April marks my bi-annual  trip down to the Greater Orlando Area to hang out with the pros, shoot some photos and gather content for the Summer Issue. It’s always nice to get out of the colder weather into some sunshine. It’s a good thing I didn’t schedule  my trip a few weeks earlier because Orlando has had its worst winter in ages. You’re probably thinking “how bad can winter in Orlando really be?” but Florida has been colder and windier than a lot of places in Canada for large stretches of the winter. But it looks like the summer weather is here to stay which means it’s going to be a busy week.

The trip from Vancouver is always a full day affair due to the fact there’s no direct flights. I left mid-day on Easter Sunday with the first leg of my journey going to Denver. It was a short, uneventful flight although the lady beside was a little too chatty and a bit of a personal space invader. I had a brief stopover in Denver where I had a lovely steak burrito for my Easter Sunday dinner; way to keep it classy, Levitt.

The second leg to Orlando can always be a bit of a dicey affair. While my sole purpose of this trip is work (if you can even call my job work) the majority of the universe travels to Orlando for vacation, specifically Disney World. And Disney Worlds means anxious kids barely able to contain themselves on a 4-hour flight. If you’re a close follower of my work, which I know most of you are, you may remember the nightmare ordeal I had to endure last year (scroll down to the Flight from Hell blog). It turns out the flight was fine. My seat neighbour was a 5-ish year old kid named Ethan who spent most of the flight killing zombies on his iPod touch. Ah, the wonders of technology.

Because of the west to east time change, I got in around 1 AM on Monday so the airport was completely deserted.  I made my way to the Alamo rental car counter, signed all the paper work and headed out to pick up my car for the week. The great thing about renting a car down here is they let you into the garage to pick your own ride. I lucked out and found a fully loaded Kia Forte complete with Sirius radio. I may be cursing my choice later cause renting a black car that’s going to sit all day in the Florida sun, but it was it was the best one on the lot. Alamo also has a new option where you pay $10 for unlimited tolls for the duration of your rental. Alamo is definitely going to lose money on this deal with me considering I can rack up $10 worth of charges in one day. I know, I shouldn’t be so excited about this, but it’s really the simple things in life that bring the most pleasure.

I woke up Monday to hot, sunny skies and headed out to Clermont and dropped by Kevin Henshaw’s. His house was a bustle of activity; James Balzer and Yan Lecomte were banging together a new rail, there was a crew doing some yard maitenance cause Henshaw’s having a beach birthday bash on Saturday (check back for highlights later), the ladies were sun tanning and Henshaw was transfixed on his new iPad. For us living in the technological 3rd world (ie. Canada) this thing is pretty cool; too bad we’ll have to wait a few months to try them out.

Ontario native Dan Brown testing out the new rail. Levitt photo

Henshaw took a break from his iPad to take a set behind his Malibu VLX. He’s actually focusing on riding the Pro Tour this year and learning a bunch of new tricks, including a Switch Toe 7, Switch Heel 7 and a Crow Mobe 5. When we got back Yan and Balzer had finished the rail and I wanted to get some shots to finish off the day. If there’s one thing that sketches me out about Florida is the water. It's dark, murky and you never know what’s lurking in there. I wanted to shoot the rail with my fisheye which meant standing in waist deep water next to the rail.

James Balzer piloting the new 2010 Wake Edition Sea Doo. Levitt photo

“Seen any gators or snakes in this lake recently?” I asked Henshaw.
“We saw one right over there by the rail this morning,” he replied. “But he’s probably gone by now. And it was only a small one anyways.”
“Like the size that would only bite off your finger or hand as opposed to ripping off your whole arm?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Awesome.”

I ventured out into the lake and got a few photos but I swear something bumped my leg underwater and I was out of there in a hurry.

I swear there's something watching me back there. Levitt photo

We finished the day with a BBQ at Henshaw’s with Parks Bonifay dropping by for dinner and watched Duke beat Butler in the NCAA Championship game. I’m meeting up with Danny Harf, JD Webb and Sean Kilgus to tag along for an early morning Defy shoot tomorrow and then it’s off to The Projects to catch up with Pat Panakos. Stay tuned for Part 2.

Balzer throwing a 270 Shove to Boardslide as the sun sets. Levitt photo