Today I’m leaving for the Philippines for the World Wake Park contest and the first stop of the WWA World Series. My day started out by heading over to Trevor Hansen’s house. Trevor, Reed, and myself are all flying together. We were running late as usual, and it didn’t help that Reed decided to pack, sticker his board and helmet 15 minutes after we already should have left. We got on our first flight no problem though; I ‘m still hoping my bags made it on the plane however.

Packing up in Groveland before heading to the airport. Rattray photo

A few weeks ago Trevor and I were talking about wakeboard history and I told him I haven’t seen many older wakeboard movies. He was very upset and disappointed in me that I’m not up-to-date on my wakeboard history knowledge.  So, Trevor brought on this trip enough old wake movies to “bring me up to speed” on wakeboard history. A crash course on the progression of wakeboarding. So far it’s been awesome, it passed the time quick on our first flight.  So far I’ve seen Spray, Hit It, Mayday, and Six Pack.  It’s pretty cool to see what all the guys were able to do back in the day.  Byerly was doing Pete’s way back in the day off the smallest wakes!  I’m about to watch The Decline of the Waterski Monopoly.

Chilling at LAX. Rattray photo

We are on a 7-hour layover in LA right now.  Plenty of time to keep watching old movies! We still have three hours left till we get on our flight. The next leg is 13 hours to Guam, 4 hour lay over. 5 hours to Manila, 6 hour lay over, and then a 45 min flight to Naga…..yeah it’s far.  Its definitely going to be worth it, everyone has told me this place [CWC] is wakeboard heaven!

Settling in for a LONG flight. Rattray photo

Well, this is going to be fun; I’ve got a really busy season ahead of me and it has all kicked off with a pretty big bang. I can’t think of a better way to start the season by making it on the cover of the new SBC Wake mag.

Check me out, I'm on the cover. Smith photo

I’ve been up in Vancouver most of the winter but I made it down to the Philippines for a bit to do some filming for the new Nike 6.0 video that’s gonna be coming out this summer. If you get a chance to go over there, do it; it will change your outlook on riding for sure . Riding up here has been cold but we’re getting out on the Fraser River lots and it’s starting to warm up a bit. I also have been hunting some new winch spots. Gotta love the rainy day winch sessions.

So I’m back in the saddle feeling strong and really stoked for the 09 shred year. I’m off to Florida in a few days so I will let you guys know what’s shaking down there next time I post.

Ok, so the headline is little misleading, but it’s really all about catching your attention to read the rest of the story. I’ve just finished up 5 days on Grand Cayman with Kyle Rattray, Ryan Doyle and Ricky Gonzales. Nothing like a quick trip to the Caribbean in the middle of winter to put a smile on your face.  While it’s not your typical shred destination, it’s didn’t fail to disappoint at all. It’s truly a tropical paradise; I don’t think I’ve ever seen the ocean so blue or the water so clear. Our host for the week was Justin Schmidt of Turtle Sports Ltd. Justin has been on the island for a few years and is the only guy with a legit wakeboard set-up.  

Since the trip is going to be featured in the next issue of SBC Wakeboard Magazine I don’t want to give too much away, but here are a few highlights:

Because it’s a former British colony (or maybe a current one, I’m not sure?) everybody drives on the left. I managed to get our rental van back in one piece with no bumps or bruises to either vehicle or passenger. I think the guy at the rental car place was sure that he wasn’t going to see his van come back in one piece. It felt like learning how to drive all over again, but backwards or maybe left-handed.

Ricky's pointing at the oncoming traffic that I'm about to narrowly avoid. Levitt photo

Our first day was a write off because of bad weather, so we set out on a random course to explore the island. Completely by accident and because a road detour we went to Hell – I know, that’s one hell of a detour (pun fully intended). Grand Cayman’s version of Hell consisted of a couple of gift shops, a post office, a guy selling fresh coconut juice and a weird looking limestone rock swamp. Of course the rest of the day was filled with “hell, yeah”, “hell, no” and “what the hell are you looking at” jokes.

It was ironic that Doyle's wearing an AC DC shirt when we went to Hell. Levitt photo

Paying tribute to our forefathers, we spent some time at the Black Pearl skate park, the largest poured skate park in the world. We quickly learned that concrete is a much less forgiving medium than water. Next to the skate park was a Flow Rider; the one that's shaped like a real wave. This thing is completely crazy; we basically got served the entire time we rode there. Ricky, Rattray and Doyle got the hang of it by the end while I used the excuse that I had to shoot more photos instead of receiving more beat-downs. I think I still have whiplash from the thing. Props to JR for letting us ride and showing us the ropes.

Flow Rider operator JR showing us how it's done. Levitt photo

Despite the windy conditions, we got out behind the boat several times. The crystal clear, bright blue water made for some great photos. Justin has a Mastercraft CSX, which when loaded down with enough people threw a good wake with lot’s of pop. The guys put on a demo in front a bar located right on the beach on the last day. I even managed to squeeze in a quick wakesurf set as the sun was going down.

Looks like somebody needs to lose some weight for bathing suit season. Doyle photo

Check Rattray's blog for another perspective and look for the full story in the Summer Issue of SBC Wakeboard Magazine.

Well this wasn't a spring break trip, we just happened to be in the Cayman Islands with SBC during spring break so I kept feeling the need to yell “Spring Break 09!!”

Ricky G, Ryan Doyle and I are sitting in the airport on the way home from the Caymans. This place is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. You ride right on the ocean here and the water is the bluest-blue you've ever seen. I've never rode on water like this: it’s a trip! While you’re in the air you can see can see like 40 feet down into the water; it’s a weird sensation but it looks so cool.

Aerial view of Grand Cayman. Rattray photo

We battled the wind all week here so we were forced to check out some of the local attractions as well. One of our first stops was this small part of the island called Hell: for real the name of the place was Hell. It consisted of a post office, two gift shops and some crazy lime rock in the back that resembled what Hell would actually look like. We used some of the signs and buildings for some photo ops then continued on our island journey. We then discovered this remote beach way out in the middle of nowhere. There were dirt roads and on each side these deep ditches filled with water. We explored a bit more in this area and found a small bridge over one canal and Doyle then decided it was on. We tied up a rope to our rental van, Doyle hopped in the canal and sessioned until the sun was gone: that was day one pretty much.

Random tourist pose in Hell. Rattray photo

The next few days consisted of battling the wind and trying to get some riding in. We did some riding, some hanging out vacation style, and then started to get restless again. Our second island tour was successful as well. We found this place on the side of the road right on the ocean that had a huge blowhole, another good photo op. 

We also stopped in the local skate park and Flow Rider that has been somewhat newly finished. We were told it is the largest poured cement park in the world. We carved around and tried to roll some lines in the park, but I was defiantly out of my league in there; it was pretty gnarly. Then we got into some Flow-riding.  Ricky and Doyle picked it up right away; they were carving around and playing on the wave and I basically got dealt for an hour. Crash after hard crash I could not figure it out! Finally a local guy held my hand and gave me a little lesson because I think they felt embarrassed for me. After that little help though I was in action. I was able to stand up and I got semi into the barrel! That’s pretty much all the local attractions we were able to find worth mentioning.

First day on the water in the Caymans. Check the water colour. Levitt photo

This place in unreal though.  Everything is brand new here, very clean, good food, the riding was good. Riding would have been epic if it weren't for the crazy wind we had to deal with. We got some really good photos and the article should turn out good.

Next stop, Orlando for a week to get ready to head to the Philippines for the tournament CWC is putting on!