Flow League Bios - Spring 2010


Summer Flow League Starts Thursday, June 17th 7:00 - 9:00pm

 

Spring League 2010: Team Bios

Team 1: KARATE KIDS

  1. Mikey Rijavek, captain of the Karate Kids, is the most creative rider of the bunch. Compete with authentic head bands, Mikey is the essence of the Karate Kid mantra. “Miyagi hate fighting” and so does Mikey. When deciding who would be captain the rest of the kids merely said, “Give it to Mikey, he’ll eat anything”, referring to the fierce competition of the Flow League. And eat it he did. He is reportedly from his mother’s womb and he IS the Toyota.
  2. Auggie Gatto is the mascot of the Karate Kids and may or may not be from LA. The team got its name because Joelle and Brooke think Auggie looks like the Karate Kid, and thus the team was born. As the number three rider, Auggie enjoys dance offs, fierce competition and plans to karate chop anyone standing in the way of total Flow League domination.
  3. Joelle Goforth is a San Diego native who started to flow during the winter of 2008. It was there she started riding with Mikey and Auggie and since then, they’ve become close friends. Joelle is one of our more advanced female riders and shreds the gnar like nobody’s business. She recently took the gold medal in the BIA Bodyboarding Competition at Wave House San Diego, and absolutely crushed the competition in her division.
  4. Brooke Inman is originally from Rochester, New York and is proud to be the number four rider for the Karate Kids. She and Joelle used to live together and are now close buds. She enjoys full wetsuits, the color green and beating other beginner riders with sticks. Brooke is proud of the progress she has made this season and lives by the Karate Kid Mantra: “Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything”.

Team 2: FLOW FISH

  1. Eric Silverman has vowed to make anything I say in this bio true. As a result of this bold and unwise proclamation, Eric Silverman enjoys dressing up like small woodland creatures and riding the wave. When you see him dressed as a chipmunk mid whirly bird, you know why. 
  2. Bob Puetz, level two rider for the Flow Fish, is a team vet dating back to the days when the Flow Fish had Neubie. He enjoys riding with celebrities and civilians alike, likes his Strawberry Fields Forever Salad sans strawberries and is more likely to eat tofurky than bacon. He forces his employees to ride the wave, never heeds his 45 second time limit and has been known to ask fellow female co workers for a hair tie.
  3. Don Swadley owns his own lighting company and can therefore schedule as much wave riding time as he wants. He loves to wake and snowboard, but his true love, as his girlfriend of 7 years will attest, is his sand buggy. He builds and drives his own in the dunes of Glamis and Gordon’s and has been known to exceed speeds of 100mph. One little known fact Don doesn’t think strange is that he has lived on the SAME street for his entire life - yup - bought the house across the street from his mom in his early 20s and has lived there ever since.
  4. Rob Ziemer is perhaps the most concentrated member of the Flow Fish, determination in his eyes each time he sets board on the wave. He has a borderline unhealthy love of the color orange and works pretty much all the time...minus three 45 second stints each Tuesday. Take a vacation Rob.

Team 3: Flow Avengers

  1. Brandon Stevens grew up on the central coast in Arroyo Grande (where?) and enjoys hiking, flowboarding, cliff jumping, Bmx riding and jumping off of high things. He holds the title as 2009 ALT Games champion and plans to keep it come May. In sum, he’s unathletic and lazy - sucks for the Avengers...He also likes pink speedos and glitter.
  2. Amy Luis is a trauma nurse at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest. She loves to play soccer, cliff jump, surf, hike and is an ‘aggressive water-slider’. She adores her crazy Mexico street dog Mikah and is always dressed to impress on the BMax. She is the number 3 rider on the Flow Avengers and usually rocks her famous flip on her third ride of the night. We hear she’s dating the number one rider - they may or may not own matching, sparkly caps. 
  3. Thomas Amarante is the mascot for the University of San Diego, as proof by his Torero head seen floating in the BMax. He learned to ride by getting credit to take a class at Wave House and says Laz is his BMax guru. He enjoys the color orange (hang out with Rob Z), Yogi Bear and BooBoo, and won a facebook contest by saying he could live the rest of his life with only a flowboard, a burrito and some duct tape...and who couldn’t?
  4. Lisa Szymkowicz is from Connecticut and graduated from U Mass in 2008. She got cold soon thereafter and moved to sunny San Diego a year and a half ago. She started working for Wave Loch in February, which is how she became an Avenger, and she’s holds it down daily as the only lady in the Loch office. She loves traveling, the Yankees and kart-wheeling. She taught us all why running on wave deck is frowned upon with a banana peel spill last week, and says, “If first pumping is wrong, I don’t wanna be right”.

