by Steve Terry
Jake on the Westbeach Snowflex Tour "Halifax"
Jake first learnt to ski when he was 4 ½ years old, with a lesson at the Wycombe Summit, a Dendix dry slope. It wasn’t something he took to easily, in fact he hated his first lesson which only lasted 15 minutes or so.
With some encouragement we got him back, he then started to enjoy it, with the promise of a trip away to a mountain (some may call it blackmail) each week he improved very quickly. After a week trip to Italy he was carving, which surprised his instructors when he got back. He got a slot with the local race ski club, had a few races and was disqualified in every one, quite clearly Jake was never going to be a race skier.
The Flying Mushroom!!
After an evening during the summer at Wycombe, Jake saw a guy freestyle skiing (Mat Pieris) and watched in awe of him. We had a chat with Mat asking him if he would be interested in showing Jake the ropes, Jake started to attend the freestyle nights mixing with the boarders, Sam and Rebecca Cullum, Samantha Rogers, Rusty, Jim and crew, he still rides with most of them regularly at The Snow Centre, Hemel.
Jake started to compete as a freestyle skier, taking him around the country to compete and he was doing well at it, so well that at the age of 6 he picked up an equipment deal with Salomon. Unfortunately dropped at 7 (marketing restraints) Later in that year the Summit burnt down. We then started to head over to the Sno!zone at Milton Keynes, where after a short period of time gave him sponsorship and free riding. Still mixing with a lot of snowboarders Jake would strap into a board and have a play. Picking snowboarding up very quickly in 2007 Jake started to compete on a board and on skis.
Ripping at the Snow Centre, Hemel
Jake had an accident and cut his shin at the beginning of 2008, which stopped him from skiing. From then on the skis didn’t come back out!!
