INTERVIEW | JIM SEDGWICK |

26 Nov INTERVIEW | JIM SEDGWICK

Posted at 16:45h in Wakeboarders by alizee

Jim Sedgwick is from Liquid Leisure cable park. He has been working at the UK park for six years and riding for 15 years. Jim started as a boat rider because there were no cables where he used to live. Now his passion is riding wakeparks and hitting rails. His favorite spots are: Liquid Leisure, CWC, Thai Wake Park and Wakebeach 257. He works a lot in the summer and then travels to ride in the winter.

text & photos : Maria Cuenca Nunez

Name: Jim Sedgwick

Age: 34

Town: London

Stance: Goofy

Homespot: Liquid Leisure

Sponsors: Slingshot, Ride Engine, Woosports, LKI

Likes: Riding with his friends

Hates: Cold water!

What can you tell us about Liquid Leisure?

Well a lot has changed since I first started at Liquid Leisure 6 years ago. When I started there were only 6 UNIT features…. Now there are 22! Well I think so…I lost count! We are in our 4th year of Plastic Playground this year which is set to be the biggest and best one so far with a prize pot of nearly $50,000 up for grabs. It’s going to be epic!

We know that you are an important team member at Liquid Leisure, How long have you been working there and what is your position?

I first walked in the doors at Liquid Leisure six years ago asking for a job as a cable operator and Stu turned me away saying he didn’t need any staff. Luckily two weeks later he called me up and now I am the general manager.

What are your main job roles at Liquid Leisure?

I basically do anything and everything that needs to be done but my main passion is keeping the wake park fresh and coming up with new ideas for the layout. I also build all the UNIT rails when they get dropped off (with help from the guys from UNIT of course), the most challenging being the 2 MEGAPOOLS. I also spend a lot of time maintaining the cable.

Besides work you have been around the wakeboard industry a long time, how long have you been riding and how has the sport changed?

I started boat riding up in my home town of Lancaster when I was 17 (I am now 34) thanks to my friend Kent James. I was riding boat for around five years before I even tried cable. I then decided to start riding cable every weekend at my nearest cable park which was two hours away, Sheffield Cable Waterski. Eventually I moved down south and started working at Boxend Park as an operator and boat driver and after that I moved on to Liquid Leisure. Features in wakeboarding have become a much bigger part of wake boarding over the years compared to the days when we used to hit canoes behind a boat. These days there are insane setups that people have come up with and with the development in two tower cables the possibilities are endless!

Thanks Jim, is there anything else you would like to add?

Yes I would just like to thank my sponsors: SlingshotUK, RidengineUK, WaxthatUK, Woosports. And also big respect to all the riders out there pushing the limits of what is actually possible in the world of wakeboarding and I’m super happy to be a part of it.