on the wakeskate… He spins so effortlessly on the surface.. it was pure poetry.. blind180, full  360, 720… he made it looked easy… I tried…. and i ate water.. big time..

In a couple of weeks, some of the guys will be heading to Singapore to compete.. I firmly believe.. many of them will come back with some silverware…

carpe diem… you’re da best..

igAbsolutely fantastic weekend in Chong Hin.

Riders from Asia gathered to face off in Sai Kung, Hong Kong.. This year the competition rocked with intensity as riders raised the bar of the challenge. With the increment of class categories like the Outlaw in between Advance and Open, the event opened up to more partcipants as the playing field were levelled based on their respective experiences.

We were treated to a hoogie glide by Aussie rider Adam Bruce who picked up the runner’s up medal. Lota wet our appetitide with a Batwing (pausing in the middle of the sky like it really had wings) and an absolutely stunning S-bend to win the tourney…..  Moto san, our Japanese competitor, slipped in a Whirly bird in addition to a amazing  melan frontflip 180 to claim the find place on the podium…  There were no slouch for local boys Tommy( Tom Gaffney) and VL (Vincent Law)… Tommy shows us why he is sick throwing back to back heelside Kyrpts on both goofy and regular…. That’s respect.. Our boy VL, had the ride of his life.. sticking his trademark melan-roll on his first trick to introduced his arrival to the big stage. He followed it up with method scarecrow and stalefish frontflip with style and intensity. This was truely the finest works of The Grab Master, VL….  The friends from Singapore also gifted us a host of sick moves… capping off With Stephen’s mother of all air-raleys… Technically clean, excellent posture as he floats to the air and back…    

In the other Categories… Our bud Andrew swept the Advance with a sweet backroll and scarecrow. Matthew was really unfortunate not to qualify for finals after a sweet run, topping off with his heelside 360…. Unfortuntely it was a battle of groups and points. His group all did really well and hence base on points he fell shy.. But watch out..  next year..  heel 3, toe 3, tantrum will come..

In Outlaw, Cheung Ho long showed class as his stand-up run put him miles ahead of the competitors….Unfortunately, his victory would meant it would be a long while before we find out if he can ever beat his rival, Toe King Weng. Toe King did not compete and that meant that he has the option to remain in outlaw category next yr while Ho Long’s victory would propel him to opens division. Toe King pipped him for the podium finish during the August Wakefest and thus a interesting rivalry is brewing. It is good for the sport as we push ourselves and the wakeboarding fraternity to higher levels…. Mr Dreadlock, Johnson, had a sweet run to finish second place.

I am really stoked about the weekend and I felt privilege to be behind the lens for the event.. The X-star was simply fabulous as it churn consistency all over the wake for the riders to strut their stuff….. Water’s as flat as it can be.. The sunlight shone sporadically as if the Sun Gods were simply willing me to snap better pictures of His favourite rider.. Guess Vincent His adored one that day as VL was brightly beamed throughout his entire ride..  You can’t get better conditions than that!!!!

Man and Wife is pretty much similar to Man and Son, with new issues…. it touched on matters which one woud not have fathomed unless one’s been there and done that, ie married and actually remarried.. Since i am single,  my experience on such issues is pretty much Zilch… Athough there are pre-conceived notions, I am constantly surprise that marital issue is a lot harder to handle that it appears to be. Thus, it is pretty amzing to read about how Harry Silver juggles his affairs

Although there are some bits which I would not exactly agree too, coming from another culture.. I think the author  wrote a real good novel with realistic issues which affect every man’s life.. Thus a book worth reading.