swapmeet
Brotastic
- Location
- Arlington TX
LOL yay i'm in the pic pulled off FB!
I've been meaning to post up but i'm pretty beat from Friday. Up at 4 to catch a 5:30 flight to Orlando, rental car, drive an hour to the Flat Water spot.
I didn't even make it to the beach like I thought I would. I woulda been cutting it way to close to make my flight home.
Anyhow... Let me share my thoughts on Friday.
Just as a disclaimer... This is my first "Freeride" event, First time to ride more than one AM hull in one day, first time to ride anything over a 900cc.... I think you get the picture.
The good:
This event was HUGE IMO. DK wasn't too far off the mark in his assessment of the monetary value of composite and billet on hand.
Not to mention the high value talent on hand. If you have a hero in the world of professional freestyle, that fella was probably here, and tearing it up on their ski of choice.
Team X Scream had the largest representation, both in privately owned hulls and motors, but also with their cache of SUPER FCUKING NITRO OMGWTFBBQ DID YOU SEE HOW HIGH McJESUS THAT GUY GOT!?!? riders on hand as well. It was impressive....
Me: Hey, i'm Swapmeet. Is this your ski?
Dude: Hey, I don't know you... Yeah thats mine.
Me: What is it?
Dude: KDX with a 1200...
R-E-P-E-A-T.....
Ugh... also there were two Circus Freaks, a demo and Tricky's, Both with twelve-ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS-hundreds...
Small contengent of EME hulls, also with 1.2Liters.
There were a variety of Rickters there, including some ridden on the behalf of the Thrust crew who was out there. Side note: They had to pull all the Rickter crates out of their trailer to get their skis out... I was like... Really? Ugh... so awesome.
Also, I saw 3 BOBs including DK's Hurricane, but one was privately owned and it decided to puke a steering cable. I apologize I don't remember the owners name, but I met you... and you were cool, and you were rocking a LSFR hoodie. So High five... (more on who I met later)
There was a Foot Rocket, 2 or 3 Vision hulls, The Brawler guys, and the 2 Backie Chan's.
I'm probably missing something or someone, so I apologize. I have serious ADD and I was struggling to keep up with everything.
Next point of business: High fives to the XScream crew for basically being on site support. Every time someone needed something it seemed like, Pat and his people had it. The Blowsion guys also were helping out. (Once again, this is just while I was there and what I saw.)
Everyone was really cool. For all the "Fan Boy" BS that gets thrown around on this forum, everyone was super chill. Tons of respect everywhere you turned.
Ride Reports: (Let me start off with this, I'm looking for a ski that I can freeride on but will do freestyle with ease, on a budget. My favorite ski prior to this was a glass Gen 1 Rickter FS1 or 2, owned by Liquid6, with a JM718.)
First ski I rode was Bud's Orange KDX 900.... Let me begin by saying that Bud might be the most chill guy ever. SUPER nice... He must be nice, cause it was like everyone there was running a train on his ski LOL... Seriously though, I really appreciate him letting me and others ride his ski. The reason I rode his ski? I think it was the only one there without a 1200 in it.... Just nuts all the 1200's... But I digress. Fit and finish on all the KDX' on hand were top notch. Equal to the Rickters, except Rickter has all the visual carbon which I understand is a little more difficult.
Personally, I didn't care for the KDX... It wasn't gawdawful by any means, just not stable enough for me. I found myself in the water a lot more than I expected. Also it really wanted to BF, I stabbed the gas a few times and and my butt hit the water first. To me it rode nose high more than I would have liked. The steering was much more than I expected... Turn a the bars a little, do 180... fall over. Perhaps this is the intention of this ski, and I have the wrong expectation. I have no doubt that it would be a CRAZY performer in the right hands. Daniel Martin has proven that. But for me, it was TOO responsive... so to some i'm sure thats perfect, but for me I was just trying to keep up. Also my riding position was probably an issue looking back. After riding it someone mentioned that it has some crazy flow guard on it that made it ride differently/ turn much more sharply etc. Bottom line, it seemed like a lot of work to ride. If that makes sense.
Next ski I rode was the Backie Chan.
I won't even mince words, i'm pretty sure everyone knows this ski/ hull is why I came to the freeride. I rode the green glass ski twice with a DASA850, stock stroke, and a B-pipe, stock ignition, Mag 144. Not sure if setback or not. Short ride plate.
