Getting Urban in AZ

By Jimmy Wolf

One fine weekend last summer, Arizona’s finest gathered to celebrate the grand opening of Action Watersports in Mesa, AZ with a rail jam from Skooled Wakeboarding designed by myself, Jimmy Wolf.  Based on a construction site theme, obstacles were beyond the average using pallets as kickers up to culvert piping, road barricades, and a vertical chain link fence wall ride.

The list of riders consisted of Larry Taylor, Trevor “Poodle” Marquette, Derek Borum and myself, with PA Molumby on the photography and Blaine Coury with Krazy Wake films on the cinematography.  With many intimidated by the sketchiness of the set up, the four of us proved the legitimacy of using pallets as kickers and sliding the abnormal.  Although everything didn’t work out as smooth as planned, as if breaking my collar bone trying to jib a culvert pipe back in March wasn’t enough, I figured I was due for round number two on my favorite obstacle.  With hesitation in the back of my mind, I went for it anyway and got worked on the culvert pipe for the second time.

With no doubt progression was still the main concern for this rail jam.  Not only are vertical wall rides not seen in wakeboarding, but chain link fences are not your typical surface for jibbing.  Last summer Ben Christenson, Larry Taylor and myself set up a kicker to a chain link fence after a severe rainstorm, which flooded everything, so we decided to incorporate this concept in our rail jam.  Culvert pipes have always been a favorite of mine, even though I normally have bad experiences with them, and the road barricades fit perfectly within the theme.

To all the people that helped out so much, thank you for help making this happen.  Thomas, thank you for all the Kicker donations for raffles.  The Hulme family, thank you for donating the liners for the pool, and NextGen Winches for bringing their winches out and pulling us.  The pallets, road signs and road barricades were donated thanks to Road Safe construction, and for some of the remaining plywood and screws thanks to Corey Nielson at Home Depot helping us with the lumber.  Last through all the heartache and pain, after a long day in Arizona’s amazing 110 weather, we ended the night off at The Lodge in Scottsdale, AZ to celebrate and enjoy the after party, so thank you for the amazing night.