Last Friday was the First Day of Spring, which marks the official end of winter. The only way to properly celebrate this day is to strap on a wakeboard and have a session. Most lakes around Northern Utah are still under the ice, but with a bit of work, they are ridable.
Our idea was simple; break a few sections out of the ice to act as pools, then use the frozen ice slabs in between as huge slider boxes. Why, because no matter how many times you may hear it, it is not a true ‘freeze ride’, unless something is frozen. It takes a certain breed of people to accomplish a task such as this. I knew just who to call. An old buddy of mine who is always in for anything, and never has a shortage of ideas, Stubbs. You can’t tackle the ice without the Winch Master himself, OMJ. Last but not least, my off-season riding buddies, the Down For The Ride crew, Josh and David.
We were greeted by the Sheriff when we arrived. Although he voiced his opinion on how stupid he thought we were, he wished us the best of luck and went on his way. We fired up the Pulldozer Winch and it was time for awesome. Stubbs took care of the first set to make sure everything was legit. He even had a speedo run to prove how nice the weather was. Josh followed up with a 180 on 180 out on the first ’slider’ finishing with a back side 180 on the second hit. He later threw down some sick tail press action. I jumped in next with no awesome, but after switching to Josh’s Roam it was on with the back lip steez on the first slider to 540 on the second ice box.
This was apparently about the time when someone took it upon themselves to call the ranger. It must have looked like we were having too much fun. Needless to say, we were politely shut down and booted out of Jordanelle. The reason; we were not participating in the “normal usage of the state facility”.
I thought wakeboarding was normal.
Note: WakeUtah does not advise any sort of activity on any body of frozen water. It is dangerous. You may die. Also, please be courteous to any ranger, state park official, or sheriffs you may encounter in your wakeboarding, wakeskating, or winching activities. If they ask you to leave, please do so. Do not argue, you will not win, you will only give all of us wakeboarders a bad reputation. We must join together and go about our fights the proper way. I will personally, along with all of us must, always jump through any hoops in the proper order and submit the correct paper work to ensure everyone may enjoy and participate in our sport in years to come.
Thanks to DownForTheRide.com for the pics. Also make sure to check out a small video done by DFTR Josh on my.wakeutah.com.
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