I hope every one had a good Christmas. Not much has been going on as far as wakeboarding. I headed home to Canada for the holidays, to visit with my family. It was a quiet but fun trip. Christmas was good I had the chance to visit with family and friends. On my trip my dad and went to Mt Baker for a day of snowboarding. It snowed 17inches the night before so we got some pretty good riding in. Baker is amazing. I have been going to Baker for years with my parents. While we were up there I ran into Mike Ennen and Blake Vilders.
Yesterday I headed into the city and caught a Vancouver Canucks hockey game, they were playing the Calgary Flames. Vancouver won, it was a great game. Lots of scoring and a couple fights.
Congratulations to Rusty and Lindsy Malinoski on the birth of their new son, Marek.

Fun times Filming

The past couple days have been a lot of fun. Sean Kilgus is in town and we have been filming for drive. We have had quite the crew of riders, Danny, Ben, Ruck, Randy, and myself. Parks even came out in the boat and chilled at 7am this morning. Rusty came by for a set last night also. At one point today on a double up danny managed to ride over his own arm, no injury but a pretty cool bruse. It has been rad watching these guys kill it. We have ridden at Dannys in Clermont and could not ask for better conditions just a few days before christmas. here are a few photos.

QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, AND FEEDBACK.

For feedback or any questions the sign in setting has been turned off or you can reach me at sharpechad@yahoo.com . The video feed will hopefully be up by the end of the week. It will include some tips and other fun stuff. Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by.
Chad

Not much has been going on in the last week or so since I have been back. A few days ago I checked out the Orlando, Oakley video premier. It was a good vid and Jack held it at a great venue. City Walk at Universal.
I’m up in Washington for the Ronix sales meeting this week. It has been really cool to come up here to see this side of the biz. Paul just moved up to the cottage on Radar, we had the meeting there, that place is sick. It was really good seeing all the Ronix guys. Danny and Parks also made it up for a couple days. All the new gear looks sick.Yesterday I actually had the chance to head up to Stevens Pass and get some snow time in. The conditions were still early season but it was lots of fun. Scott Jobe and I were just doing high speed lines all day. I’m pretty sure we are going to go tomorrow before I fly home. This last week has been the first time I have had off the water this year, It has been nice to heal up those small nagging pains, and heal up the old body for a few days. I will be flying home to FLA tomorrow to meet up with Sean Kilgus to film for drive this coming week. I’m really looking forward to getting back on the water.
That’s about it, Pretty laid back week. I will keep you posted on any cool filming that goes down this week . Thanks for checking in
Chad Sharpe

Back in the USA

I just got back from a 5 week trip that took me around the world. The trip was great but man I am glad to be home. It is a little cooler here in Florida since I was here last buts it is great. We have been shooting with Kilgus all week. The weather has been epic. I have mostly been shooting double ups over the last few days. I hit a big HSBS 7 that i was stoked on yesterday, I just figured out how to do them over the last little while. Yesterday Danny hit the cleanest TS off axis BS 7, It was so dirty.
Not much else has been going on its kinda quiet this time of year, I played a fun game of golf with Grubb, Mr Grubb, and Spencer today, but thats about it. I will up date if we get into anything cool later this week. Thanks for checkin in
Chad

Just thinking out loud. Traveling with the boys it occurs to me how much media influences conversation. For example, always quoting movies, skits, stand up. It makes it pretty hard to be originally funny. I mean we all have our moments. I find that most of my best original material comes from my real life travel stories. Real situations that actually happen. I sometimes have the unfortunate luck of things breaking or going not exactly as planed but almost every great trip story I have ever heard or told never sounded like, We were golfing in the Philippines and I hit 10 over par and Danny was 2 over par, It was a beautiful course and we had a great time. Little dry, I cant see that being a story that I will be slinging sitting around with the boys down the road. I have a pretty good feeling that the part of the story that will be told to the boys sounds more like this. We were on this big hill and Chad started rolling backwards down not realizing the breaks were shit and slammed into the other cart at the bottom, Hi centering the axle while the caddies were looking on in horror, oh yea and then Rucks amazing stroke that had the caddies hitting the deck almost everytime he swung. Then Keith decided to bomb the cart down this steep ass hill and almost flew off a 40-foot cliff.
I don’t know if it’s just me but the latter sounds like a lot more fun to tell later.
You’re young for only so long and make the most of it. Just make sure it dose not hurt others, and be prepared to pay to play. I have learned that the hard way more than a few times. Japan trips have cost me more than you can imagine. You know its bad when they ask if you have travel insurance but thats a whole other long story I will save for another day.