Team 4: Team Four

  1. Jon Akers drives a mini cooper and only drinks Crown. His voice is often compared to Charlie on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (though no one in Flow League seems to have ever watched this show) and his best trick is a head stand on the lip of BMax. He is shockingly observant, enjoys speedos and his favorite super hero is, not surprisingly, the Hulk. He is sober every Flow League.
  2. Johnny Leal is indeed from somewhere but no one seems to know where. He has been riding the wave since before God created the earth and he enjoys alcohol as his beverage of choice. He vehemently despises all of his teammates and does not enjoy color of any kind, shade or texture. When asked what his favorite food was, he merely said, “I don’t eat.”
  3. Tyler Nichols is currently cleansing and couldn’t be reached for comment. His cloud of sobriety upset his fellow teammates and they refuse to acknowledge his presence until said cleanse comes to an end. Sorry Tyler. 
  4. Chris Cox is a level four rider and GM of all Wave House restaurants. He enjoys picking out napkin patterns for his upcoming nuptials, moonlit walks on the beach, poking people on facebook and wet willies. He is much happier when wearing cowboy boots and will surely take a shot of Jack when wearing them.  

Team 5: Flow Mob

  1. James Hodges is a 31 year old San Diego local. As a bartender and former Wave House supervisor, he is an extreme sports aficionado. Having lived in Mammoth for 5 years, he loves snowboarding and can’t get enough of the color green. His favorite foods on earth are BBQ and candy but clearly notes that he does not necessarily enjoy them together. His favorite band is Bad Religion and he has been known to compete in FlowJam competitions against teammate Nate Church.
  2. Keith Porter is a Seattle native involved in music production and the DJ industry. He is the self proclaimed “King of BBQ” and likes to flow because it uses his energy in a positive way. He’s happy to help people improve their flow skills and is excited to improve his own.
  3. Nate Church has been with Wave Loch for nearly two years as the Materials Manager. He is originally from Ohio (Go Buckeyes!), loves motorcycles and soaking in the sun. His easy going, fun loving exterior hides his masterful marshall art skills, including a 3rd degree black belt in Shotokan Karate and a 2nd degree black belt in Ju Jitsu. He lives in San Diego with his wife and says that the intention of the Flow Mob name was to “intimidate competition and look good doing it...just like the mob.” That being said, they will only accept the 1st place position come league end, or else consider the entire season a failure.
  4. Caleb is a Nor Cal native who prides himself on his punctuality. He enjoys working at Wave House and riding BMax with the best fellow employees on the planet (we gotta get this guy and Johnny Leal together). He's been riding for a little over four months and can't wait to show Silverman, Stevens and especially Durland how to really ride.

Team 6:aka Team Flow 20

  1. Tyler MacIntyre shreds as Team Flow 20’s number one rider. He works for the Wave House Athletic Club, has been riding for over 5 years and lives right down the street. He got interviewed for the ALT Games in 2009 and he currently attends the Art Institute of California. He has 92 friends on facebook, is a Taurus and is originally from Hidden Hills in Los Angeles.
  2. Vic Tenuto, rider number three for Team Flow 20, is originally from Kauai, Hawaii. He just recently moved to San Diego from Key West, Florida, where he spent the past seven years bar tending. He’s an avid snowboader and surfer, and has been shredding on BMax for just under a year. He is likely to be seen with a cone of mocha almond fudge in one hand and a burrito in the other. Without hesitation, he says Eric, Brandon and Tyler suck and that his pimp hand is strong. 
  3. Art Ruisenor is single and his number is 619 368-2773. He enjoys long walks to the bar, sunrises and sunsets in the same night and says that you should buy him a good shot of tequila if you want to get his attention. 
  4. Kevin enjoys cruises, tequila and taking the microphone away from people during karaoke. He mows pizza late night, longs to be a glass bottom boat driver in Cabo and is passionate about banana boats.

