Jason
Polakow
Nickname:
Tonio
Country:
Australia
Current place of residence:
Australia
Sail No:
Ka 1111
DOB:
1971-10-11
Sponsors:
NeilPryde, JP-Australia, www.redbull.com, Oxbow
Disciplines:
Wave
Website:
http://www.jp-australia.com
http://www.jasonpolakow.com
Rider
Interview
| Q. | What are your plans for the next year? |
| A. | To create surf / windsurf movies for the web and search for the biggest waves on the planet to ride. |
| Q. | When did you realize windsurfing would become your life? |
| A. | After my first Grand Slam in 1989 - Japan. I was 18 years old and I got a wild card into the event and came 3rd place. |
| Q. | What something outside of windsurfing are you interested in? |
| A. | I love to tow surf big waves and snow board. I also love to ride super cross on a moto bike. |
| Q. | What's the best thing about your lifestyle/sport? |
| A. | I get paid to do what I love. |
| Q. | What does it mean to you to be a TeamPryde rider? |
| A. | I love Pryde, as they are always the innovators in our sport whether it comes to design or the latest trends / graphics. They are the Formula 1 of Windsurfing. Everyone wants to be a part of that. |
| Q. | What do you want more than anything? |
| A. | My immigration papers to arrive. Ha ha.. No really, I have everything I want. I want small things nowadays like the surf to get really huge or to have Jaws break super massive or to get a 20-foot barrel with my friends. |
| Q. | Describe your best water experience. |
| A. | It would have to be tow surfing huge waves in the morning with my best friends and then windsurfing the same wave in the afternoon with my best friends. That's it for sure! I just had that experience at Jaws this year during the winter in Hawaii. The tow surfing was crowded as it always is nowadays but the windsurfing was just a small group of friends catching huge clean glassy waves. |
| Q. | What have been your Career highlights so far? |
| A. | I have had many 1st places in the Hawaiian events that have been very rewarding over the years. Riding Jaws for the first time was a career highlight for sure. Also traveling to different spots around the world looking for the perfect wave. Places like Australia, Fiji, Tahiti and Cape Verde Islands have been great. |
| Q. | Do you have a funny/weird story from the tour? |
| A. | I remember one year I was on my way to Europe for an event with my trainer Scott Sanchez. We were in LA and a bit late for our connecting flight. We accidently boarded a flight that was going to Hong Kong instead of London. I don't know how we got passed all the security checks but we did some how. I sat in my seat and started to fall asleep. After they had closed the doors to the plane the Captain made an announcement about the details of the trip. I just caught some of what he was saying and thought that's not right. Mean while Scott was still trying to work out why someone was in his seat. I ran down to him and explained that we might be on the wrong plane. As it turned out we were. I think if this happened nowadays there would be airport police and we would have probably been interrogated for suspicion of some sort of terrorist activity. |
| Q. | Who or what inspires you? |
| A. | I don't have any one person in windsurfing that inspires me. I am inspired when I watch who ever is charging on any given day. Other individuals in other sports inspire me like Kelly Slater in Surfing and Ryan Dungy and Ricky Carmicheal in motocross. |
Photos
