Last week I had the pleasure of returning to Northern California to spend some time on a houseboat with members of team CWB and shoot for the 2010 catalog. Riders on this trip included Trevor Hansen, Brian Hutton, Gabe Lucas and Robby Carter, as well as Nor-Cal locals Raequel and Shawna Hoffman and Josh Twelker.

For three days the team did nothing but wake up at 6:00 to get in a dawn patrol session, then head back out at 5:00 for the evening light. In between photo missions were some double up assaults, fun with GoPro cameras, lots of liar's dice games, cannon ball attacks on some geese, and a few confrontations with a potentially bi-polar team manager.

As is usually the case with Lake Oroville in the summer, the water was the perfect temperature (especially considering all three days broke the 100-degree mark), and even if there was a little AM breeze, all we had to do was head up an arm to find the breakfast butter.

This trip was my first extensive look at any company's 2010 line and I was thoroughly impressed. It was obvious from just picking up some of the boards and bindings that CWB had been hard at work over the past year to come out with some new, impressive items. All of the boots look like they were started from scratch, and I couldn't believe how light they were. A couple of the boards were especially light, as well. Gabe's new pro model semi-flex board was also very cool. All-in-all the line looks amazing, and judging from the way the guys rode in the three days of shooting, the line rides just as well.

Keep your eye open for a future issue of Alliance with a full story on the trip, and with Surf Expo just a month away, stay tuned to this site for updates on all the 2010 wakeboarding gear. CWB-TV will also have some entertaining clips from this trip. Be prepared to laugh, it's pretty much all we did the entire trip.

Big ups to Nor-Cal crew members Shon, CM, Billy, Evan, Matt, and Brett for lining up boats and helping make the trip happen. And for blasting music from their X-Star for inspirational purposes.