Both skis didn't have the fit and finish of the KDX or Rickter. There was some flaws in the surface finish, and the inside of the carbon/kev ski had some glass tails hanging. But here is where I'm gonna defend Steve. He's popped maybe 5 skis total from his molds? And thats within the last 2 months I think? He has repeatedly said... on here even that these are demo skis, built to beat up. Looking at Steve's other business ventures, I have no concern that what he delivers will be of great quality.
As far as the ride, it is literally what the other members have posted. With the short plate, its nose high at low speeds, but it really flattens out quickly. The water was choppy, with all the wind and other riders, but I can see where it would track will chasing boats. It was very stable, i'm sure this can be attributed to the SXR bottom.
I'm no backflipper (yet), and I'm not going to try a trick that I don't know how to do. Similar to Bud's KDX, it didn't take much to get one of these to try and rotate. I would have much rather preferred to ride this with a long plate, but I can see why Steve wanted everyone to see the stability with the short plate. The foot holds in the green ski were no bueno... and Steve told me before I saddled up that he wasn't happy with them, and they probably won't be the production version. It also had a front foot hold, which was nice for me since I ride surf stance.
I rode the Carbon Kevlar ski for about 30 seconds, just to try out the lighter hull. But that 1200 kinda makes up for the weight so its hard to see a huge difference. Also, nobody told me how to ride a 1200 and keep it from loading up. So I probably fouled the crap out of the plugs. I was pretty intimidated by the 1200, which is why I never rode any of the other skis. (more about that later.)
Bottom line: I'll probably get a BC
Jetmaniac's Superfreak
Wow... what a ride. I'll dispense with the negatives first. Cost and assembly required. Ok, now that were done with that...
Seriously... his ski was running his 781 with a 148 mag... It was such a cruiser, I mean it cut and glided through the water, tons of hook up (obviously), it was a really nice ski. I can see why everyone is so hooked on these. This is probably the ultimate freeride ski IMO. I'm sure you could BF one, but it rides much longer (and i'm sure it is) much longer than the skis that I have enjoyed riding. It seemed like it really wanted to 'coast' if that makes sense... almost to a negative, but really i'm reaching. Its hard to not like a SF.
Once again, the Circus Freak that was on hand to test ride had a Total Loss 1200... So I had not interest in riding it. Unless I could take out a spark plug or something.
Very happy to have been able to meet and shake hands with:
Stablz08 (Steve, as well as his crew from Cali 'brah'), Tricky, BudProductions, Hornedogg, Jetmaniac, Sospikey (Magus from Sweeden 'yah!'), TEM (super nice guy....), Blue, Mark Gomez, um... DK's dad, Dude from KS with the BOB... Ok my head hurts... thats all I can remember right now. Sorry if we met and I didn't mention you. Feel free to call me out though!
Sucks, you need a shirt or something with your screen name on it, or a hat, since some people were wearing full suits. (Except Bud, that guy was wearing shorts.... just shorts, and a PFD... in like 50* water. That man is a beast!)
The Bad,
You have no idea who's ski is available to ride. Pat and the other Xscream guys seemed to really encourage others to ride their skis, including Buds (lol), but I didn't know who to ask about a BOB (until I met DK Sr, and I had to leave), same with the EME.
My suggestion... that main area in front of the ramp should be sectioned off for the vendors (not spectator parking). They could have sign up sheets with a picture of the ski and the engine in it or something. I dunno, maybe this is the 'very organized, need structure' side of me, but I was kinda frustrated.
Also, I don't know where in the world (besides Florida) that everyone runs a 1200, but there are a lot of people still running a 701, and would relish the opportunity to ride a AM hull with a sub 800cc mill.... Literally, 85% of the skis on hand (demo or not) had 1200's... I had all kinds of Dubya Tee Eff on my face over that.
Maybe have a decal made that says "DEMO" on the ski or something... that would be a good way to know.
Skis on hand that I didn't ride BC of the motor size or I didn't know who to ask:
BOB
Revolver
Footrocket (I didn't really try to find anyone on this, so nobody get butt hurt.)
EME
Circus Freak
Rickter Ninja or whatever was out there.
I took a few photos, but not enough. Seriously kicking myself over that. But it was cold and windy.... especially if you'd been riding.
I'll post them up later. Its taken me almost an hour to type this... I got chit to do damnit!
And their should be no shortage of photos. If there was a million dollars worth of skis (there wasn't, but i'm fine with that sentiment), than there was half a million dollars worth of camera equipment.
Good times though! Pleasant experience... Hopefully next year I can bring out the fam, and ride the surf too!
*edit* I left out some stuff... even with this long post.... But I gotta roll. I'll try and fix it later....
And i'm sure some of you are reading this going...
So feel free to ask questions or call me a dik or whatever.
