Jobe / Jstar wakeboard rider Sjors van de Kerkhof got in touch with water sports at the age of twelve. Since then, he never left the water. Sjors became addicted to water sports and is a professional wakeboard rider for many years now.
Recently, Jobe had a photo shoot with Sjors van de Kerkhof for the new Jobe catalogue. Jobe grapped this opportunity to conduct an interview with him, and of course we did not want to withhold you of the results.
So enjoy……
Jobe: Hi Sjors, tell us a little bit about the Wakeboard rider Sjord van de Kerkhof, so the people who don’t know you, have an idea who they are dealing with.
Hi! Well, my name is Sjors van de Kerkhof and I live in Utrecht. I´m 29 years old and I started waterskiing since I was 12 years old. I think I rode my first wakeboard at the age of 16 and since then I never touched my trickski and slalomski anymore. I learned waterkiing on a cable system and this is still where my heart is. I did some boatriding as well but I like the fact that you can go to the cable and that there is always somebody to ride with.
Jobe: How is life going, anything special happened lately?
Life has been really good. This year the new cableway at Nieuwegein opend it´s doors, called 'Down Under'. I started working on this cable the 1st of April. First we had to build the cable and the first laps were made a view weeks later. Working in a company that just opened up is a lot of work so it has been hard to get a lot of time on the water but I made up for that last week. I was in France with the Protest team to do a photoshoot. We stayed at the TNG cablepark near Toulouse and I got to ride the whole week. Sick riding and sick pictures.
Jobe: Nice job men! I know it is a bit of a standard boring question but I still want to know how long have you been riding and how did you start out?
Like I told before I started when I was 12. There was a cable being build only 200 meter from my parents house so I just HAD to try it. I got hooked and never stopped riding since....
Jobe: Can you even remember your first time on a wakeboard?
Yeah I do. I was used to ride a trickski and I was able to do raleys, flips and S-bands on that. The first time on a wakeboard
I used an 143 cm long board with 2.5" fins so it felt really heavy and weird to carry this true the air. I managed to land an S-band though during my first tries!
Jobe: Do you break more boards on a rail or going big?
I think it's the combination of both. Just going big doesn't break boards and on just hitting rails you don't break too many board either. Breaking the rail of your board on a rail and then do some big airs will kill your board for sure after a while....
Jobe: A couple of years ago we could watch you on the famous dutch music net TMF, tell us about that!
Yeah this was a pretty cool thing. The production company made the plan to film a bunch of wakeboarders on a road trip. I happend to be one of them. We had a mobile home , a trick and a boat with us and we drove to France and Spain to chill and ride. It was very cool to hang out with some good friends and everything was payed for! Sometimes it can be weird to have a camera following you the whole day so we asked if one of our good friends could come as a camera man and this made it al a bit more natural. It was a great time and the funny thing is that some people still recognise us even though it's been 5 year ago.
Jobe: I loved to watch the program, it really showed how wakeboard riders live their live! You suffered a couple of injuries right..How did that happened?
Yeah I had some troubles with my body. I dislocated both of my shoulders a couple of times. It happened during crashes and due to some bad luck. It can be really hard to sit on the side and see all your friends ride but this motivates me to work ou hard and be back a.s.a.p.
Jobe: That's the right attitude! For how long you had problems with this injury?
I think it costed me about 4 seasons in total. But the good thing is, as soon as you are riding again it's all forgotten!
Jobe: What is the best contest you ever entered?
Definitly the Protest Cable Call in Nieuwegein (Netherlands)! The atmosphere was really great. Other cool comps have been the FISE in France which is a rail contest and the T-Mobile playgrounds. I didn't made it to the main event in this last comp but the professional setup was amazing.
Jobe: How does a normal day in your life look like?
During the summer season here in The Netherlands I wake up pretty early, go to the cable. Do the daily maintanance of the cable then I go for a ride and I'll finish the work that has to be done.
In wintertime it's different. When I'm at home I do some training like running and working out. When I'm going to warmer places it's the best: I just wake up whenever I feel like, then ride the whole day and in the evening we just chill!
Jobe: The good life ;) What is your current set-up?
Vanity 141 with Deluxe boot
Jobe: Pick one, and tell us why:
Boat or cable
Cable! You can ride all day and hit obstacles.
Night or morning
Morning. I am the best in the morning
Fast food or healthy food
Healthy of course! Bit sometimes a huge Big Mac really nice as well!!!
Alcohol or soda
Alcohol.... You really want me to explain why?
Jobe: Thanks for the interview Sjors, do you want something to add?
Thanks for the interview and thanks to all my sponsors: Jobe, J-star, Dragon, Teva and Protest
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