I’m on my last day of my last major road trip for the summer; I’m in Taiwan for the last day of the World Games. From what I’ve learned about the World Games, it is an event put on every 4 years like the Olympics, with sports that are trying to be in the Olympics. So, basically, it’s the Olympics for sports not in the Olympics…did I explain that right?

I arrived here on Tuesday and then rode Wednesday morning. After quarterfinals were done we had two days off to check out the city. Andrew [Adkison] and myself walked around the city a little bit and found some cool stuff. There are some temples across the lake from the site we went into and they were insane. So detailed inside, every square inch of the building is decorated in honor of Bhudda; people come to those places each day to worship.  

 There is also tons of other events, there’s like tug-o-war, jujitsu, sumo wrestling, all kinds of stuff.  One of the nights we went and watched doubles trampoline.  Its where two people bounce side by side like a mirror image of each other; it was crazy, but really cool to see.  The city built a building just for indoor gymnastics stuff, as well as a stadium for track and field. I haven’t seen that building yet, tonight we will for the closing ceremonies. They said at the opening ceremonies there were 50,000 people watching. Tonight should be cool I hope.

Yesterday was the last day of riding; Andrew won, I got second, and Padiwat “Bomb” Jaemjan got third. It was definitely the biggest crowd I’ve ever ridden in front of in my career. After my ride I whipped into shore and had to walk through the crowd, probably 10,000 people. They all clapped, cheered, and I stood right by the edge of the lake where I took pictures and signed autographs for about 2 hours. It’s cool to see people so into it.  I wish more events had crowds like that; it was really cool to see. People here sure like their pictures taken with you! They then did the podium and it was full Olympic style. They raised the flags, sang the national anthem, the whole deal.

Today is our last day of hanging out here, then it’s a 23 hours mission home. I’m SO happy to be going home, I’ve been gone for so long. I miss my house, my lake, my grass, my chick, my dog: I love Florida. I’ve been lots of places in the world, and Florida is still my favorite place. I’ll be home for two weeks now getting ready for Wakestock!

So I’ve been on a road trip the past few weeks. It started last weekend; my fiancée and I flew to the third stop of the PWT in Knoxville. It was a great site for watching, not so hot for riding. I didn’t make it out of the first round and got dead last in my heat; I wasn’t very stoked. The water was really bad, but I’d like to argue that during my ride it was exceptionally bad. But oh well, it was crappy for everyone and I just sucked in the rough water that day.  

From Knoxville I flew to Atlanta for a clinic. A student who comes down to The Boarding School fairly often asked if I’d be interested in coming up to his lake house for a few days to coach him and his friends on their own boat and lake. It was awesome! I was picked up from the airport in a private town car that drove me to the house. It was a 6500 square foot lake house so you can imagine how nice it was.

From the clinic I headed home to Orlando for 4 hours. It was just enough time to get home, kiss Katie, do some laundry, and then head back to the airport to fly to Saskatoon.  Rusty [Malinoski], Jimmy [Lariche], Trevor [Hansen], [Shawn] Watson, and I flew there to a charity event Mike Napper put on called Wake Ride 09.  We put on demos, did a double up event, and hung out for three days.  It was an awesome event,  tons of people showed up. On the Saturday night, they sold 9000 beers! All the profits went to the kid’s charity too, so the kids got some money from everyone drinking.

I’m in the airport flying home to Orlando on the red-eye right now. The O’Neill Team is shooting the 2010 ad’s and marketing material on Mon and Tues this week so I’m getting off the plane in Orlando then heading straight to Byerly’s house to shoot my portion of the ad’s and what not. Then, Tues night I’m flying to US nationals to drive the boat and train to compete on the weekend in the US Nationals.  After the nationals I’m done my road trip! Busy time of year but everywhere I’ve been has been really fun;  “gotta make hay while the sun shines” as they say I guess.

My busy schedule 

Me and Drew McGuckin

Georgia lake house

Healthy road snacks

I grew up in Ontario and spent many summer days at friends’ cottages on the Trent-Severn waterways watching lots of boats go by, particularly houseboats. I always thought it would be cool to go house boating; cruising around the lakes in your own little shack. Fast forward many years (and I mean MANY) and I found myself introduced to house boating, British Columbia-style. When I was invited on a houseboat trip on Shuswap Lake in the BC interior I didn’t really know what to expect, but I remembered the little shacks on pontoons that used to cruise by in my younger years. What I didn’t realize was that BC house boating consisted of partying on floating condos day and night with almost every creature comfort you could imagine. So when I got the invite for a Monster Energy houseboat trip a few months back, I cleared my schedule to make sure nothing would stop me from going on this trip.

