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May
18th 2000
Lake
Kristi
Greenville,
NC
While hanging
out with Mike at Lake Kristi I was lucky enough to meet Cobe
Mikacich and Chris Bischoff, Charley Patterson and Jon Lindsay.
These four guys invited me to stay and party with them Saturday
night before I left Sunday morning to head back to Durham and catch
my flight to Orlando. I explained to them what I was having problems
with, how long I had been riding and so on, they all were so generous
giving tips, suggestions and hints here and there. As I wandered
around the Greenville tourstop I was introduced to Parks and Shane
Bonifay, Jeremy Kovak, Emily Copeland, Jerry Nunn, Darrin Shapiro,
Billy and Jeff Mckee, all of which were totally down to earth and
glad to meet me, some even curious how a guy from Arizona ended
up in Greenville, NC to watch a wakeboard Tourney.
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Parks
Bonifay, Heavy Thunder and Jeremy Kovak
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Kid
Ruck, Heavy Thunder and Chris Bischoff
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As
we all migrated across the lake to the dinner spread I became totally
aware that this was an impressive spread and I had fallen into a gold
mine. The dinner was being catered by Outback Steakhouse and there
was live music, pro wakeboarders and water skiiers along with family,
friends and business associates of the host, Overton's Ski. There
was plenty of free food to go around and the hospitality was overwhelming,
from the event and the pro riders. After dinner was over a group of
us decided to head into town and raise some hell. For those of you
who aren't familiar with Greenville, NC it's the home of the ECU Pirates
and pretty happening little college town. As we moved on to our third
bar, a large brewery type wharehouse, everyone was having a good time.
Out of no where one of our group members is involved in an altercation
and we're driven out of said bar. I'm glad that we were down drinking
because the locals decided to follow us to our cars three blocks away.......
Sweet I love Southern Hospitality!! |
| While
I was there in Greenville I got the chance to meet Jeff Morales from
Tige's headquarters in Abilene, he and I worked on the tower speakers
for Cobe and Bisch's 21V Rider's Edition. I must have asked Jeff a
million questions about the boat and their construction process, at
the time Brian Foutz was looking to purchase a 21V and I wanted to
help out with as much research as possible. Why they use wood stringers,
V-drive vs I-Drive, gelcoat, resin, seat stitching, you name it I
ran it by Jeff and he gladly answered all questions and elaborated
on some of the bigger topics. The boat ended up being my bed for the
night after we finally made it home from out galavanting around the
town. I must admit the bow was rather comfy, but the humidity got
to me! It took everything I had not to do my bear impersonation (most
notabely @ Bartlett) and search out a cooler place to sleep. Both
Motorhomes were full of riders, drunks and research material, so I
made do with what I had! |
The
dock view at the Big Air Challenge in Tempe
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