Sport: December 2007 Archives
For UK wakeboaders Tom Watson, Lewis Cornwall, James Young and Lee Debuse their daily philosophy is one of total positivity and a sense of whatever it takes, I can do it. Each has a story that defines them – in some cases these are stories of pure imagination and creativity – in others the stories are of triumph over adversity – triumphs born of belief and single mindedness to stick at it even when it hurts. You've already heard Tom's incredible story, so time to introduce the rest of the crew.
Lee Debuse is a 19 year old with one of the biggest S-bends in the business. (That's like a big superman thing with a 360 spin to the most of us!). What many don’t know is that Lee has been a diabetic since the age of 7. He tells us ‘I’ve never let it stop me. I wasn’t a wakeboarder when I found out I was diabetic but I had this desire to express myself through this sport and as long as I keep on top of it with good self discipline and frequent check ups, I can continue to get out there and chase that big 7’.
Lewis Cornwall, for so long we knew him as Nick Davies’ crazy little friend. Well not anymore. Packing a huge amount of power into an atypically slight frame for a wakeboarder this boy is now writing his own history – already he has the 2007 Wake MK title to his name and 2008 brings great expectation. Lewis’s ‘double’ s-bends (Backflip with ... you're getting the picture!) and alround cable style are something to behold. Stepping out of the shadow of the current World Cable Champ is not easy but Lewis has the creative style and the determination to have done just that.
In recent weeks Lee, James and Lewis have been ripping it up at the London Boat Show at Earls Court. These 3 and the UK Wakeboard community as a whole are never ones to let the small issue of winter and sub zero temperatures get in the way when they want to ride. Especially when there's the opportunity to move the whole gig inside! Pulled by winches over sliders and ramps these guys have been getting their winter fix. A great idea and a real creative solution to the eternal enemy of the UK boarding community .. (the weather) .. and as Matt Crowhurst architect and executer of this recent Pool Gap venture simply put it, "build it and they will come."
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A few years back, Tom Watson was one of the UK’s hottest young wakeboarding properties, but then a horrific car crash left him in a coma fighting for his life for well over a month. Despite the psychological effects inherent to such a traumatic experience, he feels it only made him more determined to succeed in the sport. “I took it all for granted before that,” Tom says. “It’s definitely driven me to ride better than ever. After the crash, all I wanted to do was get back in the water.” He now bears the scars on his face and injury has left one arm weaker than the other. Understandably, then, he’s not quite at the same level as he was before, but there’s no doubt in his mind that he’ll get there eventually. He’s spent his life overcoming difficulties, both on the water and off it, so defying people’s expectations has become standard procedure. I asked him if choosing to pursue a career in wakeboarding upset a few people, particularly those close to him, if they were quick to advise him to seek out a ‘proper’ profession, a nine-to-five perhaps: “All the time. I’ve got it from everyone and everywhere, but I’ve slowly been proving them wrong. It never bothered me. I’m just not interested in doing anything other than this. It’s what I love most.”
On the water it’s the same thing: looking for ways to do what others don’t. On the subject of the 118, a trick he invented and then named after the ad campaign popular at the time (the moustached ‘athletes’), I wondered how you go about creating something new like that. Tom is pretty pragmatic about it. He believes it’s simply a case of seeing what everyone else is doing and then finding ways to elaborate on it, to take it to the next level, to contribute something to a sport he loves so dearly - and then having the determination to make it happen. And did he suffer some hard hits before nailing it? “Nah, I landed it first time.”
It’s this effortless style and confidence in his own ability to overcome everything he’s had to endure in recent times that convinces us that he’ll make it right to the very top of this hugely competitive sport. And it’s precisely why we want to be there to help him in any way we can.
Tom asked that we thank his parents for sticking by him, and also Dave Smith, his great friend who was driving the car in front that day, and who acted quickly on his feet to make sure Tom is still with us today. Amen to that.
More to follow on fellow new SUSO wakeboarders Lee Debuse, James Young and Lewis Cornwall.
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To all those yet to partake in a spot of cycling, even after our little call to action a few weeks back, what’s stopping you? Probably something like this, an extract we came across in Rapha's endlessly fascinating and visually stunning Rouleur Magazine:
“So, in front there was Tchmil, then there was Museeuw, then there was another guy from Gewiss in between, I think, then there was me and Baldato, riding two-up as hard as we could. I was puking up on the bike. And we came to the last sector and we caught Musseuw and the other guy, and came onto the Carrefour de l”Arbre, the last sector. There, I dropped the others, so I was second on the road - with the crowd and just going for it, that was the ultimate experience to be second on the road in the Paris-Roubaix, in shit weather, covered in shit.” SEAN YATES after finishing 5th in Paris-Roubaix ’94.
