Melissa Marquardt by Spencer Smith

Say hello to the July 2010 issue of the mag! It’s loud, it’s proud, and for the third time in Alliance history it features… A FEMALE athlete on the cover! It’s not just “any” female, nor is it just “any” shot. Melissa is one of the most stylish and progressive girls in our sport dropping what we are certain is the most intense gap women’s wakeboarding has ever seen.

Melissa’s cover shot comes as part of the 13 total pages in this issue dedicated entirely to winching. We feature not one, but two different treks throughout Northern California in our first ever “winch edition” of Framed.

Gotta’ have a white Bandana if you’re winching Nor-cal…or NOT.

Also in this issue we get a chance to go one on one with one of wakeboarding’s greatest; Shaun Murray. Shaun tells all about his 15 years as a professional rider and also explains why he will never let the air raley die. While shooting with Shaun leading up to this interview we witnessed some of the best riding we have ever seen from the 34-year-old veteran; moves that would easily take the prize at any given event. Check out his interview to learn exactly what it takes to keep a pro career alive and well for as long as Shaun has.

Father / Husband / 34 / Still better than all of us on the wake…

On page 44 we take a ride through the British Virgin Islands with Collin Harrington on his families’ Tiki XIV adventure boat. The crew includes JD Webb, PB, along with pro surfers Alex Grey, Cheyne Magnussen, Alex Parker and Ben Bourgeois. Check it out as the surfers learn to ride the wake and the wakers get tubed. Turns out Parks isn’t half bad at writing na island jam on the guitar, nor is he half bad at surfing the barrels. Thanks to Collin and the crew wakeboarding is officially “surf approved”.

Hey Collin, next time can we go to?

Other features include a nosepress instruction with Kevin Henshaw, Best and Worst with Gabe Lucas, and Brian Reeder taking one of the scariest crashes we’ve seen in the WAD section. Be sure to pick up the July issue today!