Feedback

What's up
I am just looking for some feedback on the site. Let me know what you want to see or hear more of or less of. Im working on getting a video feed to do some fun stuff. Let me know what you think

Thanks
Chad

Australia

I have been in Australia for about a week so far. Adam Errington and myself are traveling around the country with Stu from Ronix aus doing a demo tour. We started on the Gold Coast for a couple days. The first day I arrived we went to an in store evening and then checked in to our hotel that was right in surfers paradise. We checked out the town that night by going to a couple bars and ended up at the casino. The next day we did a clinic on the water in Brisbane.
clinic and demo. Adam and I rode in this sick river but as we finished it started pissing rain our day was cut short. We stayed the night there and drove to Sidney the next morning.
When we got to Sidney we went to the Harris’s river house for a clinic. The river is about 45 min out side of Sidney and is really sick to ride. Adam and I had a couple of rides. We stayed the night there and in the morning the Neil and Brenda had set up a bridge climb in Sidney harbor. It was sick, we went up with a guide and got to climb to the top of the harbor bridge. It’s amazing up there, its right above the opera house and has a great view of all of Sidney. Later that night we met up with Dean Smith and hit the town. Monday night in Sidney is pretty quiet, but we found a few things to do.

I’m on the road right now driving to Canberra, where we have a rail jam in a pool tomorrow. I am looking forward to Canberra because we will meet up with all the boys, Dean, Watkins, Chris O, Ect.

philippines

The second half of our Philippines trip was great. First we caught a plane up to Naga from Manila to go the CWC. The CWC is the cable park in Camsur that Gov L Ray owns. CWC is sick, they have built such a beautiful facility. We would get up early before the cable was open and get laps with no crowds. There are a lot of really fun rails, ramps, and a really fun box. At CWC we had great accommodations, each of us had our own cabanas. While we were in Camsur we decided to travel to Daiet, where there was this unreal spillway to shoot on. It had these huge wall rides with water flowing down that we all were hitting from different directions. Wats and I were hitting them from the bottom and wiping up, doing really fun turns on the wall. Danny and Ruck were hitting it from the top and riding the whole way to the bottom doing tail presses all the way down. The spill way was one of the most fun natural terrain things I have ever hit. Right before we left that spot I ollied off a 15-foot flowing waterfall.

All week we were fighting the weather but got a few more good days. One of the last days we were there Grubby was hitting this spillway waterfall and got a really sick pop shuvit off it.

Overall the Philippines was one of the best trips I have been on. Thanks a lot to L Ray, Ana and crew for showing us such a good time. They went above and beyond. Thanks

There will be some great video footage for the new Billabong team movie that came out of this trip.

Looking back and forward

To me early on in my wakeboard days my main goal was having fun, but mostly being the best or catching up with the best. Weather it was winning contests or getting video sections, magazine shots. It was whatever the top guys were doing. To me that was the most pure wakeboarding there is, it was all I lived for and it sure makes the days, months, and years fly by so fast. I have sat around with some of the guys that came up with me and we all have the same opinion of, Wow that was fast. Story’s from 5 or 6 years ago still feel like they were last summer. Memories that I have not even had time to really look back on yet that have shaped our lives and made us what we are today. Wakeboarding is a beautiful thing. It’s not just a sport it’s a lifestyle that I would not trade for the world.

Now being a bit older with a few goals completed in the sport and looking forward it really has me thinking of what my place is and what I want to have accomplished by the time I leave. I know I have met some of the most amazing and interesting people along the way. Including some of my best friends, and friends I know I will still turn to long after the last time I hit a wake. I think most of all for my riding I just want to leave a mark that will not just fade away after its over. A lasting mark like Parks, Darin, Shaun, and Scott have left or are still writing. I know it’s a huge goal but you need to aim high. Its funny I never thought I would be where I’m at now but I always want more for myself. Don’t get me wrong I still ride because I absolutely fucking love wakeboarding but some times I just need some time to look back to look forward.

Sorry if these are boring I am on a 13-hour flight and just writing what’s in this head of mine.

Chad Sharpe