Jake Bright was happy to loan out his brand new Krash Industries Predator for those willing to take it out in to the surf.

This past weekend was the annual Pismo Spring Break Freeride in Pismo Beach, California. There was an awesome turnout this year with lots of new and familiar faces showing up to get in on the action.

We were fairly blessed this year with predominately good weather and more importantly, some pretty good waves; a constant break of overhead-to-occasional double overhead nasty Pismo-style close outs. Which is great for Pismo!

The best waves are always early in the morning, then it gets blown out and you’re left with big lumpy washing machine-style monsters. So the action kicks off early in the AM. You’re awoken by skis firing up and people cheering the riders from the beach.

The waves were claiming victims all weekend this year, with several sunken skis. One ski was lost for 22 hours and another is still missing. These skis were being piloted by seasoned pros, which should give you an idea of just how heavy it was.

Our good friends (right to left) Takaaki Murao, Tomoya Kashiwazaki and Koji Nakano also made it down again from Japan (along with Mark Gomez); those guys love the Pismo Freerides and come down every year for it!

Ross Champion and the Champion Timepieces freeride team made a big appearance, with Ross showing why he’s the boss.

Friday morning kicked off the event. The waves were pumping and the weather was hot! The Blowsion crew made it down to this year and with them they brought a whole fleet of beautiful Blowsion boats, among them was a brand new Blowsion-built Krash Industries JB1 brought down to be united with its happy new owner! Along with them was Dane Dials, the one-legged bandit Pete McAfee, and the legend “Air” Darin Anderson!

Also making it down to support the freeride and their riders was Liquid Militia who brought a ton of swag out for the weekend, pimping out everyone on the beach with their dope apparel; they also hosted a big pizza dinner Saturday night, along with TC Freeride, Krash Industries, Burn Industries and Karacters 4 Kids where they were giving out free pizza to everyone at the freeride!

Everybody’s favorite Alaskan, Tanner Thomas also made the trip down to get in on the fun as well as Taylor Curtis and the rest of the TC Freeride team. Kyle Kennedy was also there representing DASA and helping out all his team riders as well as Carl Gramberg of Cold-Fusion. My pops and I were also holding it down for Krash and Burn Industries with the Burn rig!

Austin Lewis showed us all how he could shred on his square nose SuperJet.

Randy Lawlor (and brother Brandon) made the trek down to Pismo and showed how to properly air out a TC Freeride-built Rickter.

On Saturday, the waves were a bit more mellow and everyone was able to get into the water and have some fun. This was a great time for some of the amateur riders to push their riding. Joey Morneault almost nailed his first flip, Valerio Antonucci had a few good attempts at flips, river rat Jake Biland landed his first flip, and Filippo Rossetti was launching some of his first legit barrel rolls along with countless other riders who were out there sending it!

This also was a great time for riders to test out new skis, I had people testing my new Krash Industries Predator with nothing but good responses from beginner level riders to pros level riders; proving its superior ride ability.

Sunday brought in some of the biggest waves of the weekend. Before I had even woken up, skis were already lost and the pandemonium was in full effect! When I made it on the water, it took about 5 minutes before I was towing a guy back to his ski in the middle of the gnarly break!

Darin Anderson and Dane Dials are seen here with their Blowsion-built boats with Jordan Fielder and Andrew of Blowsion helping them out on the beach.

The fully-dressed pirate is none other than the one-legged freerider Pete McAfee, who doesn’t let his missing limb slow him down one bit.

All the best riders were out on the back set sending it! Jerry Jones made it out and was throwing massive point back barrel rolls, which was super cool because Jerry hasn’t made it to Pismo in years! The Lawlor brothers, Randy and Brandon were throwing down with there relentless style, always a good time on the water with those nuts!

Some of the gnarliest airs of the weekend had to of gone to Darin Anderson, that dude is so gnarly! I have ridden with Darin in the past and even competed against him, but I’ve never been to a freeride with him and was blown away at how insane he is. Darin was chasing down double over head monsters in the back and would come at these things pinned from the middle break and absolutely launch off the lip right as it would be closing out! The dude’s a madman and it was super fun to watch!

Ross Champion was absolutely killing it as usual but it never gets old watching his flawless no handed flips and madonnas.

I had a blast out there with everyone and want to thank all of you who made it out and helped celebrate the spirit of freeride!

Randy Laine was on the back shagging big waves all weekend as well, showing off his big wave surf skills and getting deep in the waves! There were so many good riders it was awesome, the skill level is really escalating with all the riders and at all times there was someone in the waves putting on a show for the crowd.

Its always a good time with the freeride family because whenever someone is in need of a helping hand on or off the water, there’s always another freerider whose got your back. You may not even know them yet but they’ve got your back because that’s what freeriders do! If you haven’t made it out to a freeride yet and are thinking about coming but don’t know anyone, don’t be shy. You will be welcomed with open arms and you will leave with a bunch of awesome new friends and memories!

Photography provided by Jack Bright, Mark Fischer and Travis Valtierra.