While spending a week at Lake Shasta with the GB crew you are bound to have some stories to tell. Check out what some of the guys had to say about their team trip to Shasta.

PHOTOS

VIDEO

Gator Boards Team Trip to Lake Shasta
By the time I showed up to the house boat the 4 beds had been taken by 4 of the 73 people we had on board. Fortunately I had injured my right butt cheek in a stupicidal maneuver that slammed me into the jet ski dock at wakestock so I was not going to be riding this trip and had no need for sleep. Our team manager Troy ran around marking cans and bottles with peoples initials to keep track of the lazy bastards that weren't throwin their refuse away. Drew bought the most bad ass B.B. gun I had ever seen and spent most of his time shooting those same cans Troy was trying to keep track of. Mark Weikel was living up to his name by constantly surrounding himself with Smokestacks, ironically enough he was one of the most motivated riders on the trip and attended every water boarding opportunity. We were all blessed to be on the far side of the lense of the always positive Mr. Josh Letchworth. Ricky G. was bein an O.G. cuz it's the only way he knows to be. He blasted a few of the biggest double ups I had ever seen! I'm talkin West Coast big or Erik Lutgert big folks! Kyle Rattray was there at some point, I think I saw him limp thru with a new knee injury, couldn't tell he was a pink blur. Keith Lidberg was seen at the living room table quite often recapturing his Canadian conquests from the week before. Ryan Doyle was in full effect using the house boat as some sort of jungle gym to display his part ape/ part ninja cirque du soleil skills. I had the pleasure of riding with Matt Manzari and Steve Cambell, straight illness. I managed to show up late enough to not have to move or load the house boat and left early enough to not help get it off shore or unload the houseboat. Sorry Troy! I tried to give Letchy a set to get some shots on my new board and we might have got something but I had to quit before I completely mashed up my whole body into one unrecognizable pile. Successful trip in my book.

Valla Con Dios

VANDALL





Well if you have never been to Lake Shasta in California then you know what kind of scene you can expect. When we arrived in the GB bus we had to scroll down the mountain on some curvy roads to get to the lake. When your looking over the edge of a 50 ft. cliff with no guard rails and the bus is overlooking the edge at the same time you start to feel the force of Mother Nature and the respect you have for your bus driver. Well, we made it down to the lake and the water level is 90 ft. low, I guess the worst drought the lake has seen in 15 yrs. When you are standing there in a canyon and looking at the beauty of the lake and the scene around it you know things are about to go down. We loaded up the houseboat with our amigos, then with good vibes and good people we knew we were in for good times.

It took us two hours to reach the destination and it was nightfall so we could not see around us. The silhouettes of the mountains with the stars domed above made it the best of nights to sit and think about what you have in this world. Once day came we all settled ourselves and got our minds right for the day of riding ahead. The days consisted of early am to afternoon sets then kicked off the evening’s for double up sessions. Ricky G and I had a good time behind the Centurion wake and boosted some heavy hitters that you will see in on this website. If you can picture miles of calm water at a depth of 200 ft and canyon walls with forest all around then you can really get into your riding spiritually. Place’s like this really make you appreciate what you are doing and who your with.

Each day we fell into a routine of riding, having groups go and swapping out the legendary photographer Josh Letchworth. We had an 80 ft. rail over an Island that was a complete sinister to any one that wanted to hit it. Wakeskate sets were going on all day and heavy hammers were being thrown down in front of the house boat which riders got soda showers and people jumping over them to get in the shot. Just your classic fun with a bunch of funny dudes.

While we were off the water we had plenty of activities to partake in. You could either join the fishing tour, which was lead by Ricky G. Damn this guy can fish. I fished all day and everyday and only had one bite to Ricky’s 20 fish caught. He was the winner of everyone’s fishing poles. Another GB thing on team trips. Who ever had the most fish at the end, kept everyone’s poles. Another activity would be the can shoot. Drew McGuckin had his pellet gun that could shoot at 1200 ft. per sec. Crazy sniper bb gun. Well anyways thanks to rockstar energy we had exploding targets on the hill. Ryan Doyle is a magic man. Picture this. He is on the second story of the boat, and there is a sun deck and a ten-foot gap to a slide off into the water. Doyle has the idea to jump the gap and hit the slide on its downward transition feet first. The mind over matter deal to Doyle is no worries.

