Travel Recap by Jettribe Team Rider Wyland Reden

Jettribe 2021 Texas WaterX Sulphur Springs State Championship

In July my family and I went to the town of Sulphur Springs, which is located roughly two hours outside of Dallas, Texas. We had a very early flight to get there, but the good thing was it gave us all day to tour around the town. We drove through Dallas and thought it looked a lot like San Diego, except there was no beach. The road to our destination was absolutely beautiful. It was full of green land for miles. The land was super flat, and there were no mountains or hills. Roughly halfway through the drive we pulled into a place called Buc-ees. This is a large gas station, which was like a mixture of Target and Costco. It was massive, and it had everything from Texas there. From gator skin purses to the coolest home décor. After getting lost at Buc-ees we got back on to the road to our hotel.

About 30 mins later we started to see amazing houses, ones that were tucked away in the trees with tons of property. We finally rolled into the little town and found our hotel the Clarion Pointe. It was built out of brick and looked very pretty. When we got inside we set our belongings down and fell asleep on the spot. About two hours later we showered and got ready for dinner. We went to a very good Italian place called Romas, and we all went to bed with full bellies. On Friday, we met up with a couple of guys to test a few skis that I could have raced. I spent most of the day at Lake Sulphur Springs. It was a very big lake, we could barely see the other side. In the evening we headed over to the race site and met up with the Jettribe team. I met a bunch of people there, and all of them treated me as if they have known me my whole life. Texas people are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Jettribe was hosting a time trial event for local businesses. I got assigned to a team of four, we ended up placing 2nd out of a bunch of teams. My girlfriend even joined the girl’s team and participated in the event, though she got thrown from the ski a couple of times!

Moving on to Saturday, we got up and went to the race site. A lot of people had arrived the day before, it was starting to look like a real race. The lake was pretty small, but it had an amazing buoy course. We all went out to practice and I started to feel very confident about the ski and track. I was sharing a ski with one of the locals (Brian Snyder) and to my surprise, he had his throttle on the opposite side. I have seen many throttle modifications, but nothing like this. So every time we had to ride the ski, we switched the throttle. My first race went very well, I had an amazing start and won the race after battling for it with one of the locals. In the second race, I raced one of the new 2021 Superjets, and won that too! I also took 1st in both Motos after, even though I was having a very hard time riding the ski.

That night we ate at a nice country club restaurant with the owners of Jettribe. The restaurant was located right next to a pond and was very beautiful. The following day we did some handling changes on the Superjet I was racing and it made it much better. I first raced the Kawasaki 1500 and I dominated that class much like I did the previous day. On the Superjet I was holding first until the ski completely ran out of gas and had to get towed in. The next time I raced I jumped the band, meaning I went before the start band had snapped. It shot back at me and left a piercing red mark which is now a big bruise. At the end of the day we played a couple of games while we waited for the awards. In the end I got 1st overall for both classes I was racing, and my buddy Brian, whose Kawasaki I raced, also got 1st overall. Definitely a winning ski!

At the end of the day I had made a ton of new friends that I hope to see again. The experience was priceless! I would definitely do it all over again if I could. I learned that reaching out to people can be an effective way of making some new friends. I encourage other racers to travel and take an adventure to travel to other races. It is truly worth it!

Photo Credit Brandy Fraley Fine Design