Standerd Slides

Subject: Daniel Watkins
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Critique section, page 101

Lake Bulter, in Orlando, FL, is one of the most beautiful lakes I know of. Tons of lakes, endless riding, and surrounded by multimillion dollar homes. Shaquille O’Neal’s, Tiger Woods’, Mark O’Meara’s…just to name a few.

Watkins, Ike, Sanders and myself trekked across town with boats in tow, hoping for some badass typical Lake Butler photos. The day we picked sucked. Windy, overcast, and all around shitty. Nobody could get into the riding groove and the conditions were against all of our efforts. Each person rode a quick set before quickly being frustrated. Watkins persisted however and walked away with the ‘winner’ shot of this pimp method.

-MEDDOCK

Subject: Shaun Murray
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Profile section, page 48

Long before I knew what an f-stop was or Nikon for that matter, I was a student at the Benzel Skiing center at the ripe age of 12 or 13. Shaun Murray was my coach at the camp back then and taught us all the cool tricks to do on a board like wrapped 360s and star-gazed raleys.

I shot this photo with a throw-away camera, kneeling in the back of a Ski Nautique. I think this was one of my first photos of any wakeboarder, ever. I can’t believe Murray still has it in his arsenal of print photos. This is Shaun doing his best ’star-gazed’ raley over his brother Chris, circa 1994.

-MEDDOCK

Subject: Lake Powell, AZ.
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, pages 122-123

Liquid Force has made Lake Powell notorious for unreal photography. Well, LF or not, Lake Powell is known for unreal photography. Having their team of awesome riders there AND the classic Lake Powell backdrops are the perfect recipe for great photos.

On the annual LF trip one year, we got a bit of rain and clouds in the evening. The houseboats were just behind the ridge seen here in the photo. As we were watching the storm move through the area, the skies opened up blasting a strong light on the distant rock ledge. I had some black and white film already loaded in the camera when I found myself shooting this shot. It looks so dramatic because everything in the background was still pitch black and stormy, while the rock was the only thing lit up. I thought we were going to get wet at any second, even where I was standing. Exposing it was a bit tricky, but I knew if I nailed it right, the shot would look insane.

-MEDDOCK

Subject: Palms
Photo: Rodrigo Donoso

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Chronicle section, page 28

These palm trees sit behind my condo in Discovery Bay, CA. We look at them out the back window to see how the wind is doing and whether or not it’s worth it to go out. Usually by night time they aren’t ever moving, but the winds were pretty strong that week. The cool part was that it made for a cool photo the way the stalk of the palm trees stayed still while the palm blurred together from the wind. The only bad part was that we would probably not get the best conditons the next morning. Sometimes you win some sometimes you loose some. This time I did both.

-Rodrigo

Subject: Hurricane Ivan aftermath
Photo: Bryan Soderlind

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, back cover

This image means so much to me. I originally wrote a long description about where and how I got this shot that should’ve been right here, but…. I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to hear people ask me where the avalanche was! That is definitely the wrong natural disaster!

-Bear

Subject: Collin Harrington
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Critique section, page 95

Manaus Brazil– I’ll claim it now…The best undiscovered wakeboarding spot in the world. Well, at least out of all the places I’ve been to.

BadBoy Inc. sent us down there for a local wake comp. We rode all through the Amazon River finding nothing but glassy water for miles and miles. The water was a bit murky but no reptiles in sight that you would automatically assume. It was weird getting used to but once you could relax and not worry about what could be underneath the surface of the water, the riding was insane.

Collin is a natural talent on any kind of board. Surf, skate, wake, you name it, he’ll kill it. Collin 4-nothin pullin through with somethin, showing off his survival skills in the jungle.

-MEDDOCK

Subject: Sign for the 413
Photo: Bryan Soderlind

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Chronicle section, page 35

I went to Puerto Rico this last April to surf with my friend Billy Callahan. Everywhere you drive to surf you pretty much use 413 and I definitely understand why they call it “The Road to Happiness.” I had the best time.

-Bear

Subject: Derek Cook
Photo: Rodrigo Donoso

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Chronicle section, page 25

On this day we spent the whole day barbecuing right behind Orwoods Marina on the delta. Jamie brought his winch, some really good carnitas to make tacos with and his wakeskate to get some play time on the up rail. It was pretty early in the season for us, so we spent a lot of time convincing ourselves that it was warm enough to trunk it. Now that I look at the photo it does looks a bit cold out there. Spooky too!

-Rodrigo

Subject: Ben Horan
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Critique section, page 94

Last February, I did a full day with the Nike team. I rode doubles, camera in hand for this shot of Ben. There were so many “keepers” that I wanted to hang on to for The Standerd but I was obligated to turn in all the shots to Nike.

A few months passed with no signs of any of these shots surfacing so I decided to call Nike team manager Silas Thurman to see what the deal was. This shot in particular was branded into my head enough that I asked about it specifically.

It was still “undecided,” so I told Silas if he sent it back to me, there was a good chance we’d run it pretty decent size our book. Two days later, the photos arrived and BAM…in the book it went. Full-pager to Ben Horan. Thanks Nike.

-MEDDOCK

Subject: Dallas Friday
Photo: Steven Hahn

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Chronicle section, page 26

Every Spring I try and make my way to Orlando to shoot and visit with old friends. This April I was headed down to Naples to shoot with the GB team just returning from overseas. I had a few extra days to hang out in Orlando so I called up Dallas and asked her if I could crash at her place for a few nights.

Dallas was recovering from a broken femur from the Waterski & Wakeboard World Cup series in Singapore. To me, she looked like the same old Dallas, super fit and always on the go. She showed me the gnarly scar on her side from the tube that was stuck into her chest. I reassured her and told her that scars build character. Now a normal day with Dallas consists of answering a bunch of phone calls in the morning, going over her schedule with her mom Darla, signing a bunch of posters for shops, then off to Sports Specific for a little rehabilitation. Since not a lot of people have seen Dallas since her return to the states, I thought I’d bring my camera along to get a few shots of her on her road back to the podium. I snapped this shop of her doing single leg presses but the photo seemed so telling. “One step closer.”

-Hahn