A Year Ago Today... BOOM!

I'm still shaking my head at the fact that I'm becoming recognized around the world, bodyboarding world that is, for something that... just happened. Not literally just happened but happened without intentions. BOOM! is my signature sign off to all the IBA World Tour highlight reels. Someone actually made a smash up for Youtube. Crazy stuff!

Let me reverse a little here. It's been a year since the first day of my gig as the face of professional bodyboarding competition. It happened here on the Canary Islands for the Wild Wave Fronton Showdown. Aside from broadcasting live, I also had to intro and outro the highlight clips. Seamus (video guy), Ben (Red Bull dude) and I headed out to do our first highlight clip. We all agreed that we needed to end with a signature. We did a few things with my hands but it was a punch at the camera that we all agreed on. We went with it and that's how it all started.

Below is the first one that we did. I totally forgot about it until Caja (Canary Island cameraman) showed me the night I arrived. I must say, I'm a little embarred and grateful at the same time. Embarrassed because I looked like a total jackass. Low, if any, energy and this one thing that has solidified me in the bodyboarding world were very weak! Very weak! I'm grateful to know that I've come a long way. I appreciate all those that have supported me and the IBA World Tour. Now, compare and contrast:

Now compare to the one I did yesterday and let me know what you really think.

The Beast!

There are some perks to this gig with the IBA World Tour. One of which was video taped and showcased during the Encanto Pro in Puerto Rico. It was awesome. Sylvia at Toro Verde offered the production staff and any of the riders for a ride on the infamous zip line, The Beast! If you ever go to Puerto Rico, this is an absolute must! It's not the only thing to do in the lush canyons but it's surely a must. www.toroverde.com.pr is where you can get all the info. I'm sitting on a bunch of video clips of my own. As soon as I get some free time, I'll piece them together and put the movie on my YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/mannyvproductions

Thanks again to the Snakes and Ladders production crew for the video clip. Here we go:

From Snakes & Ladders on Vimeo.

Preparing For History

On Friday, I take off to the Canary Islands for the last stop on the IBA bodyboarding world tour. It all comes down to this event to determine this year's world champ. Four guys are in the run; Pierre Louis-Costes (France), Jeff Hubbard (USA-Hawaii), Ryan Hardy (Australia) and Guilherme Tamega (Brazil). "Hubby" is leading in points and is favored to win the event and the title. But with the gnarly wave called El Fronton determining who will be champ, anything could happen! Watch LIVE on www.ibaworldtour.com, www.redbull.tv and www.youtube.com/live. Yes, that YouTube. This is a first for the tour. We're expecting to have a historical amount of viewers and if the waves co-operate... this will be the best show to watch. For the latest updates and when we are going live, be sure to get on the IBA Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ibaworldtour

This will be the perfect show to have your friends who don't ride waves to watch. If the waves show up, I guarantee you that the show will be insane!

I Can Tell...

I can tell by the photo contest image on the right that I haven't updated my blog since October 31. So here we go. I'm going to do a two part blog on my new toy... a dolly for my Canon 7D. After watching a few videos from the creator, I went for it and dropped $100 to have it delivered within days. He did mention via email that he wasn't slammed at the moment and I would get my dolly quickly. His humor also helped me to go with this guy. Love his videos. In fact, I'm going to see the one where he's sweating bullets just so I can get another laugh. He's awesome! You can find the videos and other cool stuff on his site. Here's the link to his site: http://moveyourcameracheap.blogspot.com/

Here's one of my first attempts on using this after designing a track to sit on top of my tripod. My track design and the dolly itself coming tomorrow. I'm going to keep modifying to keep the track and camera still as possible. Can't wait to get all creative and sh!t. Check it... (turn audio off)