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By Mellissa Marquardt

As the water trickles down the snowy mountains of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, dams are constructed to create aqueducts distributing water throughout California. Water is mostly plentiful in Northern California and the North generously supplies Southern California with over 50% of our water supply. Water is moved 444 miles, up 3000 ft to traverse up the Tehachapi Mountains through aqueducts, siphons, pumps and tunnels to reach it’s destination in beautiful Southern California.

Southern California’s desert conditions can cause dilemmas when finding quality water for drinking and more importantly glassy water to ride on. There are only a few spots to ride in Southern California so the WSR has been exploring our zone to discover new spots to ride. During our road travels through the years we’ve driven past Pyramid Lake numerous times while going over the Grapevine, questioning it’s wakeboarding capabilities. We finally decided to round up the troops and test his mysterious reservoir’s ridding potential. Eddie Valdez, Justin Fisher and I decided to camp the night before near the lake. When we arrived we noticed the camp had an eerie feeling, like a creepy Friday the 13th movie, man- eating bugs included. Being one of the only two groups of campers in the entire site didn’t help. Our fears quickly vanished after one of the friendly park staffers provided us with bug repellent and saved our lives. The combination of bugs and Eddie’s random mix ass-blast’n left us a bit sleep deprived.

In the morning photographer Nick Meistrell met up with us at our camp and Eddie made a five star breakfast with eggs, sausage and bagels to prepare for our day in the wakeboarding office. When we arrived at the dock to meet up with the rest of the crew consisting of the WSR vets Randall Harris and Ricky G, we quickly noticed the lake was about as butter as it gets. Randall, Ricky, Eddie, and I rode and Justin showed off his PWC driving skills running chase for Nick. The conditions were perfect all day including crystal clear water that has more than 20ft visibility, ideal for fishing, one of many WSR’s hobbies. The depth of Pyramid Lake is 355 ft containing 30lb+ striped bass, Justin and Eddie ended the day with catching a few trout…

After our great adventure, we have officially found another spot in southern California to ride and fish. In addition, Nick’s creativity combined with the mysterious beauty of the lake resulted with these exquisite photographs.