Liquid Force Maven Blog

Summer is almost to an end as the contest season begins to wrap up and the kids go back to school. Fall is  almost here which means, warm weather, glassy water, and relaxation on the boat. Nationals in Reno was a good time with Rammi Merrit placing in 3rd, Amber Wing placing 2nd and Nicola Butler 3rd:  Also, Shelby Kantar making a comeback while killing it in the Semifinals.  Between contest I spent much time traveling and practicing at home.  Last weekend Wakestock was a success with Leslie Sparkes in third, Erika Langman in 2nd and  Melissa Marquardt in 1rst. More exiting news: LF 2011 is almost here, more improvements than ever!  Enjoi the rest of your summer on your LF gear!

This past week the LF team  had our annual photo shoot at the Henshaw’s retreat in Victoria, Canada.  Flying into Victoria is amazing, with hundreds of small islands everywhere.  When we arrived to the Henshaw’s, the boats were docked right in front of the casa, the lake was glass, and there was a fresh rail just built by Kevin Henshaw and Ashley Becker.  We new our week was starting off right.  We were spoiled by Gary and lynn Henshaw’s gourmet cooking all week which included fresh caught crab, salmon, and smoked ribs.  We had a blast riding all week with the team, enjoying the beauty,and adventuring the island.  Thank you to the Henshaw family for their hospitality and putting up with all of us for a whole week!

Summer has officially started here in NC. We have a crew that rides here all the time and we have been shooting and filming loads! Here are a few pictures from riding in NC! I have been working at Adams Wakeboard school for the last 6 years and we have been having a blast!

It seems like every time I write something on here it is about my class. Since I spend almost every waking hour studying and hanging out with them, it has become inevitable that I write about them. This story actually involves wakeboarding though, so I guess I am doing my job.

Our teachers urged us to go to a huge physical therapy conference in San Diego last week. Since we have been freezing our butts off in Sacramento, we made the 7 hour road trip down with the class. We got down to Carlsbad on Tuesday night after taking 2 exams that day. We stayed at my old roommates house (Josh and Dustin Bernard), which my classmates have now deemed the “MTV Cribs house”. New editions to the house included a surfboard shaping room since I left. They already have a skate half pipe that takes up the entire back yard, a ping pong stadium and a custom shuffleboard table. Needless to say, it is the best house ever.
On Wednesday, Liquid Force, the best sponsor and wakeboard company ever, let me take out the company boat. I haven’t gotten to wakeboard since November, so this was amazing. The boat fired up like a champ much to my surprise (anyone who goes to Brostock will know why) and we got our shred on for the entire day. We made some dreams come true that day, including my friend Lisa who never thought she would get up, Tim who landed two perfect backrolls, and Jessica cleared the wake for the first time. We also got to see Josh (also known as Yukon) ride a super old skurfer, which was amazing.

The rest of the trip entails going to a boring conference and then going to some bars, which most people looking at this website don’t really care to much about. Oh yeah, and my other roommate Curtis, aka “party boy”, took my class surfing. Some of them had never been surfing so they really appreciated the wetsuits and surfboards that party boy provided. He has now become a legend in all of our eyes. He is also coming out with a book called, “Pillow Talk”. Look for it on Oprah soon.

What I really took home from this trip is that San Diego is amazing and it needs to be summer soon so I can start wakeboarding every day. Hope you all get some more snowboarding in but I cannot wait until it heats up here in Nor Cal!

-Shelby

Hey everyone,

I’ve been in North Carolina this winter doing the school thing at Appalachian State University. It has been an awesome winter this year, but I miss the warm weather of Orlando. Since the semester started, I have not been a full week of school yet. It has been snowing almost everyday here in Boone, NC. I have been able to do a lot of snowboarding this year which has been loads of fun. I hope everyone is ready for summer to come around, because I can not wait any longer! I Hope everyone has had an awesome winter and got to snowboard loads. Once school is out for the summer, I’ll be at Lake Gaston all summer teaching lessons for Adams Wakeboard School. Come out and ride with us sometime this summer.

~Kara Austin

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Just Can’t get enough of Tahoe!!  Most likely there is always fresh snow.  Being from southern California, where the snow is not abundant, having the opportunity to ride is powder is just magical.  Hope everyone is having a fantastic winter, and looking forward to warm up and tear up the water.

Melissa Marquardt

Hey all!

Sorry it’s been so long! Here’s a little update on my crazy life:

On October 24th, 2009, I broke my femur at a wakeboard collegiate contest. I was winching a rail, in which I fell off of, and my leg went directly into one of the posts holding the rail up. I was immediately airlifted to Redding (my hometown) where I had surgery as soon as I arrived. The doctor made 4 incisions total. Three incisions were for screws and the other one was for the 12″ rod inserted at hip that goes through the bone. I was told recovery time would take at least 6 months! I just laughed when I heard this and told the doc that I would be up and going by February no problem. He looked at me and said, “Sure, whatever you say.” Followed by a huge chuckle. From that day forward, I decided to take care of my body like never before. I went to physical therapy and pushed myself. I took many bone supplements and took part in other crazy remedies (eating leaves, putting some weird concoction on my leg every night, etc.) I was so determined to heal strong and fast.  Yesterday, February 2, 2010 (3 months later), I went to the Doctor for a monthly check-up. To my surprise, he cleared me for snowboarding! That was probably one of the happiest days I’ve had in a long time. I’m expecting to be back on the water in March.

So to all of you out there who have an injury, KEEP POSITIVE! I never doubted myself along the way. Every day my mom would always tell me, “Danni, if you give 100%, you’ll receive 100%.

Enough babble from me. Hope you all are enjoying your winter!

~Danni