I decided to write about Day 4, and hopefully this isn't too long for all of you ADHD people.

Well, Rhett, Buck and I packed into Buck's single cab truck and drove to Emory to pick up his wallet.  after sitting on I-75 for somewhere between a few minutes to a few hours, his driver's license is in about 4 pieces.

We make the trek back to casa Brett/Rhett/Brandon and regroup.  As with every other day of this week, it is customary that we watch one section of a wakeboard video before going to ride. This time we watched Harf's part in Innuendo. After drinking a couple Crunk!!!'s and seeing Harf do a moby dick 5 (which may or may not have some part in the things to come later), we decided to head up to AirChairMan's. 

Before riding, we had to do some maintenance on ACM's boat.  On the way down the steps to the boat, there was a Badger-hunter in our path.  Rhett's weiner-dog, Marley, had already scoped the shore and had brought back a nice fish head for us. He stood behind it proudly, as if he had just slayed some giant dragon. 

So we fix the boat, and I am up first.  Buck and Rhett had suggested I learn a moby-dick.  Well, I need to give you a little history about me and backflips. Now, some of you know this and some of you don't, but backwards inverts have always been a mental problem for me since I started wakeboarding. I can do a few of the harder tricks in wakeboarding, but I have never taken the time to learn a toeside backroll and tantrum and make them legit. Granted, I have been able to do them for a while, but they looked like shit.  So, earlier this week buck got me doing indy toeside backrolls, and indy tantrums. I felt like I was in college learning the alphabet, but I guess its never too late to learn. 

So the moby dick. This is not a trick that I have ever wanted to learn, I put this trick a little farther ahead of the whirly bird in my list of things I want to learn. (P.S. I will never learn a whirlybird because it's lame.)  So I gave one half-assed attempt at a moby dick and said screw it. 

What I didn't know was that after I fell on that first one, and told Rhett and Buck in the boat that I didn't feel like learning that trick, that Whatley was talking some smack.  In the boat he told Buck "When Brandon gets done riding, you go out there and hit that moby dick- put it right in his face."  I assume Buck nodded his head and agreed.  I finished my set, and did a toeside backside 3 for the first time, first try.  That was kind of cool. 

Buck gets up to ride.
I think he might have done one wakejump, maybe a nosegrab backroll (which he owns now that he learned it a few days ago.)  Out of the blue, he comes in and drops a moby dick like he has been doing them for years.  Ironically, it is his first one.  The stoke meter blew threw  the roof and Rhett was ejected from his drivers seat into the lake.  I almost got thrown into the lake by the Stoke as well, but I had my video camera in my hand, and I knew that someone needed to attend to the still-running Pumpkin boat. 

Seriously, I have never seen a Stoke-meter, but it is equipped in every boat, and if you do the right things (i.e. learn a mobe first try), it will appear, and knock you out of your seat. 

So Rhett gets back in the Pumpkin, and Buck continues his set.  He fell on a couple others, then drilled another moby-dick. 
Of course we were pumped, but obviously not as much as his first one.  Well, Buck wanted to see that Stoke-meter come back out, so he linked up a indy toeside backroll, and then dropped what I thought was going to be a failed attempt at a heelside nose-grab backroll. 
That wasn't his intention at all.  He drilled a perfect late roll to blind! Yeah, that was his first one ever too.  Of course, he had to do the mandatory handle toss in celebration.

The Stoke-meter again erupted from the boat, but Rhett held onto the steering wheel this time, and set the Pumpkin's course back to Buck.  Lots of fist pumps and high fives were had, but I was not about to let him go out and learn two new tricks in one day, and me just one. 

I decided to take one more set, and kept what I really wanted to do masked by saying I just wanted a nose-grab roll to revert on video.  So I did a couple of those until I got what I thought was a decent one on video.  Then went for what I thought was going to be my first KGB. Popped the handle- shit. (I blew my chance a doing a mobe 1st try, just like Buck.)

I asked wise Rhett what to do and he said just quit being a puss and grab the handle.  Got up and played it safe with a roll to blind.  I crossed back over the wake, and hit the KGB.  Buck and I were even for the day.  You might think I was excited to land this trick, but it was more of a relief. In fact, I feel a bit stupid that I haven't done it yet, because I have been able to do roll to blinds for a good 3 years.  Either way, I managed to see the Stoke-meter pop out of the boat again, and decided it was time to quit for the day. 

I assume it is Albany custom for celebration to eat wild birds for dinner, because that is exactly what Buck prepared us. Hopefully I didn't ingest any lead pellets, and will continue to live on until next year when Buck comes back for another week, so we can again race to see who can learn more tricks. 

Andrew, if we need to fix the floor in your boat because of the Stoke-meter ripping through it three times in one day, then let me know.

Today Rhett and I are taking a mandatory break from wakeboarding to go work at Ambush and deal with a bunch of starry-eyed kids wanting to see Bam Margera at the Element signing.  Funny thing is, I don't think he is coming.