Dan's The Man

Support UK snowboarder Dan Wakeham from Plymouth by visiting his blog http://danwakeham.blogspot.com/ and signing up to the UK Snowboarding team newsletter at http://www.snowsportgb.com/.

On January 9th he won 2nd place at the Airwaves Invitational Halfpipe Competition in Tignes, France, pocketing an impressive $5,000 in prize money in the process!

I interviewed a fresh faced (and already incredibly tall) Dan back in 2003 on my old site Stoked On Snowboarding when he was hammering the rails at Board X Winter Festival in London's Alexandra Palace.

Even then he was sponsored by Santa Cruz snowboards and maybe no-one should have been surprised when he turned up in the half-pipe the year Ross Powers won the Winter Olympics in Utah.

For those who missed it, here's that interview from 16 November 2003.

Dan Wakeham is six foot plus, has poster boy looks and despite boarding for 7 years, he only turned 22 a few days ago. You should hate him but the dude's got too much class. For the whole of Board-X he was hitting the rail park with style and by Sunday's informal 'Jib Jam' demo, he was earning hard cash for tricks on demand.

As I recall, he was the only guy to pull a 360 on the Rainbow rail. If Dan isn't Santa Cruz's only UK snowboarder (he skateboards too), he's certainly the only one from Plymouth. Stoked caught up with him at the end of Board-X to find out how he got on...

Why are you at Board-X?

I come to Board X every year. When they have events in England, it's good to show your face. It's not always the best riding. I don't always get on well with the jump but this year they've got some good rails.

What do you think of the new indoor Grind Rail Park?

The rail park was pretty cool. When I first got here, I wasn't quite sure how it was gonna be. The run out is pretty short. They could do with making that a little bit longer so you've got a chance to stop. Plus they've got a flat bar. You pretty much have to drop in and jump straight on to it. There's not much time to get ready.

I notice you like the Rainbow rail.

I rode the Rainbow a lot because the flat bar wasn't made up well. The jump was a little too small and the landing was really flat. I've got a bit of a weak knee so the flat landing would hurt. So I stuck to the Rainbow, it's nice and smooth. Plus if you stick to one thing, you're going to get good on it and learn some good tricks.

What's it like in the Jib Jam, when everybody's watching and the MCs are throwing in cash for tricks?

Sometimes I don't really feel like it but you start to relax and forget that the crowd are there. Then the guys with the microphones come along and they start flashing around money, so I found myself starting to run back up to the top so I can try and get some. I got a hundred quid for one trick and then I got forty quid for another. If I got paid like that for every trick I did, I'd probably make a lot of money (he he).

You've got some big sponsors. Is there any money in it?

Up to now, I haven't really been making money from snowboarding. It's cost me a lot. Occasionally you get the odd thing free - like free hotels and free travel. But I'm starting to progress now. I competed in some of the big American comps and beat some big names.

This year I'm gonna ride some World and European cup events. If I ride well, there more chance of walking into better sponsorship deals. I might be riding for Oakley for clothing and eye wear. And maybe look for some corporate sponsorship like Red Bull (Dan was drinking Red Bull all day long so they ought to sponsor him) or Orange mobile phones. They've got a lot of money to spend so I wanna be in there and get a bit of it.

When learning tricks, what's the best approach ?

With every trick, you have to be able to visualise yourself doing it. You can't just throw yourself at it because it doesn't work. If you can't see yourself doing it, chances are you probably won't be able to do it. I think about what I'm gonna do and just have a go at it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I have to unstrap my board and give it a rest for a while and maybe come back to it later. If I'm in the right mood, I feel like I can do just about anything. That's the best way to be but it's not always like that unfortunately.

What tricks are you working on at the moment?

In the half pipe, I'm working on a Rodeo 900. It's a pretty hard trick because there's a lot of spinning. It's all inverted. I'm quite a big guy as well so it's not like those little kids who can just spin a 900 a foot out of the half-pipe, I have to go quite a lot higher just to get my board around so many times.

Not many pros ride wear lids. What's your view on protection?

Some people say that wearing a helmet is a distraction but I don't find that it is. I go through phases. This season I was filming and really pushing it. I had two concussions and a knockout. I was riding one of the jumps in Mammoth, it was quite a big jump, I went too fast and cleared the landing. I landed clean on my feet but the impact of hitting the ground knocked me out cold. I was out for about 2 minutes. I got taken away in an ambulance and had to have a cat scan, so I started wearing a helmet after that.

How do you get over an accident like that?

You've got to expect an accident here and there. I haven't had any real bad accidents to date, touch wood. I know some people who have broken their back. For them to come back is really hard. But like a broken bone or something, it's not really that big a deal.

Besides snowboarding, what else do you do?

I do a lot of skateboarding in the summer. We built a ramp down in Plymouth. We spent a lot of time down there just skating, having barbeques and enjoying the heatwave that we had.