Thrilla in Manilla

When people used to talk about wakeboarding, especially cable parks. Orlando, Florida or Germany seem to be the locale for the story. That's starting to change, wakeboard and cable parks are poppin up all over and Camsur Watersports Complex in Cadlan, Pili, Philippines is one of the fastest growing cable parks in the world. Not even two years old, it is already hosting some of the top cable riders in the world in international competitions such as the WWA Wake Park Worlds, Camsur Rider's Cup, and the CWC International Open.
I'm not here to talk about the podiums for these events, if you want to check them out. Go here. I just want to talk about how killer this place sounds and how bad I want to take a little trip to check it out for myself. Might be time to start putting some change away though. A flight over to the Philippines is anything but cheap. Everything I looked at is around $2000 and up. Once you're there though, you can get out of there without spending much money at all and having an amazing time. Accomodations start as low as $4 located right in the complex. You might not be getting much more than a bed but what else do you need.
But let me get to the good part. The wakeboarding cable park was probably the main reason this park started, (which is a crazy story in itself) but I'll hit on that later. But that's not the only thing to do in the CWC. LRay Villafuerte, Camarine Sur's governor said,

"My goal is to make our province the Disneyland of action sports."
He didn't waste any time. In less than a year there was "a skate
park, a BMX dirt park, a motocross track, and an ATV course"
(Wakeboarding Magazine, June 2007)

Not to mention, you're in the Philippines, don't do anything if you don't want to. You're in paradise...relax!
So back to the way this place all started, this Governor Villafuerte's son, Miguel, was scanning the net and came across wakeboarding, thought it looked cool, and approached his pops and talked him into a board and a PWC. Governor Villafuerte realized that wakeboarding could be a big boost to tourism in the province. He and Miguel did a little research checking out other parks and bam! CWC was born.
So if anyone feels like donating a couple thousand to a worthy cause of sending me over to the Philippines for about a week, feel free. It's all for research purposes of course to make sure this blog is accurate.
If ya wanna check out some sweet vids, youtube has plenty on CWC. check em out and enjoy.
LESS THAN 2 MONTHS AWAY FROM BEING ABLE TO GO RIDE!

WAKEBOARDING CLIPS

The player starts on mute, so to hear volume, just click on the volume slider on the player and you will be able to hear the video.

Snow again??????????

Well, after a nice week off from school from Spring Break and thoughts of summertime and the lake begin to pop into my head. I sit at home in exciting Forsyth and start going through old lake pictures and videos. I go out golfing with my old man on Tuesday and fire a cool 44 but the weather was good and the company was better so I couldn't complain. Everything around me at this point was all heading in the direction of summer. No school, golfing in a t-shirt, and last but not least, a slight sunburn on my forehead that seems to keep getting more and more bald.
These feelings all were quickly taken away the day I drove back to Missoula at the end of my break. The farther I drove, the more the temperature dropped. I had to swap flip flops for a warmer pair of shoes. My beanie had to come back out of the closet and I had to go to school the next day. Still not all that bad though, only 5 more weeks til summer is finally here. Then I walked out the door this morning to go to school and what did I find......SNOW! I'm starting to wonder if this winter will ever end.
Can't it hurry up and get warm. I just want to get out on a boat and get some sun on this pasty skin of mine. Guess it's back into the living room for a little more picture and movie viewing. If anyone is having the same feelings as me, YouTube has been a savior this winter. Get on there and check out some of the best young riders around. I'm working on getting a player on my blog but in the mean time, I'm gonna have to make you follow some links. Check out guys like Rusty Malinoski, Danny Harf, youngster Phillip Soven, Shaun Murray, Parks Bonifay, and Eric Ruck have been tearing it up and YouTube has tons of videos out there of them. Ladies, they don't get much better than Dallas Friday in my opinion but Amber Wing might have something to say about that.
I guess I'll quit complaining about this weather and just deal with it....it is Montana right? Guess I can deal with it, nevermind, its snowing again, hurry up summer!