Team 7: Funky Town Monkey Riders

  1. Justin Welfeld jocks the neon range of the color spectrum, particularly favoring hot pink. He enjoys sand and dancing like no one is watching. He proudly leads his monkey friends in their funky town as the number one rider on the FTMR. One interesting fact is that he learned to flowboard less than one week before competing in and winning the ALT games.
  2. Ryan Rosas is a third generation San Diego native, born in Chula Vista on January 25, 1989. He enjoys long walks on the meandering sidewalks of Wave House and candle lit dinners at the green tables by the spa. Fat Tires are his beverage of choice, preferably in the spas alongside BMax, and, just in case you were wondering, he does indeed eat his veggies five times a day. He spends his time cracking both profound and inappropriate jokes with his fellow Monkey Riders and is proud to own the title of World’s Strongest Man two years in a row (2006 and 2007).
  3. Scott Novak, a Wave House Athletic Club employee, started out a regular rider until BMax became his life and he switched to goofy. He was born in Dallas, Texas, is pursuing sponsorships with Fanta and Chick-Fil-A, really likes facebook and wants a to get a Corgi. He wears orange trunks, comments every time the photog wears black, and may receive black trunks as a gift in the future.
  4. Jonathan Redmond is a security guard for Wave House and the number four rider for the FTMR. He enjoys shredding the dank on BMax, nachos and four leaf clovers (because they’re cute). A little known fact about Jonathan is that when he was young, he wanted to be a dancer. That dream has since changed to trapeze artist as he believes it to be the closest one can get to flying.

Team 8

  1. Trevor Rynberg is proud to be the number one rider for Team 8. At only 17 years old, he plays the drums for his school and his band, and is an avid surfer, skim boarder and snowboarder. His broke his leg last September skim boarding and had to take some time off for surgery and recovery. He’s back shredding now and was originally hired by Wave House as a Wave Desk Attendant.
  2. Bruce Meagher is a San Diego local and has been riding the wave for 5 years. He loves to travel, build boards of all kinds and is an avid snow, wake, kite and flowboarder. He considers himself a family man, is easygoing and adventurous and shot a 79 on the golf course last week!
  3. Laurie, or Team 8’s resident bomb shell as we like to call her, is stoked to be the number three rider. We don’t know much about her other than she looks darn good in a wetsuit and she’s too busy to check her email.
  4. James Silverman is a USD student and started flowboarding about 7 months ago. A Los Angeles native, he spends a good amount of time up there and only gets to ride about once a week. He says flowboarding is his newest hobby, but also enjoys going to the movies, working out and playing football and volleyball whenever he has the chance. Something few people know about him is that he often draws during class to pass the time. He says he’s no artist but we beg to differ.

Team 9

  1. Bryan Durland, a New York native, woke up one Friday morning and decided to move to San Diego. He arrived the following Monday and has absolutely no plans to leave. He is currently a lifeguard at Wave House, both for the pool and the waves, and is a South Park fanatic. He is an avid reader, always with a new book in hand, and his favorite color is green. 
  2. Zach Morey is a New Jersey native, and while refuses to name his muscles, hair gel is indeed a big part of his life. He has lived in San Diego for 3 years and is a junior at the University of San Diego. He has been coming to Wave House since he stepped off the plane and really enjoys the number 9 - fitting as he is on Team 9.
  3. Jenny Turner is a transplant from Seattle, WA, having only moved out here four months ago. That being said, she has been flowboarding for less than four months and couldn’t love it more. She also enjoys wakeboarding and snowboarding and has been doing both since the young age of 12. She’s stoked on strapped-in riding and feels she has graduated to the next level of the sport with flying colors. She is curious and excited to see how she improves from this Flow League to the next and so are we!
  4. Bill Casey is a San Diego transplant, originally from Milwaukee, WI. He has a Wheaten Terrier named Rand and has lived in Pacific Beach for the past four years. He rode the wave a few times last fall and has just recently really gotten into it. He is proud to be the number four rider for Team 9 and looks forward to improving his wave riding skills in the future.

Click here for Competition Format, League Rules and Skill Levels

For more info, contact Krista Glauner at 858-228-9326 or krista.glauner@wavehouse.com

Flow League Committee: Krista Glauner, Aaron Steele, Johnny Leal, Bob Puetz