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Quiet Waters

(11.9 mb - 3:49 minutes)

I was stoked when I got a call to film Shannon Best. I had never met him personally but heard about his board skills and seen him in mags and films. We met at Ski Rixen, a cableski lake at Quiet Waters Park, Deerfield Beach. I was told Shannon was a former Champion at the park who had since moved to Hawaii where he got heavily into kiteboarding. The word was, he had moved back to Florida to start a kiteboarding company.

Shannon showed up with a warm smile and a cigarette dangling from his lip. In one hand he held a new board he was testing. In the other hand, a large cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee. I could have used the caffeine myself. I had a late night out then rushed around all morning trying to round up a decent tripod. I managed a Bogen 3130 fluid head with a set of 475 legs.

I set up my gear and waited for the show to start, and waited. There were a lot of kids zipping around the lake. Apparently some kind of summer camp there that day. Finally, Shannon returned and explained he was having trouble with his new bindings. They were proving problematic and painfully tight. This was the start of what some might consider to be a "bad day." I needed some caffiene and cooler weather and the fluid head on my tripod was as sticky as molassas. I tried to pan smoothly with Shannon as he whipped across the lake and noticed that he appeared a bit shaky himself. However, despite the binding problems Shannon was still going for it. During the course of the video shoot, he threw about fifty tricks and fell about five times. Not a bad ratio.

If you are not falling, you are not reaching high enough.

Let me make this clear, by normal standards Shannon was riding exceptionally well. However, when you wipe out at Ski Rixen there is no boat to retrive you. You swim out of the lake and walk back to the starting platform. When I first noticed Shannon waiting at the end of a long line of camp kids I must admit I was a bit annoyed. I remember thinking, 'Are you kidding me? I am standing out here in the hot August sun with my camera baking on a tripod. Why is the former Champion of the park not able to cut the line?'

I realized that Shannon was not going to cut the line. If he wiped out he went to the back of the line like everyone else. Once I realized this, I didn't mind watching him wait on that line. I regret I did not film Shannon towering over these camp kids, waiting for his turn on the lake, his muscular and tattoed arms crossed akimbo. An amusing sight, I can assure you.

After almost two hours on the lake a thunder cloud blew in we called it a day. As we parted, I felt the day had not been the best but optimistic there were plenty more to come.

I was relieved to get back to the air-conditioned comfort of my editing room. I reviewed the tape on my large monitor, not a small eyepiece. I jogged the rewind and watched in slow motion. Shannon was exploding too fast. I needed to understand what was he doing in those split seconds. I began to watch some tricks frame by frame, disecting his movements, and that is when I was blown away.

I edited this video together and decided that Shannon's last wipeout was so magnificient that it needed to be included. Shannon goes down for the fifth time but doesn't let go of the cable. He hangs on to the handle for about ten seconds and tries to recover. Ten seconds! When was the last time you held on that long and hard and tried to make something work?

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down.

ride on, george

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