2019 Thai Airways Jet Ski World Cup

Jettribe Official Gear Sponsor

Jettribe, Freedom Motorsports and the country of Thailand know how to host a world class event! The Thai Airways Jet Ski World Cup is the largest of its kind and the most prestigious in the world. There is no other jet ski event on planet earth that is at this level. With over $400,000 in prize money, the very best of the best show up to battle it out. And what a spectacular show they put on!  It was by far the best of everything from the quality, marketing, and advertising. From Bangkok to Pattaya there were signs and billboards along the freeway promoting the event. It was super cool to see my friend Mark Gomez's picture doing a Ski back-flip. I was told that Thailand had made over 20,000 street signs, not to include all the posters and fliers that were located everywhere else.  Here is how my 2019 ultimate adventure started:

The 26 hour journey started on the busiest travel day of the year. We left Los Angeles on Sunday the weekend after Thanksgiving. LAX airport was completely packed, and news media vans were stacked at the arrivals curbside filming stories on holiday travel. I could tell our shuttle bus driver lived for this day. He was definitely a good one, playing techno music and bouncing around in his seat singing, and at the same time honking his horn and waving his hands around trying to catch the news media's attention. Our plane ride wasn’t too bad other than the babies crying the entire time. I swear my mom requested to have my seat next to them every time we fly.

Losing a full day due to the time zone was strange and takes a little adjustment. We landed in Bangkok totally jet lagged, thou not knowing we would be wide eyed soon. We grabbed a taxi for our 2 hour trip to Pattaya City. Our cab driver Sam filled his little mini van to the ceiling with all our gear. As we left the airport we noticed instantly the mass chaos.  First they drive on the opposite side of the road and second, no one drives in their lanes. Sam was definitely not the safest driver. We at least had 4 near misses with big trucks. For some reason Sam liked to tailgate inches off semi trucks going over 60 mph. I think my dad's jet lag wore off real fast. Meanwhile my mom was a little delirious and had the nonstop giggles. She was thinking dad will never say anything about her driving again.

I was totally surprised by the size of Pattaya City. I was imagining something like Lake Havasu, a little quiet jet ski town, but boy was I ever wrong! More like San Francisco on steroids. Mass people everywhere, tall buildings, narrow streets, cars and scooters zumming in every direction. Their power lines and poles are something to see too.

We stayed at the D'Varee Jomtien Beach Hotel which felt like a 5 star hotel. Staff and accommodations were outstanding. The hotel has 2 large pools and sits directly across from the beach launch ramp. This was super cool because many of the racers would be tuning their skis there. You could hear who had big motors and turbos. I really enjoyed hearing the echos of motors bouncing off the walls and ally ways. It was like hearing Lamborghinis revving their motors.

The race site was about 2 miles north, so we took a toot-toot truck/cab ride back and forth. It costed only about 26 cents each way. It was super fun and I met a lot of nice people on the rides.  I ran into an old friend from BJ’s Performance, Jason Schriner.  He was in town to help support another pro rider who would be racing that Saturday & Sunday. Jason knew the lay of the land, as he himself had raced here and won the Kings Cup 10 years prior. Since Team Freedom Motorsports was working extra hours at their shop trying to get skis ready for the weekend pro races, Jason decided to help us out for Thursday and Friday. I was sharing the ski with another Jettribe Team Rider Ben Morris, so there was a lot of work between our motos. Luckily between Jason and Ben's dad we were able to make it happen. 

One of the funniest and craziest things I did was ride on the back of Jason’s scooter while searching the city for a few jet ski parts. He can definitely hang with the locals by the way they drive. I started filming  the ride but that ended quickly as I needed a hand to hold on. By the end of the night we had custom ski bars and were ready to rock by morning.

The race site was nothing like I have ever seen with our sport. It reminded me more like a very well organized super cross event. Team Freedom Motorsports provided us an amazing pit with a great location, as we were only about 75 yards from tech. The pits stretched at least 1/4 mile in each direction and we even had lights and outlets in our canopy.

I raced on Thursday & Friday and ended up 6th overall. Saturday I got to relax and watch some epic racing and freestyle from the stands. This is by far the best place to watch. With 2 ginormous film cameras and drone cameras, I could watch the races on the 3 stories tall big screen. When the racing was on the back portion of the track I could look up and watch the HD screen. It was so clear I could see the water drops on the lens.

My family and I got together with Jason to go check out all the cool features this city had. We ended up going to a place called the Floating Market. It was this giant market that was built on a murky pond. This place was completely made out of wood, and it stood inches from the water. It was a tourist's dream, and it had all kinds of exotic foods. These are foods I’ve never even seen before, and some of them looked good but I didn’t try anything. My parents on the other hand had gotten hungry and wanted to try something new, and they ended up seeing this “chicken kabob.” To me it didn’t look very good, so I decided to pass on that, which was better than the alternative. My parents ended up feeling sick after eating it (my dad says it was not chicken). They also had all these little trinkets and souvenirs. They had a bit of everything there. After we did all of that, Jason took us to this night market, and this place was absolutely INSANE. It was this massive compound with a million different little stores. They had absolutely everything you could think of, from giant paintings to little accessories. We spent hours looking through all of the mini stores. It was pretty cool, and one of my favorite parts of the trip. 

I’m so grateful to Jettribe and Freedom Motorsports Thailand for giving me this opportunity. It was a trip I will never take for granted or forget! Thank You!!!!!!!!