Still don’t fancy it?
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Apparently the American public knows nothing about Saturday’s big fight - the NY Times is yet to write a single word about it. Over here, though, people who usually don’t spare a thought for boxing - people like me - are falling over themselves in anticipation of what’s being billed as the biggest fight of all time. I wonder if it’s the Americans’ disinterest in boxing of late that’s made Floyd Mayweather the ever-so-slightly over confident man he is today. Outside the media glare, he’s like a young pup blind to his mother’s teet. Neglected at home, he then feasts on anyone who cares to listen (he took part in Dancing With The Stars for God’s sake), and in the international spotlight of this week’s fight, there’s been quite a few of those.
Ricky Hatton, on the other hand, is exhausted by media commitments and, quietly confident, the only concern coming from the Mancunian’s camp is that he might succumb to cuts to the face brought about by Mayweather’s rapier-like but brittle fists. Hatton’s career has left no stone unturned, though: many a time the potential repercussions of such facial injuries have been averted by great “cuts man” Mick Williamson. According to the opposition, Williamson will be much needed come Saturday night:
“How is the guy going to beat my nephew if he don’t even jab? You need a jab to get in, don’t you? Without a jab, how’s he even going to get close to my nephew? Tell him from me he needs to go buy one quick. Because Fight Night is going to be a f****** bloodbath, it’s going to be a Harlem massacre. He’s gonna need that plastic surgery again.” ROGER MAYWEATHER
Stirring stuff. Not only is Floyd the best fighter of all time - according to Floyd - but Roger, his uncle and trainer, is also the best trainer of all time - according to Roger. He and Floyd sound like a really decent pair of guys don’t they, the kind you could just hang out with and have a laugh with, shoot some pool, have a beer, talk about anything but them? They’re just so honest. And guess who the second best fighter of all time is according to that great bastion of reason, Roger? Why, that would be Floyd’s father, the very same man who once did time for dealing drugs. Roger himself served six months for hitting his grandchild. Again, nice guys.
Now I don’t wish to take anything away from Floyd Jnr’s success. As far as I can tell, he is universally recognised as the best pound for pound fighter in the world. He has the weaponry, the technology, the creative means. In terms of pure technical boxing ability, he’s better than Hatton. But even from where I’m standing, from afar, without any real understanding of these two prize fighters beyond this particular bout, you can sense in Mayweather’s somewhat comical show of bravado a whiff of insecurity, a seed of doubt that’s grown bigger with every jarring joust and proclamation of intent. So much so, it seems, that there can only be one winner come fight night, regardless of who takes home the belt. Where Mayweather is almost universally regarded as the best fighter, Hatton is universally loved as the dogged white fighter from northeastern most England who lets his fists - and his determination - do all the talking.
And armed with such things, the impossible becomes possible.
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The Champions Award is presented by The Sunday Times each year to a sports person or team operating outside the spotlight of mainstream sports. Column inches are few and far between. These are the sports people who go unnoticed but who are no less remarkable than those routinely filling both back and front pages, and arguably more determined.
The absence of those trappings of fame leave these athletes pure and single minded in the pursuit of their dreams, and, for water skier Nicole Arthur, 20, this year’s winner and a sponsored SUSO athlete, it was very much a case of following a dream. It was her grandfather, Ian Arthur, who introduced the sport to Scotland in 1952 and set up the Slamannan Ski Club in the Forth Valley where Nicole still trains today. Water skiing in a Scottish loch? Do you know how cold it gets up there? You need to be pretty stubborn and a little bit mad to get in that water every single day - perhaps why Scotland is hardly renowned for its water sports - but Nicole is both and more. Despite the need for thick rubber suits, despite her age, and despite the fact that the winter darkness up north means finding the time to train with her coach and father (who himself won 18 consecutive Scottish Championships in the 70s) after work a little difficult to say the least, Nicole has been on a rampage of late, winning slalom titles at the British Open Championship, the British Under-21 Championships and the European Under-21 Championships. Then, to cap it all, she won gold at the World Slalom Championships in Austria two months ago, seeing off more experienced rivals who grew up and learned in somewhat warmer and more hospitable climates around the world (!).
It’s in specialist sports such as these, where the rewards are far less monetary and often far more personal, that you find people with the most creative and determined attitudes. There seems to be more to overcome, and if you do make it, only a specific demographic gets to hear about it. That’s why SUSO works with and is constantly looking for people like Nicole; you just know these people are doing it for all the right reasons (refreshing given the ongoing debate about the health of football in this country and the half hearted displays of ‘passion’ at Wembley). Nicole is one such person, and the awards she’s earned are testament to all those years spent bobbing up and down in a half frozen loch.
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