It’s been a few days since my last update, but I’ve been on the move and there’s been lots going on. Not a lot of it has been Orlando related because I’ve been punching the clock trying to get our new site launched. If you’re reading this you’ve obviously had a little bit of a chance to look around. It’s a much cleaner look and way easier to navigate; I’m pumped on it so I hope you guys are too.

Let’s back up a few days to when I was still over at The Projects with my good buddy Pat Panakos. I mentioned how busy he is, but really I can’t even begin to describe it. Pat’s got his company, The Wake Park Project, firing on all cylinders promoting cable park systems all across North America. Looks like he’s doing a great job because he’s informed me that he’ll be installing 12 System 2.0’s and 2 full size cable parks over the next few months. There’s even a System 2.0 coming to Canada! I got the word that Michael Sampson out near Halifax  just forked over the down payment and they’re setting a date for the installation for some time this summer. All you Maritimer’s out there should be stoked.

Before I left The Projects, Raph and Oli Derome showed up to session the rail park. Oli is nursing a bit of a sore ankle so he was just there to drive the Waverunner for Raph’s set. It’s pretty obvious Raph has been focusing a lot of his time on rails lately because he straight up killed the big line in the rail park. If he threw down that set during The Carnival from a few years ago it wouldn’t have been a contest. You can check some of the highlights here. Also out at The Projects was the Shred Town crew they were sessioning the 100 ft flatbar and doing some filming for their website.

Shred Town @ The Projects. Levitt photo

I left The Projects and headed back towards Clermont with the plan of going right to bed, but I got a call along the way from James Balzer saying they were headed out for a night of bowling, Clermont-style. I got there a little late and the tournament was already on; the teams were Silas Thurman, Annie Cardinal and Candice Balzer vs. James Balzer, Yan Lecomte and Dan Brown. I can’t remember who walked away with the bragging rights. I’m blaming the $5 pitchers of beer for making the details of the night a little fuzzy.

 Yan Lecomte was top bowler on the night. Levitt photo

Balzer getting trashed talked by his wife. Levitt photo

But he rolls a strike to put his team back into the lead.  Levitt photo

Silas Thurman plays the role of The Dude. Levitt photo

The next morning I headed over to Phil Soven’s house to shoot some photos for the magazine. It’s pretty clear that Phil saved every contest winning since a very young age because his house is awesome. He bought the property when he was only 17 and hired an architect to design the whole deal. His house is going to be featured in the next issue for our Cribs department so you’ll be able to check all of the photos there.

Phil Soven's got a lot of guitars. Levitt photo

I had just gotten back from Phil’s when Rusty Malinoski came and grabbed me as he was heading over to JD Webb’s house for a quick set. Since we were in a hurry, Rusty jumped behind the wheel and put the good old Kia Forte rental car through the paces, racing along the back roads from Clermont to Polk County. Rusty was stoked because he set a personal best time for the trip at 33 minutes (it probably helped we were clocking speeds up to 95 MPH). Over at JD’s house we met up with Bryan Hutton, Kyle Alberts and filmer Spencer Norris. We rode in front of JD’s house despite a bass tournament that was being held on his lake. At one point we were weaving in between and few pissed off looking fishermen.

JD Webb. Levitt photo

Rusty Malinoski. Levitt photo

Bryan Hutton. Levitt photo

Kyle Alberts. Levitt photo

Today I ventured over to Kevin Henshaw’s house, which always seems as busy as a beehive. Henshaw was busy building a new floating uprail while Balzer, Silas and Yan were busy taking wakeskate sets. As Henhsaw was putting the finishing touches on the rail, we loaded it on to his boat trailer so he could drop it in the water.

I went back to Rusty’s in the afternoon to find him and Trevor Hansen  making some custom modifications to Rusty’s truck. After the repair work, we headed out to ride only to find the lake swarming with slalom skiers. We idled down the lake to wait our turn to ride, but the slalomer’s fully bitched us out for creating rollers. We were barely in gear, what were we supposed to do? The skiers finally went away (how many times do they need to zig-zag their way through a slalom course anyways?) and we got to ride. I jumped on the video camera instead of shooting stills. Trevor rode first and threw down, then Rusty squeezed in a quick set before the sun went down. I’m not going to spill the beans on what went down but Rusty landed a back-to-back double-up combo that he’s never landed before. I’m hoping to have the video done by tomorrow so be sure to check back.

Another busy day tomorrow; I’m off to the secret blue lake with Sean Kilgus and the Defy crew, then I might make the journey back out to The Projects to finish off some photos with Pat and then back to Clermont to attend Kevin Henshaw’s beach blast birthday party. Stay tuned.