Bringing home gold: World-class kayaker falls in love with Rock Island
|
Why, kayaking of course. And what does world-class kayaking have to do with Rock Island? According to resident Eric Jackson, currently the world’s top freestyle kayaker, Rock Island happens to be one of the best-kept secrets in the sport. Jackson said he wound up here thanks to local resident Clay Wright who happens to be an avid kayaker.
In fact, Wright lives on Pine Bluff Road in Rock Island and is one of the top kayakers in the world, having been on the U.S. team at one point.
“There was this incredible play spot,” said Jackson, referring to a video of Wright kayaking. “There was this incredible wave, sun shining on it, beautiful waterfall in the background, and I was like, that place is cool. But he kept it a secret. Nobody knew where it was. Eventually I pinned Clay down and asked him about it and found out where it was.”
Jackson came to Rock Island in 1996 for the first time and fell in love with the place.
“It was everything that I imagined it would be,” Jackson said. “It was literally one of the best kayaking play spots in the country.”
Eventually Jackson and his family bought land and settled down here, though he and his family travel for a good portion of the year to various competitions, including the International Freestyle Championships in Australia last week where Eric took first place and the gold medal.
Kayaking, as many might know, originated with the Inuit tribe, more commonly known as Eskimos. They used kayaks made from natural materials, unlike the high-tech competition kayaks of today.
“They started with seal skin, whale-bone to make kayaks that they used for hunting seals,” Jackson said. “The reason that it was unique was just the concept that if they got capsized they could roll themselves back up. In the frigid Arctic waters to survive they had to be able to do that. In fact that’s called the Eskimo roll.”
Eventually, the unusual boats made their way south and inland, and around the world.
“People found you could paddle a kayak a lot faster than a canoe,” Jackson said. “So they were used in lakes and rivers in lots of places in North America.”
Kayaking got its start as a sport in 1949 with the first slalom races, which, oddly enough, was invented in England.
“That really put white-water kayaking on the map,” Jackson said. “It’s evolved a lot since then. But unfortunately, in 1949 they made a rule that all kayaks had to be four meters long, which is 13 ft. 2 in.”
For a long time kayak design stagnated because of this rule.
“It was right around 1992 that slalom racers stopped being the boat designers,” Jackson said, “and recreational kayakers became the boat designers for kayak companies. So we stopped making them after slalom boats and we started making them a lot shorter. The kayak from 1990 to 2000 evolved dramatically from 13 feet down to an average of seven feet.”
Jackson, who worked for a kayak company called Wavesport at the time, had some design ideas of his own developed from his involvement in competition. Eventually, Jackson, along with design partner David Knight, came up with a design which became a major hit for the company and is still being produced.
But when Wavesport was purchased by a large corporation, Jackson and Knight, along with business partner Tony Lunt, a fellow kayaker from Arizona, decided to start their own company and Jackson Kayak was born, with production facilities right here in Warren County in a building located in Rock Island.
Jackson and wife, Kristine, have two children, Emily, 13, and Dane, 10, and though he said he was reluctant at first to bring them into the sport, they eventually came to it on their own. Now Emily is ranked No. 2 in the world in the women’s junior division, and Dane is ranked No. 7 in men’s junior division.
“My son is obsessed with kayaking,” Jackson said. “With my daughter, it took her a while to really warm up, but this year she got bitten by the bug. She got second in her first major international competition, which is unbelievable. It’s very exciting.”
Perhaps not so surprising, when your dad is No. 1 in the world. For more information on Jackson Kayaks, visit them on the Web at wwwl.jacksonkayak.com where you can order his high-tech boats and kayak instruction videos.