Let's take a look back at Part 2 of our 2013 Team Video. In this episode we took the crew to the salty waters off Boca Grande Beach. The pass is deep right off the shore line where the gulf meets the intracoastal waters. The perfect spot for running off the beach and skimming into the boat wave. To talk a little more about it we caught up with Shane Blanton, who flew in from Wisconsin to join the trip.
P5: Hey Shane, first off what is new in the life with Shane?
SB: Life’s been good! This past year my girlfriend moved in, finally put in a finished basement on my house, and work has been going great. My parents got a place down in Florida, so I have been able to sneak away from the Wisconsin winters a couple times. Just waiting on the ice to thaw to knock off the winter rust, and get some surfing in!
P5: How has the winter been treating you?
SB: Fortunately this years winter has been pretty tame, only one or two weeks where it was below freezing. As I’m righting this it’s 60 degrees out, so hopefully the ice will be thawed and we can get back in the water in April!
P5: So this was your second year shooting with P5, how was the over-all experience for the 2013 video shoot?
SB: Definitely a change of pace from the first trip. We wanted to make sure we did some unique things and not just your same old surf videos. Jet ski whip in’s, skimming off the beach into the wave, and probably the craziest part was surfing with 3 boats. The shoot overall was an amazing experience. We still pull up those videos at family gatherings to watch and reminisce.
P5: For this part of the video we took you guys down to run off the beach into the boat wave. What were your thoughts on this?
SB: I still believe we were the first one's to do this haha! Being from Wisconsin I can’t ocean skim at all so I helped film a lot during this part of the trip. It was awesome to see the guys that usually skim and not so much wakesurf, combine the two. Once every one got the timing down, as soon as the first rider fell another would just skim into the wave and take a set.
P5: Did anyone give you guys a heads up about Boca Grande before you went? Like the big drop off right of the shore that makes it work well with the boat, or the big tarpon tournament they have there, how good the fishing is, MAYBE HOW MANY BIG SHARKS ARE IN THERE?
SB: I believe the sharks and the tarpon fishing tournament was the first things that came up when the idea was thought up! I specifically remember Drew slowly stopping the boat when I was holding onto the surf rope, so I would sink into the water like shark bait, just to mess with me!
P5: What are a couple highlights you remember from this trip?
SB: Surfing with the three boats (you will see this win part 3), and figuring out there was a pocket like 20 ft behind the other riders. My brother who filmed almost everything, kept getting thrown off the jet skis. I think this was the trip when Corbin and Blake were driving in front of us in Blake’s truck, and there was a bird living in his dashboard that tried to escape, causing a very abrupt turn into a parking lot to get the bird out.
P5: Anything else you want to add?
SB: Get a Phase 5, You won't regret it.
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