We Just completed the 3,200 mile road trip across the US bringing the new Montara Surf Boss 2.0 home. What a mission and a fun time with my boy Asher as he joined me for this long journey and was an amazing co-driver helping me with maps, finding the cheapest gas station and posting stories about the journey on Instagram for Surf n’ Foil Tahoe. Actual drive time ended up somewhere around 56 hours, but that includes fueling, food and restroom stops.
Just last week we were in Costa Rica for our friends wedding which was beautiful and for some down time as a family. We are a family that loves surfing, hence bringing wakesurfing to the mountains for Surf n’ Foil Tahoe. We had about 4 foot waves the whole time and some real fun waves right out front from where we were staying in Avellanas. The river mouth was working great with rights and lefts on the low tide and the beachies were working good on mid to high tide. We also checked out Playa Negra, which was a reeling right, but local crowd there was a little heavy. Such a great time of surfing and absorbing some moist tropical air. Really gets us excited for an awesome summer here in Tahoe. While in Costa, I was having dinner with a friend of ours that owns an excavation company here in Truckee, Ruppert Inc. I was telling him about my upcoming road trip from Nashville Tennessee and renting a u-haul to tow back the Surf Boss 2.0 back to Truckee, CA. He then tells me he has a truck in Michigan he needs to get to California and I should use it to tow the new boat back. “Hmmm, interesting”, I’m thinking. But that is a long way from Tennessee, which is already a long drive. But, not renting a gutless u-haul sounds pretty tempting. So I start researching how long a drive it is from Grand Rapids to Loudon, Tennessee. Just a measly 9.5 hour drive and extra 700 miles and some change. He gets on the horn with the dealer to see if they can deliver the Truck to Grand Rapids airport. Before you know it I have our flights changed to arrive at MIDNIGHT to grab the new truck.
Knowing I am going to have a beast of a drive through the night to be able to keep my appointment to pick up the boat at 11am in Tennessee, I forced myself to get 3 hours of sleep on the plane ride to Grand Rapids from Costa Rica. With all the documentation and insurances dialed for the new truck and boat on my phone, Asher and I grab this 6.7 liter truck at12:30am and start our drive south. The Truck is a 1 ton dually and on the back roads of Michigan we bounced around pretty good especially with no weight on the back. Making a good push through the lush green hills of the North East parts of the states I was grateful for maps on my phone that warns my every turn. I am dumbfounded as I reminisce on how we used to have to map our routes before hand and study maps to find our way. So simple and stress free now, even if you make a wrong turn, your trip is quickly re-routed.
We rolled into the Montara, Loudon, Tennessee factory at 11:30 am. The crew was graciously welcoming as they took time out of their very busy day to show us the factory, production and the NEW BOAT! It was awesome to meet the hard working team that I could tell cared so much about their work and craftsmanship. The boats are proof of this pride and detailed care. They stocked us up on swag and made sure the new boat was dialed for the long journey. As we traded high fives and hooked up the boat, we were now ready to tackle the 2,500 miles left.
The trip quickly lengthened as we had to add 2 hour re-route with a major backup due to some road construction in the area. Asher and I started taking videos of each boarder crossing from state to state as we traveled and posted them to our @surf_n_foil_tahoe instagram page and stored them in the highlights. We marveled at the cool old cities we passed that we had never seen before as they just had so much character and style. Asher really got excited seeing the big sky scrapers, which made me realize the mountain people that we are and how we really haven’t exposed our kids to big cities. I decided at 10 pm that was enough driving the our first day, racking up about 16 hours of drive time. We grabbed a last minute hotel to freshen up and get some much needed zzz’s. This would be the last good amount of sleep for the rest of the trip.
