Nice Guy Murray

Half way through his second pass in the final, Shaun had a nasty fall on a raley to 360. He sat in the water for a while and then got up and threw a huge 720 off the double up. I watched him come in on the Seadoo and he was trying to smile, but he was hurting. He got up on the dock &was holding his chest and telling Tara how it hurt. After the award ceremony I was going back to my suburban and I saw some paramedics overnear the beach so I want to check it out. They were strapping Shawn into a gurney with a board under him and a neck brace too. When they tightened the strap around his chest, it looked like it hurt. He didn't look too bad though. He's a tough competitor. Let's hope it's just some bruised ribs and nothing worse.

Shaun is a really nice guy. He took the time to explain his board to me& my wife and why it's good for recreational riding as well as competition. With a little encouragement from Hunter Brown's father, he and Parks threw my daughter (chair and all) in the pool at the Marriot on Saturday night - much to her embarassment. All in all we had a great time at the competition and chattin' with the riders in the hot tub aswell. Wakeboarding is a great sport, most of the competitors are really friendly and accessable. I almost hope it doesn't get too big.

Steve
haynes@eclipse.net

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Another Nice Guy Murray Story!

This is another story about Shaun Murray being cool.....I was at a demo at Liquid Sports and IO was pretty much the only kid there. Shaun was sitting eating a hamburger with Andy Lazurus while I was setting up a board. I was about to go out on the water with some guy that works at Liquid Sports when Shaun asked Andy if he wanted to go out. Shaun asked if I wanted to go in the boat with them and ride. Of course I said yeah. Shaun made me feel like I knew him for my whole life...he joked around a lot and just made you feel good. I was doing o.k. tricks and he made it seem like I was goin' off. After every big air and grab he would yell from the boat and when I got worked hard he'd joke around with me about it. So, that's why Shaun Murray is one nice guy.

Owen (owen.ward@usa.net)

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Riding With Ryan Davis of Wake Tech

Today was so cool. I got to ride with Ryan Davis from Wake Tech. No actually he came to ride with us. The Wake Tech rep, Bruce Dayton, that we know brought him down. He hadn't gotten to spend much time on the water lately, so he was a little rusty. He did a couple of wake jumps, then threw a blind 360 off the first double up. He missed a role to revert and then wanted another double up. This time he tossed out a front flip mobius. It was huge. Then later he threw a whirlybird and a switch whirlybird back to back. They were identical. But the best thing that made him human was when he fell on a wake to wake bs 180. It was pretty big, but it was cool that he falls on easy stuff too.

Another thing I wanted to add was a warning. DO NOT try to land a trick with your are inside the triangle part of the rope. It can hurt very very badly. Well this is what happened. I was trying to do a switch mobe, when on the landing I stuck my hand through the handle and fell forward. The handle about snatch my left arm off. Right now I cann't twist my wrist and it is swollen pretty good. It's going to put me out of riding for a while.

Andy Eskew
Spoon Watches

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Reformed Sissy Rider

Kevin used to go off like a sissy would. Riding for days on end without falling once (aka no risk). Thomas took pictures of Kevin and wrote in his book "Kevin going off like a grandma would." Kevin got pissed off after a few Jack Daniels and decided to wakeboard like a real man. From then on Kevin cleared both wakes, fell and may now be ready for some massive half cabs and riding fakie. Way to go Kevin!

Tom Dembie
Stoke City

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