joephillips

Surf Expo is winding down. The beers are almost gone and everyone has set off on the quest to get the stuff brands don’t want to bring home for free. We’ve reported on as much of the important stuff as we could so far but there are a few things we’ve failed to mention.

The first is the Step Up rail set up, which featured demos all show long. Though not many wakeskaters stepped up to the monster, we have to give props to Joe Phillips for hitting it pretty much every time the winch was fired up. He landed a sick kickflip on,kickflip off, which is even more impressive if you’ve seen the set up!

distortionpro

In other winching news, Distortion boarding had a booth this year as well. For 2010, they are producing two basic winches. The Grinch, with a 7hp engine and an optional wheel kit, and then the pro edition. The latter is a bit more compact and houses a 10HP engine so it can get up even the biggest fat ass. They also have a line of organic, high end T-shirts available. Owner Adam Hart said Distortion winches are available at some 60 dealers, though lately they’ve been doing a lot of international sales. In fact, they’ve just set up distribution in Germany and Japan. “We ship to crazy places I’ve never even heard of,” he said. “Winching is really starting to get big.” Another community which is just starting to embrace winching is snowboarding, and Adam was excited that they’d just added JP Walker and Seth Huot to the team. For wakeskaters, Aaron Reed and Scott Byerly are both the proud owners of Distortion Winches.

Tonight is the much-anticipated premiere of Nike 6.0’s Aquafrolics so check back for all the coverage. For now, more images in the gallery.

alliance booth

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