Always board. Never bored. Part 2 – Slaying the best of both worlds

Always board. Never bored. Part 2 – Slaying the best of both worlds
by Houston commercial photographer – Nicki Evans Photography

When I began searching for wake boarders to participate in my “Always board. Never bored.” project, Brandon was one of the first riders to respond. After chatting with Brandon a few times, I knew we were cut from the same cloth. We share the same love for water…that deep, unexplainable Moby Dick attraction to H20.

I actually had quite a few responses to my initial search for wake boarders, but finding people was less of a problem than making schedules align on days when the weather was nice. It happened that both fell into place on a Saturday in August when SMG Wake (where Brandon works) was hosting a demo day at the San Bernard River in conjunction with Liquid Rides and the Boomstick.

When I arrived at the party, there were tons of boats and people ready for a good time. I hopped on the new Malibu 25 LSV that SMG was demoing and got to hang out with Brandon and a rotating crew of riders for the afternoon. I made a few shots of some guys wake boarding, and a few of people wake surfing, before I was able to catch a set behind the boat. Such a fun ride (and bonus of photographing wake boarding)!

Then, just a few minutes before sunset, Brandon had a chance to strap on a board and take a set. With no real warmup at all, he was throwing some big hits and tearing up the river. His aggressive style and the soft evening light were the perfect combination for a few great shots! Unfortunately, a storm was rolling in, so it got dark quickly and we had to head in.

Since Brandon is both an avid boat and cable rider, we decided to get together for more photographs at Hangar 9 in Conroe, where he often rides after work. We booked a day in October, and I arrived a couple of hours before Brandon, so I could play on the cable lake awhile. Then it was time to get to work. Well, who am I kidding? Photographing wake boarders is more play than work to me 😉

Since I’d shot with Parker at Hangar 9 a few months back, I wanted to try to get some new angles in my shots. In addition to the detail and straight-forward action shots, I used the towers from the cable to frame Brandon on a few shots, got a ride to the middle of the lake on the coolest barge ever (it had a built-in picnic table) to get closer to a few rails and then tried out my waterproof bag for a few in-water shots. And then, since I’m a sucker for a good sunset, I had to get a few shots as the day came to an end.