We had just finished crossing the beautiful green states of Tennessee and Kentucky, now starting our second day in a rainstorm in Indiana. We quickly were in Missouri and enjoyed the impressive sights of St Louis and Kansas City. The massive old brick buildings and ginormous stadium stood out to us as well as the extremely wide rivers with very long barges at work. So many bridges everywhere we looked with new ones under construction. I will say the massive dips and holes in the road had me nervous about the trailer and boat. So many sleepy armadillos on the side of the road was a sight to see. Very surprised by the amount of deer laid out along the road the whole way back as well. As we entered into Nebraska it was time to rest after another 16 hour travel day. This night the heavy plastic wrapped Montara Surf Boss 2.0 would be a bed and shelter for the night in a Walmart parking lot. The running semi-trucks next to us would drown out the freeway noise and provided an amazing night of sleep. I traveled with a sleeping bag and 2 pads all the way to Costa Rica and back just for this moment on the boat. Temps were extremely nice and comfortable and it was definitely the fanciest tent I ever slept in.
6am was our go time for this 3rd day of travel. The east side of Nebraska would be a starting point as the cornfields grew and the hills disappeared. Up 30 ft, down 30 ft as we moved along at 65 mph. We welcomed the new sights of Wyoming as the Mountain desert scenes came in. A totally different kind of beauty that made us appreciate the variety of landscapes the U.S. possesses. One very exciting part of Wyoming is the many firework stores along the way. So thankful for what a trooper my 10 year old boy was being, I decided to spoil him with a big bag of fireworks for an explosive good time over the water at some point this summer. Of course he had to blow up a couple soda cans as soon as we got home.
I was grateful for the 600hp as cruise control never felt any elevation changes the whole way. The truck didn’t even notice the 40+ mph head winds that would quickly pick up and fight us the whole way across Nebraska and Wyoming. It was no big deal for the travel other than costing us 2 miles per gallon and starting to reek havoc on our heavy plastic wrap that was protecting the boat from dirt, rain, bugs and rocks. At one of the many gas stations we visited we bought some duck tape and razor blade to make a last effort to save the wrap as the bow was starting to shred, the string had snapped that the pulled the bottom tight and the all round light on the tower was now poking through. Our tape job lasted about another 400 miles and as we passed Park City, Utah I reminisced with Asher about the many contest and training camps I had in Park City. World cups, Swatch boardercrosses, US team water ramp shenanigans, and photos shoots over 14 year period were a yearly occurrence. We made it to the Salt flats rest stop when it was finally time to open our big present and remove the protective plastic wrap. We took some time to walk the phenomenon of the salt flats and were easily amused at the salt built up on the bottom of our shoes as we walked across it. The sun was setting over the impressive Wild Horse mountain range as we unwrapped the beautiful new Surf Boss 2.0 Montara. I did notice a some screw that had come loose from I’m sure the massive bumps we had hit along the way and hours of vibration. Gratefully nothing major though. What an exciting moment to see the tool and vessel that would be our host for this coming summer with Surf n’ Foil Tahoe. The stoke was running high as we hopped back in the truck for our remaining 7 hour journey. We put back on the stereo our 16 hour book “Legend of the Guardians” with hopes to finish is before the night grew too long. Asher would fall asleep about 10 pm and miss the last 2.5 hours of the book.
Around 2am the sunflower seeds become clutch part of keeping my eyes open and my brain alert. Despite my swollen cheeks from the 30 hours of desolating sunflower seeds, I figured the pain in my cheeks 
would also help keep me awake. So hard trying to decide between sleeping for a few hours and rolling back into town just before my 9am deacon meeting or just power through the last 130 miles and getting a nice 4 hours in my nice soft bed next to my wife. I accessed my alertness and the ability of salty sunflower seeds to finish the journey and sent it! I watched as the bumpy roads and stiff suspension of the truck bounced my sons head like it was on a trampoline, though he had no recollection of that happening thankfully. 4am didn’t come soon enough as backed up the new Montara into it’s new home exhausted after a 24 hour pull of driving across Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and finishing in Truckee, CA. We did it, praise the Lord! And that 4 hours of sleep felt soooo good!
