Red Bull Night Riders: May 2008 Archives

Check out some Postcards From Nantucket...and don't forget to take a peek at the Ultra-Super-Fantastic-Mega Red Bull Night School gallery while you're at it.

Story By EXPN.com's Jon Coen

Several of the best aerialists from North Carolina to Massachusetts stepped off the gangway leading to a cobblestone street, lined with charming storefronts and blossoming cherry trees. The surfers may have looked out of place among Nantucket's old-money crowd with pink collars and tiny dogs (some in strollers), but this was actually the perfect destination. They were met in the parking lot, and shuttled off to a remote beach on the south side of the Island. There they found a tow-at surfer’s paradise—a pair of isolated cedar-shaked houses, a beach with four Red Bull jet-skis just waiting to be launched, and the kind of solitude to master the art of towing without disrupting another surfer for miles.

We had a crazy weekend here in Nantucket as Red Bull Night School keeps on keepin' on. The last weekend before all the tourists come starting Memorial day. The boys ripped it up on land and sea. The ocean was the playground during the day and The Chicken Box was the playground at night. There was a bit of business though. The business of getting some air and not letting the relentless winds get the boys down.  Funny how you look out at windblown crap and finally motivate to go out to only find you definitely come in with a smile. The crew made the best of it. Mike Paugh and Adam Coates from Zapstix Surf Shop made it out do some Victory at Sea towing and killed it. Raven Lundy and Lucas made the journey back south and Andrew Gesler and Jamie Moran stepped in.

Check out the shots.

Today was the first day in the water after two days of 60 mph winds. Red Bull Night School is finally underway. There was a swell running and conditions got better...the wind dropped to 50 mph. After being cooped up in the house with a chef at our disposal it was nice to get out and work off a few of those meals. Raven Lundy and Lucas Rogers gave a quick clinic and the teams got to work. And for as windy as it was, everybody had one heck of a time.

Not enough time in the day for you to learn all there is to know about modern surfing dynamics? No worries, just go to night school…Red Bull Night School that is. Running in conjunction with the Red Bull Night Riders—an all-out, high-flying tow-at affair held under the lights and in the lineup in Atlantic City—the Night School is a three-week precursor held on lovely Nantucket Island. Amassing surfers from a pool of over 15 of New England’s most core surf shops, Red Bull Night School gives the local boys (and girls) a chance to pick up the tow-rope and soar with the best of them.

And while you may once have known a man from Nantucket who had certain, how shall we say, attributes, chances are he couldn’t whip into a wave at 30 mph and launch into space. But for those men (and women) in Nantucket attending Night School, they’ll have a chance to learn how to tow-at from the best of ‘em. East Coast pit bosses like Sam Hammer, Raven Lundy, and last year’s Night Rider champ Andrew Gesler will all be on hand, working as “educators,” living with and coaching the ardent surf shop employees.