ECWP Trip

Went a on trip with the UNCW wakeboard club to the East Coast Wake Park last weekend. The park is located near East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.

On the way there I was stoked. I couldn't wait to get to the park and get my riding on. When we got there it was... umm... not what I expected. Rolling in was the parks big sign, which was a piece of plywood laid up against a tree with a spray painted "ECWP" on it. On the road into the park you pass the scenic trailer park on your left side. And then this big park I was expecting turned out to be a pond with a cable on it. There where a total of 4 obstacles to hit, one of which was not working. I was just expecting a lot more and it didn't turn out to be what I payed for.

All of the obstacles were not weighted down properly, so they would float all over the place and not be in the same spot each time you went on the coarse. They also were constructed poorly so the risk for injury was greatly increase. One of the students riding with us, an international student from Switzerland at that, ending up shartering his shoulder falling on one of the ramps there. We (not the parks supervisors or owner) had to drive him to the hospital, which they couldn't even tell us where it was, to get him the help he needed.

We ended up going out on this "wake park" for two days, Saturday and Sunday. Overall it was a fun trip, but I would never go back to this place again. The park was a redneck pond to say the least. I would much rather pay a lot less and ride behind a boat than go to this place again. So case in point; don't go to the ECWP, ride behind a boat if you are going wakeboarding. Thank you.

It's Getting Warm, Time To Go Out!

So it's starting to get warm which means, you guessed it, the start of the season. Time to get out there and start practicing. Now if you live in Wilmington, NC like me, you have a few choices. The first would be to get on your (or someone else's boat) and hop in a body of water; whether that is the intercoastal water way or cape fear river. Your other option is to go somewhere else, such as the East Coast Wake Park up near East Carolina University and do some boarding there.

Myself, I'm picking the East Coast Wake Park and for a couple reasons. Let me make a list:

1. The water is flat, non-choppy, and safe.

If you've ever been in the intercoastal waterway, then you know how rough the water can get, which makes wakeboarding a lot harder and not as fun as it should be. And if you've ever been in the cape fear river, then you know the water is murky, a little gross, and has aligators in it... aligators that would love to bite a human. That scares me a little, as I don't want have to worry about am I going to get attacked by an alligator the next time I fall on a trick.

2. No need for a boat

Luckily, everyone is pulled by a cable at the ECWP, so there is no need to have or try to find someone with a boat. This can become difficult here in Wilmington as I personally do not have a boat, and sometimes when you really want to go out riding, other people are busy.

3. The new cable system

The East Coast Wake Park has a new cable system that is suppose to be AWESOME. It's called the Sesitec System 2.0 and pretty much is just a continuous loop cable that pulls you around the park. So if you don't fall, you get to keep riding as long as you like, which is pretty awesome.

Here's a picture of the ECWP:

Pretty sweet huh? Yea, I know.

What Tricks To Do This Year

The winter has been so cold and I'm freezing and I don't know what to do... not! Summer is coming upon us faster than usual which means wakeboarding should be here before we know it. You can blame it on global warming, or the earth's rotation, or kangaroos... it's warm. That means boats will be back in the water and tops will be coming off before we know it. New wakeboard and wakeskate tricks will be upon us so we need to start thinking... what am I going to land this year?

So far my biggest trick is the 360 shuv-it. I've come very close to a kickflip (landed on the board perfectly after I flipped it but then slipped off). So I plan on going for two tricks this year:

1. A 360 body rotation wake to wake

2. Get ready... get ready... a kickflip

Both of these tricks I really think are possible for me as I've come close to them before, I just need to get the technical aspects of the trick down, such as where to put the handle when I spin, and at what time to kick the board when going for the kickflip. Besides that I really think I got it down this year. Who knows, I may be even doing more!

So what tricks will you be going for this year? Leave a reply below and let me know what tricks you will be going for on your wakeboard, wakeskate, or even on your kneeboard... if you're that guy.

Wakeboarding Vs. Wakeskating

Wakeskating vs. Wakeboarding

They have been battling it out for years. The wakeskaters versus the wakeboarders; which one is better? Who has more tricks? Who gets more girls? There's a lot of factors here but lets go over some.

Both sports are fun. Wakeboarding you can get huge air; wakeskating you can do badass tricks. They both have their advantages. With wakeboarding you can do backrolls, tantrums, 1080's, and get higher than Bob Marley at a Jamaican concert in May. With wakeskating you can do shuv's, kickflips, butterslides, and your feet don't have to stay on the board which makes for a ton of flexibility (and new tricks to come).

But with advantages comes disadvantages. For one, with wakeboarding, all that air comes with some consequences. Lets say you overspin that 1080 and come down hitting the other wake sideways... a world of pain. The boat is going at least 22mph, your going sideways and coming down, which increases the speed tremendously and then face planting the water at who knows how fast! When something like this happens concussions are a definitely factor here. Second, your strapped to your board. This can be a good thing for tricks like backrolls and tantrums, but what about more flexibility of tricks? Not only that, like I said before, being strapped to the board on falls equals a world of pain.

If that's the case, what could be the disadvantages of wakeskating? Well with wakeskating, you are not attached to the board which provides a huge variety of tricks, tricks very similar or the same as skateboarding. The only disadvantages would be not being able to get as big of air (which is actually okay sometimes ex. concussions), as well as not being able to do some of the big tricks you can do on a wakeboard, such as the backflips I was talking about before.

So while both sports have their advantages, I'm definitely in favor of wakeskating versus wakeboarding. This is because the variety of tricks, as well as knowing you aren't going to become brain dead because you went to high on a jump and got scared in the air. Tootles!