Swapmeet.... OUT.....
I've been meaning to post up but i'm pretty beat from Friday. Up at 4 to catch a 5:30 flight to Orlando, rental car, drive an hour to the Flat Water spot.
I didn't even make it to the beach like I thought I would. I woulda been cutting it way to close to make my flight home.
Anyhow... Let me share my thoughts on Friday.
Just as a disclaimer... This is my first "Freeride" event, First time to ride more than one AM hull in one day, first time to ride anything over a 900cc.... I think you get the picture.
The good:
This event was HUGE IMO. DK wasn't too far off the mark in his assessment of the monetary value of composite and billet on hand.
Not to mention the high value talent on hand. If you have a hero in the world of professional freestyle, that fella was probably here, and tearing it up on their ski of choice.
Team X Scream had the largest representation, both in privately owned hulls and motors, but also with their cache of SUPER FCUKING NITRO OMGWTFBBQ DID YOU SEE HOW HIGH McJESUS THAT GUY GOT!?!? riders on hand as well. It was impressive....
Me: Hey, i'm Swapmeet. Is this your ski?
Dude: Hey, I don't know you... Yeah thats mine.
Me: What is it?
Dude: KDX with a 1200...
R-E-P-E-A-T.....
Ugh... also there were two Circus Freaks, a demo and Tricky's, Both with twelve-ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS-hundreds...
Small contengent of EME hulls, also with 1.2Liters.
There were a variety of Rickters there, including some ridden on the behalf of the Thrust crew who was out there. Side note: They had to pull all the Rickter crates out of their trailer to get their skis out... I was like... Really? Ugh... so awesome.
Also, I saw 3 BOBs including DK's Hurricane, but one was privately owned and it decided to puke a steering cable. I apologize I don't remember the owners name, but I met you... and you were cool, and you were rocking a LSFR hoodie. So High five... (more on who I met later)
There was a Foot Rocket, 2 or 3 Vision hulls, The Brawler guys, and the 2 Backie Chan's.
I'm probably missing something or someone, so I apologize. I have serious ADD and I was struggling to keep up with everything.
Next point of business: High fives to the XScream crew for basically being on site support. Every time someone needed something it seemed like, Pat and his people had it. The Blowsion guys also were helping out. (Once again, this is just while I was there and what I saw.)
Everyone was really cool. For all the "Fan Boy" BS that gets thrown around on this forum, everyone was super chill. Tons of respect everywhere you turned.
Ride Reports: (Let me start off with this, I'm looking for a ski that I can freeride on but will do freestyle with ease, on a budget. My favorite ski prior to this was a glass Gen 1 Rickter FS1 or 2, owned by Liquid6, with a JM718.)
First ski I rode was Bud's Orange KDX 900.... Let me begin by saying that Bud might be the most chill guy ever. SUPER nice... He must be nice, cause it was like everyone there was running a train on his ski LOL... Seriously though, I really appreciate him letting me and others ride his ski. The reason I rode his ski? I think it was the only one there without a 1200 in it.... Just nuts all the 1200's... But I digress. Fit and finish on all the KDX' on hand were top notch. Equal to the Rickters, except Rickter has all the visual carbon which I understand is a little more difficult.
Personally, I didn't care for the KDX... It wasn't gawdawful by any means, just not stable enough for me. I found myself in the water a lot more than I expected. Also it really wanted to BF, I stabbed the gas a few times and and my butt hit the water first. To me it rode nose high more than I would have liked. The steering was much more than I expected... Turn a the bars a little, do 180... fall over. Perhaps this is the intention of this ski, and I have the wrong expectation. I have no doubt that it would be a CRAZY performer in the right hands. Daniel Martin has proven that. But for me, it was TOO responsive... so to some i'm sure thats perfect, but for me I was just trying to keep up. Also my riding position was probably an issue looking back. After riding it someone mentioned that it has some crazy flow guard on it that made it ride differently/ turn much more sharply etc. Bottom line, it seemed like a lot of work to ride. If that makes sense.
Next ski I rode was the Backie Chan.
I won't even mince words, i'm pretty sure everyone knows this ski/ hull is why I came to the freeride. I rode the green glass ski twice with a DASA850, stock stroke, and a B-pipe, stock ignition, Mag 144. Not sure if setback or not. Short ride plate.
Both skis didn't have the fit and finish of the KDX or Rickter. There was some flaws in the surface finish, and the inside of the carbon/kev ski had some glass tails hanging. But here is where I'm gonna defend Steve. He's popped maybe 5 skis total from his molds? And thats within the last 2 months I think? He has repeatedly said... on here even that these are demo skis, built to beat up. Looking at Steve's other business ventures, I have no concern that what he delivers will be of great quality.
