“I’m not a wuss anymore,” Jake the wakeboarder said about how he got to be ranked third in Canada last year.
He’s 12 years old now and Prince George’s Jake Birkhiem said he did a lot of growing up and got a lot braver last year so he could learn the skills he needs to represent Prince George during the BC Summer Games July 21 to 24.
“My brother and parents encouraged me to try a heel-side wake-to-wake last year,” Jake said.
And that was what brought him up to rank No. 3 in the country.
“That’s the first big trick that most people learn.”
His parents run Ness Lake Watersports and the family lives on the lake year round.
In case you're wondering, Jake rides left-foot forward.
The towed water sport competition set for the BC Summer Games takes place on his home turf – home water – Ness Lake. And he knows that will be an advantage.
His big breakthrough took place last year when the family took him to a watersport camp at Sproat Lake near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island.
“I was just doing my thing and the coaches asked me if I wanted to try the wake-to-wake fully and so they showed me how to do it and I landed it on the first day,” Jake said.
“It’s super impressive that he learned that trick,” Dad Tom Birkhiem said. “The year before he was just riding recreationally and then last summer he decided that he wanted to do as good at this as he could and he got us to get him out on the water one or two times every day in the summer and he worked really hard at it. At that same camp what he did that was really amazing was he was able to do that wake-to-wake heel-side jump but at the same camp he accomplished the same thing going the other way which is toe-side, and that’s much more difficult. All the coaches and other athletes in that camp were really impressed with that.”
Mom Stacey said Jake came back from that camp a different rider.
“Some of the coaches were competing nationally so Jake got that natural push from being out in the boat with all these really good riders,” Stacey explained.
Jake came back from that camp with an intensity his parents hadn’t seen before, Dad Tom added.
“My main goal is to go out of country to a different comp – maybe US or even Worlds,” Jake said.
“He definitely has the drive,” Stacey said. The family recently returned from a week on Kalamalka Lake to get Jake out on the water a little earlier than Prince George weather allowed.
“The water was ice cold and his hands would just be bright red but he was still out there working his butt off,” Stacey said.
Jake has been named to the BC Development Team this year because he podiumed at both the Provincials and the Nationals last year. So Jake is on the wakeboarder-to-watch radar. He gets a BC uniform and he can attend special training camps, too, that have a competition after each one.
Jake is too young to be on Team BC right now so the development team is where he’s at until he turns 14, Tom explained.
“The wakeboard world in BC is pretty excited because they’ve got some strong competitors coming up,” Stacey said.
During a competition, which is a judged event, there are no compulsory tricks. Three judges can watch riders doing the same trick and see things like who goes higher or farther outside of the wake to determine scores, Tom explained.
“During your first run you do a trick to warm up basically and then the next runs are your harder tricks,” Jake explained in his super-chill way.
Stacey said she’s never seen competitors in a sport come together to offer advice and encouragement like she’s seen in wakeboarding. Teams even lend other teams their gear - so supportive.
“It’s an incredible group of competitors – the whole community is just amazing,” Stacey added.
The most difficult trick Jake will attempt is the heel-side wake-to-wake 180 but he's learning something new.
Right now Jake is trying to land a back roll.
“It’s like a backwards cartwheel off the wake,” Jake said.
“What do you get to do it you land it?” Stacey asked Jake.
“I get to shave off one of my Dad’s eyebrows,” the still super-chill Jake said.
Dad Tom shows off his arms. There are noticeable sections of hair missing off his forearm.
Interesting incentive package for the athlete.
“I made him a deal that with every big new trick he learns he gets to shave off a stripe on my arm,” Tom smiled. There’s currently two and Jake is owed another two. The missing eyebrow will sure make a statement and we all know it's going to happen.
Jake wants to encourage people to try a towed watersports and invites people to sign up for a summer camp that his parents offer through their business Ness Lake Watersports.
“It’s best to bring more people to the sport,” Jake said, who offers encouragement to new riders when they attend the summer camps. “Who knows maybe in the future it could become as big as basketball or volleyball or baseball or soccer.”
