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Hi Shamballa Friends.
Well its been a great ride in our fourth season here at Wakeboarding Thailand. Where we left off with the great characters of 2009 we immediately rolled on with new great characters visiting us in 2010.
Whats so pleasing is that so many of you found us again, like Evelyn & Allard, plus a great posse of friends, all of who had a ripping great time. It really was great to see you all again.
It gave us such a buzz having you all come and share what's turning out to be a unique place to wakeboard. It's so rewarding for us to hear and read the comments of riders that have experienced Wakeboarding Thailand, of how great the area is to wakeboard, the hours of never ending sun, beautiful scenery, with no boats to mess up your ride or water.
From the years of coaching this sport all over the world, this is the place I find is the most conducive to learning and improving, giving one the thrill of riding. Its certainly helped me, having the environment to create progressive ways to coach this great sport. Every year I find it so rewarding to be able to learn from you all and what great listeners you have been. I get a great kick from seeing you all improve.
For me you all rock and people like you are the reason why I still get such a buzz from coaching this sport. Someone who deserves a special mention is Alex. She rocked up here physically beaten up after learning behind a heavily ballasted boat in Dubai and going too fast in rolling seas. She was mentally fragile after the massive hits she took trying to do the things they taught, but they never broke her enthusiasm for this great sport. She turned out to be a real challenge but a joy to coach, always keen to ride. It was amazing to find that she was actually taught to ride with the wrong foot forward, before she got here.
y: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #474747; font-size: 10pt;">We had the pleasure of Alex's fun company here for 3 months. She became a fixture, bringing her wisdom of the wellness of the body and from her trained NLP expertise. It was great to bounce theories off her from a coaching perspective and use this to remodel the coaching programs.
But it was on the water that we enjoyed seeing how much she improved. It was a joy watching her flowing style and I surely missed my riding style example to show other riders to copy.
Especially the way in which she flowed on the board with excellent handle control. She is a funky wakeboarder, so if any of you get the chance to ride with her, check out how she effortlessly moves the board around with great control of the handle and body movements.
Thanks Alex, you were a joy and an inspiration to coach. I could write pages on all the great people I have had the pleasure coaching this year. Big gun 'Jonny Boy Sims' comes to mind. He did the biggest Tantrums,
he could have gone around twice, he was airborne for that long. Another was Harvey, who no doubt has been the hardest knurliest rider. Nothing fazed him including the pain of the hits he took whilst learning scarecrows. We salute you dude and still cringe with pride.
Richard our oldest rider at 67 thought he had better show his young wife Jennifer the boy,s fire is still stoking real good. Jennefer turned out to be a wakeboarding ripper, by far the fastest speed freak, a real Korean dynamo. Richard and Jennifer loved it here so much that they are having a house built on the lake. Now thats what I call 'living the dream'!!
On the build front we have remodelled the dock walkway. You know, sitting here looking out towards the lake inspiration comes to us all. We listen to your ideas and some we try to implement. So we have taken out the lower somms and some walkways, replacing them with a large
r somm thats designed to be a relaxing massage area, which gives you the feeling that you are out there floating on the water.
We also have created a lagoon alongside the dock to keep the deep water. This is a fun place to swim and launch yourself off the dock, practicing summersaults if you so wish. The pool has been a great fun area this year for cooling down, drinking beers and cocktails. 'Oh yeah, what a blast.'
We have also added two chipping golf holes with. 100 & 130 yard greens, so in between ridding you can get some golf in. This has turned out to be a fun area alongside the water. We have added a new toy to use, a paddle board, plus a new windsurfer intermediate/expert sail and beginner sail.This is to cater for the needs of everyone, so they can keep playing on the water between rides.
For those who like to adventure, we have found a secret restaurant/bar 2km away which you can only reach by water, so the canoes and paddle boards get some action paddling down to this great little haunt.
This proved a popular experience, especially the sunset ride, enjoying a few beers at the top of the lake restaurant, with the trip back under the stars. Man that adventure always takes my breath away.
We have acquired a fitness program P90X, which we do for an hour a day in the morning. Tony the instructor, will make you laugh, make it easy for you and give you a nice push to the very end. You pump all the muscle groups by whats called, confusing the muscles, where the body does not know what muscle is going to get worked next, so the whole body gets a brilliant work out.
The time goes very fast, it is very enjoyable, and wow! do you feel alive after, your core muscles of the body get stronger from the very first work out. The P90X work out is designed to instantly benefit your wakeboarding, with our specially designed tasty protein power shakes and recovery smoothies this is such a great healthy way of getting fit to enable you enjoy and really get the most from your wakeboarding. The added bonus is being surrounded by all the elements nature provides on the lake, which really makes you feel great on the inside and look great on the outside. This is Wakeboarding Thailand's gift to you, 'the mother of all workouts'!!
Keeping with our philosophy of riding when you wanna ride, plus adding a few new tweaks for next year to the ones already here, we are sure you are ganna love the Shamballa experience. For Wakeboarding Thailand has always been and always will be about the ride, of waking up feeling relaxed, looking out across the water, feeling that buzz of excitement, like being a kid agan. There's the freedom of doing whatever you want to do, along with dedicated coaching to enhance your riding if you wish, for Shamballa is all about helping you achieve your dreamed ambitions. It sure is an uplifting feeling, hanging out on the lake at Shamballa.
So another great season comes to a close, where the days really just roll into one long one, over here at Wakeboarding Thailand.
Next year we will keep you all regularly updated on the news and goings on out here. So if you are ever feeling down, crunching the hours, you can take yourself away by dreaming of the fun you had at Shamballa.
Until the next time, thanks to all of you that have shared in the growing of Wakeboarding Thailand, for this place is created around and is all about you guys out there, so a big thanks to all of you for making Wakeboarding Thailand at Shamballa the great place it is and such a funky place to ride.
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