As far as the ride, it is literally what the other members have posted. With the short plate, its nose high at low speeds, but it really flattens out quickly. The water was choppy, with all the wind and other riders, but I can see where it would track will chasing boats. It was very stable, i'm sure this can be attributed to the SXR bottom.
I'm no backflipper (yet), and I'm not going to try a trick that I don't know how to do. Similar to Bud's KDX, it didn't take much to get one of these to try and rotate. I would have much rather preferred to ride this with a long plate, but I can see why Steve wanted everyone to see the stability with the short plate. The foot holds in the green ski were no bueno... and Steve told me before I saddled up that he wasn't happy with them, and they probably won't be the production version. It also had a front foot hold, which was nice for me since I ride surf stance.
I rode the Carbon Kevlar ski for about 30 seconds, just to try out the lighter hull. But that 1200 kinda makes up for the weight so its hard to see a huge difference. Also, nobody told me how to ride a 1200 and keep it from loading up. So I probably fouled the crap out of the plugs. I was pretty intimidated by the 1200, which is why I never rode any of the other skis. (more about that later.)
Bottom line: I'll probably get a BC
Jetmaniac's Superfreak
Wow... what a ride. I'll dispense with the negatives first. Cost and assembly required. Ok, now that were done with that...
Seriously... his ski was running his 781 with a 148 mag... It was such a cruiser, I mean it cut and glided through the water, tons of hook up (obviously), it was a really nice ski. I can see why everyone is so hooked on these. This is probably the ultimate freeride ski IMO. I'm sure you could BF one, but it rides much longer (and i'm sure it is) much longer than the skis that I have enjoyed riding. It seemed like it really wanted to 'coast' if that makes sense... almost to a negative, but really i'm reaching. Its hard to not like a SF.
Once again, the Circus Freak that was on hand to test ride had a Total Loss 1200... So I had not interest in riding it. Unless I could take out a spark plug or something.
Very happy to have been able to meet and shake hands with:
Stablz08 (Steve, as well as his crew from Cali 'brah'), Tricky, BudProductions, Hornedogg, Jetmaniac, Sospikey (Magus from Sweeden 'yah!'), TEM (super nice guy....), Blue, Mark Gomez, um... DK's dad, Dude from KS with the BOB... Ok my head hurts... thats all I can remember right now. Sorry if we met and I didn't mention you. Feel free to call me out though!
Sucks, you need a shirt or something with your screen name on it, or a hat, since some people were wearing full suits. (Except Bud, that guy was wearing shorts.... just shorts, and a PFD... in like 50* water. That man is a beast!)
The Bad,
You have no idea who's ski is available to ride. Pat and the other Xscream guys seemed to really encourage others to ride their skis, including Buds (lol), but I didn't know who to ask about a BOB (until I met DK Sr, and I had to leave), same with the EME.
My suggestion... that main area in front of the ramp should be sectioned off for the vendors (not spectator parking). They could have sign up sheets with a picture of the ski and the engine in it or something. I dunno, maybe this is the 'very organized, need structure' side of me, but I was kinda frustrated.
Also, I don't know where in the world (besides Florida) that everyone runs a 1200, but there are a lot of people still running a 701, and would relish the opportunity to ride a AM hull with a sub 800cc mill.... Literally, 85% of the skis on hand (demo or not) had 1200's... I had all kinds of Dubya Tee Eff on my face over that.
Maybe have a decal made that says "DEMO" on the ski or something... that would be a good way to know.
Skis on hand that I didn't ride BC of the motor size or I didn't know who to ask:
BOB
Revolver
Footrocket (I didn't really try to find anyone on this, so nobody get butt hurt.)
EME
Circus Freak
Rickter Ninja or whatever was out there.
I took a few photos, but not enough. Seriously kicking myself over that. But it was cold and windy.... especially if you'd been riding.
I'll post them up later. Its taken me almost an hour to type this... I got chit to do damnit!
And their should be no shortage of photos. If there was a million dollars worth of skis (there wasn't, but i'm fine with that sentiment), than there was half a million dollars worth of camera equipment.
Good times though! Pleasant experience... Hopefully next year I can bring out the fam, and ride the surf too!
*edit* I left out some stuff... even with this long post.... But I gotta roll. I'll try and fix it later....
And i'm sure some of you are reading this going...
So feel free to ask questions or call me a dik or whatever.
Swapmeet.... OUT.....
Last edited:
