N.P.G.A.

Ray and Katie looking excited....and Ray's awesome fire chief hat.

It was humid. It was steamy. It was greasy.

Devils Lake was not in prime shape. We went out anyways cause we're tough like that.

We had a nice ferry ride up in the morning and kept laughing at Ray for being so mystified with the ferry. It was like he just couldn't comprehend it. Super funny. Was also pretty funny watching him look absolutely horrified when we told him that he needed to eat deep fried cheese curds before he left wisco.

I really do love the midwest.

So we told RV we'd meet him up at the Dumpster Boulder to warm up. He had to "unload the chamber". As he started sprinting towards the bathrooms we decided to warm up on Pete's Pebble instead. We set everything up and started grabbing onto the greasy holds. I made a vain attempt at chalking up the topout holds but everything was full of super grease.

Ray and Katie traded goes until we spotted RV halfway up the 500 Ft. field. We called him back down and he begrudgingly turned around and started down the field.

He did the problem second or third go and really liked it. Ray and Katie both followed suit and Katie in particular was quite pleased. The sketchy topout provides a nice end to such a good problem.

Katie Sending

Sofie always smiles when she tries hard....always.

Next stop was at the Dumpster boulder. Everyone else set up pads and I ran up into the talus field above us. I had two missions.

1 - Go pee.
2 - Find rad boulders.

After quickly accomplishing my first mission I set out to the task at hand. The further i ventured up the better things looked and eventually I got to a point that looked like it had some potential. Most of it was in the woods but I can't wait to go back this fall once the leaves are gone.

I turned around and saw one of the coolest features I'd seen at the lake. It's hard to describe but look here.

Who knows, it could be a total heartbreaker. Not a great start hold sadly but it's a downright amazing feature. Very excited to head back that way with pads.

As I was coming down the talus I saw Katie topping out Dumpster Diving. Nice one to finish up and she was happy to have done a couple of new boulders. Sofie did all the moves on it but couldn't quite find the juice to link it.

We hauled a couple pads over to Half Dome next to see how that felt. In short, pretty damn horrible.

I've done the first move on it twice, once with Katie and another with Remo. Needless to say, it felt miles harder today. After maybe 30-40 tries I was able to get a good pause on the hold and am pretty confident I haven't lost that much ground on it. The holds had a mandatory brush on them after each go and conditions couldn't have been much worse.

All that said, I think I know what I have to do on it.

I have a goal. I have focus. I know what I need to do. Now I just have to execute.

RV and Ray helped me rule out any other sequences and I'm very excited about this one. I think it'll be a great addition to hard climbing at the lake.

After maybe an hour there we made our way back to the talus field for the long awaited Pad Golf rematch between RV and I. The last two matches were close but in the end I was able to pull them out with relative comfort.

This time round Ray was joining the fray as well. It proved to be a good match. Ray started out with the early lead and I quickly brought up the caboose. A bit of worry set in before things started to even themselves out.

By three throws in we were all within 10-20 feet of each other and it was coming down to the last throw at the steepest part of the course. I being the caboose, went first with possibly my best, and most clutch throw to date. I had a couple good rolls and our voices got more and more excited with each new bounce. When the dust settled I was in a very good lie with an easy throw to the trail.

Ray had the second throw and got a bit too much air under his pad. While it took a few good rolls it stopped relatively quickly in somewhat of a pit.

RV stepped up with both Ray and I warning him not to punt. Knowing the gravity of the situation his knees locked up, he started sweating bullets and began to shake uncontrollably.

He punted. While his throw wasn't bad, it sure wasn't good.

I'll let him and Ray argue over who got second and who got third. All we need to know is that I was the winner, once again.

It's with that story that I'm announcing that I'll be going Pro with the National Pad Golf Association. I feel that the future is much brighter for me in that arena and that I'll truly be able to push my personal limits with the N.P.G.A. They're a fine organization and I look forward to crushing all fools who think they can play with me.

My future is as bright as a Nite Lite.