For the third spring in a row we’ve made our annual trek to Mike Olson’s KC Watersports wakeboard and wakeskate cable park in Hillsdale, Kansas. Like the two years past, spring is the time we spit shine our Alliance flat bar rail and participate in one of Mike’s super fun events. The Alliance flat bar is now 106 feet long, because apparently 90-feet wasn’t enough since every kid in Kansas can now nose press the whole damm thing. Apparently 106 feet is no big deal either, the wakeskate kids were board sliding the shit out of it and shoving out by the time we left.

This year was unique, though, as Aaron Reed and Keith Lyman we’re also there to help with one of the best team contests to date. No stranger to rails, Lyman and “Freedom” we’re freaking the kids out all weekend, Reed may have even learned a few kneeboard tricks too. For two days Reed and Lyman helped wakeboard and wakeskate kids learn to do something on a rail they’ve never done before. The cool thing about the cable and KC Watersports is that on the cable, you can try something over and over again without wasting gas and having the boat turn around for you all day long. The rails at KC are also the best of all the cable parks. A solid rail will help dictate a solid trick so the combination of the two allowed some serious shredding to go down and what better coaches than Reed and Lyman.

The event format was a ton of fun and simple; After two days of breaking one’s ass off, captains of four teams picked boards out of a pile to make up each of the four teams. Each team member had one opportunity to ride one lap around the park and attempt the trick they had been working on all weekend, Reed and Lyman were the judges.

I’d have to say in all my years of participating in grass roots events, this format was all-time, Lyman and Reed would agree.