Shasta has plenty of people to associate and party with. I did notice that everyone had to have the best sound system, which is funny hearing each boat’s music when you ride down the lake. Five days and we were not ready to leave. With some of the greatest scenes and wakeboarding going down who would want to. Big shouts to all the marinas who helped make this possible with the boats. Our setups included a Nautique 226, a Malibu, a Centurion and a new MasterCraft x-star. Not to mention the 24 ft pontoon which made the fishing tournament good for Ricky. When going down the lake you saw five new top notch boats and a house boat with GB banners soaring all around. Yeah we are a militia not to be messed with. Nothing really went wrong for us. We had great riding from great riders, fishing, cliff jumping, girls and can shooting is a great way to spend your time in Shasta. Yes, Great Success!

This is brought to you by you and yours….Mark Weikel most known unknown




I’ve spent most of this year living out of my board bag, traveling, and filming around the world. My trip to lake Shasta for a Gator team shoot was no different. After two weeks at wakestock building and riding I jump on a bus to head up to Winch master’s for crazy pool stunts, to much partying and red bull girl debauchery. Beat up and in a hung over haze Lidberg and I wave to the bus full of red bull girls as it drops us off at the airport three days later. With board bags full of dirty clothes we navigate are way through the airport laughing and discussing the previous nights escapades bound for beautiful Lake Shasta where the rest of our team and a week of relaxing on a houseboat awaits.

Keith and I land in Sacramento and rented a jeep commander so when we arrived at lake Shasta we could not resist doing a little off roading. The commander was doing fine until we went down into the mud. We hit this little spot where the lake had just dried up and sunk in the super soft lakebed. After jamming a bunch of sticks, rocks and Lidberg’s board bag under the tires we showed up and the dock three hours late and covered in mud. Arian was there to greet us and we took the pontoon boat over to our super dope houseboat that would be home for the next week. Everyone was out riding when we arrived so we started jumping off the houseboat and swimming. Everyone came in to find us chilling in the water, gapping to the slide and soaking up the sun, and after all the yelling what up’s, high fives and bro hugs we all sat down as a team for dinner. Troy had been spraying mad stories about a few houseboats full of girls so we hopped in the boats and took off into the night in search of a party. A few wrong house boats and several beers later we arrive at two house boats parked side by side with obvious signs of a party going on all around. Besides the bad drunk girl dancing and the random dude walking asking everyone if they wanted to fight the party was not half bad. We had to shoot in the morning so we hoped back in our boats with a few of the girls and headed back to home base. The next day we wake up to find the two house boats we left the previous night pulling up beside ours making our spot three house boats deep and probably one of the biggest party spots on the lake. I felt kind of bad for Josh because we all took shifts going out in the boats to shoot through out the day but Josh was a warrior going out every time and spending all day shooting in the hot sun. At the end of the day Josh had just as much energy as anyone singing Margarita Ville while Keith and him made drinks. Drew was the toy man and between the Winchester style BB gun and the sniper rifle pellet gun we had cans set up at different distances all over the hill side. So needless to say my favorite spot was up on the top deck with Drew, Mark and whoever else wanted to join plinking cans and trying to stay as safe as possible. The last night Josh was on the boat Troy and Nick headed up a crew to build a land gap to shoot on before the cops busted us. They drank and built all night and in the morning the water had dropped making the island the rail was going over a lot bigger and difficult to drive. The set up was so that if you didn’t make it perfect off the very end of the last rail you’d eat rocks. After threepeating at wakestock on rails and beating him self up at winch master on huge drops Keith was not feeling the possibility of eating some rocks. With this said Mark stepped up and decided to ginni pig the set up. Mark hit it for a bit slamming on the mud and rocks taking a beating for the team. The sun starting getting high so we decided to bust it down before to cops came. We spent the rest of the trip chilling and riding without Josh plinking cans and enjoying are last few days in Shasta. Good times.

Ryan Doyle