It was mid week on the Gold Coast and my mates Chris Dunn, Jamie Brooks and I
were talking wakeboarding and we thought it would be a cool idea to capture some
unlikely wakeboarding shots. Jamie had to travel to Grafton in Northern NSW to do
a video for our mate Johnny’s (Shooter) new waterskiing school based at Big River
Holiday Park, so we grabbed the opportunity to do some shooting and tagged along.
We set off friday night with a truck full of boards, camera gear and props for the
shoot. The Saturday morning was perfect, Grafton really put it on for us, possibly
the flattest water I have ever seen! After a good morning of shooting the video it was
time to put together a plan! The first idea was to set up a lounge and have a rider
jumping over it. We hit the road to find some old furniture for the shoot and after
driving round Grafton town we found a old pub that was having a clean out. We asked
if we could borrow a few bits and pieces and they were more than happy to help.
We decided to use the jetty as our lounge and had to build a rail to jump it. Walking
round the camp we found some old bits of wood and 90 degree metal corners to slide
on. Once we built the rail we had just enough light to do a rail test run. I held the
rail from underneath while Chris hit it a few times, the locals thought we were nuts!
It seemed to hold together alright so we set everything up ready for the right time.