Hello all,

Here we are with another year on the road – yr # 9, to be precise.  As always, I want to thank everyone for sticking with me over the years, especially in these tough economic times.  I understand that some of you have not been able to help   financially this year.  Although, as usual, I will continue to promote your products on my tour and do my part to help us all flourish again. 

     This year’s tour started off later than normal.  This was due to our dealer’s struggle with the economy.  Our cancellations included Carolina Inboard, Knoxville Water Sports, Nashville, and Alabama Water Sports.  This pushed us to start the clinics on Tuesday, May 26th in Chattanooga.  I left solo this year on May 24th en route to Chattanooga, TN.  This was the calm before the storm, as I had a very unfortunate accident on the 25th.  On I-75, between Valdosta and Macon, GA., the tow ball detached from the RV at 9am.  The safety chains did their job and locked the brakes on the trailer.  As I was getting the RV under control, the safety chains snapped.  As they did, the boat and trailer with Harley aboard tracked right. They plowed through a guardrail.  When the tongue of the trailer found soft soil, it catapulted both boat and Harley off the trailer.  The Harley cart wheeled down the highway-Evil Knivel style and the boat ended up in the ditch. 

The fortunate news is no one was hurt and no other cars or people were involved.  All items were well insured and all will work out but it definitely threw a wrench in the Briscoe ’09 tour.   After sifting thru the wreckage, I packed the bus with everything salvageable and continued on to Chattanooga, as I had lessons booked for the next day.  Luckily, one of my long-time students there is Phil Aslinger, Pro Tour rider.  He offered his boat to make it possible for the clinics to continue as scheduled. 
This worked out great since twenty people were awaiting my arrival for clinics on Tuesday and Wednesday.   During the clinic, we had many success stories.  We polished Phil’s run, getting him ready for the first pro tour stop, which was the 29th thru 31st   in Dallas, Texas.  Phil’s run held true as he fought through the pack, heat after heat, making it to the finals.  In the finals, he stood both passes strong as the boat turned its final turn, creating his wild card double-up. He had a perfect takeoff as he started to spin his back-side seven.  He came around to a perfect landing but finger tipped the handle and lost it.  This put him in second place, his first podium in a Pro event.
I’m proud of my students and it’s a feather in my cap that they have done so well.
      
In the meantime, as I finished the clinic on Wednesday night, I remain boatless facing a fully booked summer.  Skier’s Choice (manufacturer of Supra and Moomba Boats), my sponsor since ’96 was doing everything they could to find a replacement .  Fortunately, Chattanooga is only two hours from Skiers Choice in Maryville, TN. so I packed up Thursday morning and headed that way in hopes of getting a boat to continue the tour as scheduled.  It’s one thing to be a pro athlete and to have endorsements that you promote, but you truly find out the depth of your relationship in circumstances like this. 

I arrived Thursday at approx noon with the knowledge that I had to be in Shreveport, Louisiana Friday afternoon to set up for clinics Saturday morning.  Even with the financial challenges of this year, the Powers-that-Be took the bull by the horns.  Within 24 hours, a boat and trailer were prepped and ready to go, even though no settlement had been determined from the insurance.  Another factor that can’t be overlooked is the Powers-that-Be at Boatmate trailers.  Without hesitation, they replaced an axle and two tires to keep me on the road. 

Another contributing factor was Monster Towers providing board racks to the loner boat.

It really amazed me how fast we all pulled it together as a team. I left Maryville on Friday evening at 5 p.m. on route to LA. I drove until midnight and made it just short of Jackson MS. After juggling a few students, I rolled in at about noon to start the afternoon session. I ran clinics on Lake Bistaneau for the remainder of Saturday and continued Sunday and Monday. This has always been one of my best stops. It was a little challenging this year though with Midway Marine selling their dealership to Bayou Outdoors. They helped as much as they could with the clinic but mostly I set up private clinics with my former students from the area. We did have a few that were interested in purchasing a boat and I got them in contact with Chad at Bayou Outdoors. They were extremely serious about getting a new boat and were impressed with my story on how well my companies stood behind me. They mentioned that’s what they were looking for in a boat company. Someone that they knew would be there for them if they had problems with their new boat.

I packed up from Shreveport on Tuesday morning after a long afternoon of clinics Monday night. Next stop was Boat and RV World in Guthrie, OK. They are 30 minutes outside of OKC. They are also the new owners of MAWI cable park. Owners, Shorty and Jackie Rogers, put out the red carpet as they always do.  We parked the bus at the cable park with full hook-ups for the Bus.  They had three full days booked on Lake Liberty, a secluded, protected lake that provided ideal conditions daily.  Some of you may not know that I had both my ACL’s replaced recently-the left knee in November and the right in January.  I was just released to ride two days before the tour started.  After not being able to ride for six months, this stop was the first time I really felt good on the water and was able to rock my exhibition.

       On June 5th, my son Chad and my girlfriend Geanie Zinda joined me in Oklahoma City.  Chad will be with me for two months, helping out with the tour.  Geanie is a licensed massage therapist with 15 years experience in sports and deep tissue massage.  She worked on several of my students this spring.  Her table is on board and she will be available throughout the tour.  We are currently enroute to Pueblo, Colorado for clinics starting Monday, June 8th.

Once again I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Brad, Rick, Matt, Owen, Jerry, Josh and Tony for keeping this tour alive. I am indebted to you all and will do my best to help us all flourish again.

Until next time,
Briscoe