Just your average floating shack. Levitt photo

One thing you need to know about the guys at Monster Canada is they only do things at a 1000%: half-assed isn’t even in their vocabulary. Not only did they rent possibly the biggest houseboat in Canada, measuring in at a whopping 96 feet long with 10 bedrooms, they flew in the entire Monster pro team including Shawn Watson, Shane Bonifay, Daniel Watkins, Kevin Henshaw, Jimmy Lariche, Aaron Reed, Melissa Marquardt, James Balzer, Bob Soven and Harley Clifford. And since the biggest houseboat in Canada wasn’t quite enough there was also another 60 footer in tow along with a Malibu VLX, a Tige RZ2 and a Tige RZ4 for us to play with. Because we were going to be so busy wakeboarding and partying, Monster also hired 2 dedicated houseboat drivers, a chef to cook gourmet meals, 2 DJ’s complete with a bangin’ sound system, and a handful of other staff to make sure we didn’t have to lift a finger. I should also mention they had a transfer box built specifically for this trip.

Circular staircase on a boat, what!?! Levitt photo

The trip is going to be a feature article in the 2010 Buyers’ Guide issue of SBC Wakeboard Magazine so I don’t want to give too much away, but I have to give you a few highlights from the trip.

1. House boating with Aaron Reed is both awesome and slightly terrifying at the same time. The first words Reed muttered to me when I got on board the boat were “Levitt, if I don’t see you with a beer in your hands for every minute of this trip, I’m going to fucking kill you.” And by the tone of his voice, I knew he was deadly serious. But on the lighter side, Reed provided us with “story time” twice a day. “Story time” consisted of Reed reciting from a well-worn copy of a piece of literature akin to a Penthouse Forum. Reed actually lost the novel towards the end of the trip, but took matters into his own hands and wrote a story of his own: Aaron Reed, a man of many talents.
2. Professional wakeboarders are also professional house boaters. All of the riders had been at Brostock on Lake Powell a few weeks previous to this trip so it took them no time to get into the swing of things. Especially when the boats we were on had ten times more space than the boats from Brostock. I heard the term “best houseboat trip ever” being tossed around a few times.
3. Shane Bonifay is a rock star in more ways than you can count. Obviously growing up with Parks has helped Shane become a living legend on the water, but it’s a little known fact that he’s also is working hard at pursuing a side-career headlining a heavy metal air band. Every evening during the trip Shane could be found busting some serious moves to all the great 80’s metal tunes. I think the working title of his new projects is the Dirty Virgins, but don’t quote me on that one.
4. The Monster Energy team is going to be around for a long time. Take a quick look at the team roster and you’re going to see a stacked team with veterans like Watson, Watkins, Bonifay and Henshaw, but the surprising thing for me was how much better this team is going to get a few years down the road. I’d never seen Bob Soven or Harley Clifford ride in person, but I was blown away. There’s obviously a reason these guys are cleaning house on the pro tour this year. Add Jimmy Lariche into the mix and the Monster Energy team will continue to be a force to be reckoned with.
5. Never challenge James Balzer to a dance-off. Maybe it was because it was the last night of the trip or because he thought he could take down the king on his home turf on Canada Day, but for some reason Bob Soven threw down the gauntlet. Poor kid didn’t even know what lay in wait for him. The only detail you need to know: Pants-Off-Dance-Off, enuff said.

My brain is still a little fuzzy from all the festivities, but as I mentioned this is going to be a full feature story in the next issue of SBC Wake. In the meantime, check the photos and video and be sure to be in the Shuswap area Canada Day 2010 when it all goes down again.

Story Time with Aaron Reed and Theresa Longo. Levitt photo

Jimmy Lariche. Levitt photo

Daniel Watkins, feet on fire. Levitt photo

Bob Soven's tribute to MJ. Levitt photo

Shane Bonifay, Back Lip transfer. Levitt photo

DJ Mike Grimes spinning the beats on Canada Day. Levitt photo

I don't think this even needs a caption. Levitt photo