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Alex Graydon, known for his unique style, has also been at the forefront of judging and evolving how cable events are judged.  We caught up with him in Australia to talk about traveling, judging, style and more. photo: rutledge

How is the vibe different in America than in Australia?
The vibe is extremely laid back and people are way more active.  Everyone is outside doing something different no matter the weather.  People wake up early and the streets are already busy and the beaches have people. It’s just a good environment to be around because you don’t want to spend time indoors.

What are your plans for this year?
I’ve been in Australia for 4 months and plan on another 2 months here before I travel around to New Zealand, Bali, the Philippines and even travel around OZ more to the other parks in Sydney and Cairns.  Just trying to ride as many places as possible before I head back to Alabama for the summer and pick up my boat.  Hopefully I’ll film and shoot a lot of boat and shooting some winch spots I’ve been eyeing for years now but they were dry from the drought.  I really enjoyed judging for contest last year so hopefully I’ll get to do some more this year.

Whats the hardest thing about judging a contest?
Most people would say judging their friends but people are usually understanding and it’s pretty clear if you ride bad or not.  The hardest thing is new riders coming up who have good tricks but are sloppy or not solid grabs.  The format of rail riding and judging has changed a lot the past few years so legit presses through the whole rail are scored better then someone zeaching around the same trick to 180 out of it.

You’ve chased the endless summer the past two years.  Whats the best part been so far?
Never wearing a wetsuit, haha.  But no real downtime in your riding helps a lot.  A lot of people say you get burned out doing that but if you diversify your riding you can never get burned out.  There is so many ways to ride these days, cable, boat, winching, wakeskating and more.  Just being on a board will help your riding more than anything.  Staying on a board and being active just keeps you healthier and so you don’t lose tricks and have to constantly keep learning them.

There seems to be a bigger divide every day between boat and cable riders.  You’ve managed to stay relevant and do both.  What are your thoughts on where things are headed?
I don’t think the separation is necessary a good thing.  I think that boat riders need to ride cable and I think cable people need to ride behind the boat.  I’m not saying at a competitive level but it makes your riding better all around.  Taking style from both of those and combining that shows and that’s why I think you see some riders not have any style because they learn tricks but don’t learn how to make them their own.  Both sides have different outlooks on where the sport is headed but I don’t think it’s right for only boat riders to hate on cable and vice versa because they don’t really have a leg to stand on.  How are you going to say something is lame if you can’t do it or have never even tried it before?  I would like to see some of these up and coming riders learn some things behind the cable or boat and put them in a video part.  The Delta Force is a perfect example of a group of guys who can kill it no matter what is pulling them. I think videos like Dog Dayz will get people stoked on wakeboarding and hopefully grow the sport in the right direction.