It was a cold, wet and wintry weekend! Yes it was the opening round of the 2010 JSRA Winter Championships…and of course, we were there in our thermals to take in the action!!

The winter months on the JSRA calendar are set-aside for beginners enthusiastic to dip their toes into the world of competitive Jetsport riding. Whether it be Freestyle or Racing, all get the chance show their prowess to an audience eager to witness future British champions in the making!!

For some it comes naturally, for others they have to work hard at it, but the one ingredient all future champions are full of is desire. And let me tell you competing in the winter championships requires a lot of desire.

Over 250 riders gathered from all over the World and Pete Burgess was there to bring us the action.

Photos: Warren Brown

The Scenario: Britain was suffering its worst weather for 30 years, A number of roads were impassable, the kids were off school because the Health and Safety faction said it was just too treacherous to let them attend, and a number of airports had been closed through the sheer amount of snow that had fell on the runways – oh and of course the temperature itself had not been above freezing for nearly two weeks!!!

Our predicament: Would Manchester Airport remain open? Could we get there without being snowed in? Was Virgin flight VS075 going to be affected by circumstances outside our control? Do you pack board shorts, a steamer or both!

We needn’t have worried – the ground staff at Manchester had done a superb job and whilst security has been stepped up big style on transatlantic flights we were soon sitting on the plane watching it being busily de-iced ready for an on-time take off at 10:30am.

The weather had been watched with interest, as although we have visited Florida a number of times now, we’d never been to Daytona, nor had Florida suffered such extremes of cold in living memory of a lot of its residents.

Up to then we had been glued to the central heating or gas fire thinking if you wanted to go jetskiing you’d need to break a layer of ice as thick as a house-brick before you could actually launch. One eye was on the Internet checking for the temperatures over the pond. Oh dear – New York same as us, as was most of the US East coast with Florida suffering from frost and sub zero temperatures at night as well. This was not looking good. However American attention on the weather is even greater than ours, and all their forecasts showed a marked upward trend (thank God). This was born out in fact when on arrival at Orlando International airport a rush of warm air met us on the jetway into the terminal.

Not all plain sailing though. We got into the country (along with fellow Brit skier Warren Brown and his partner Lindsay who were there on holiday), but mine and Ant’s suitcase remained in Manchester. The wife wasn’t bothered hers was there. Ant wasn’t bothered – his wet-gear bag and helmet had arrived too! My question therefore was would the wife’s underwear stretch that far -  hmmm?? We were promised it would arrive the next day and would be sent directly to us to where we were staying in Daytona. The promise was kept and I only had to “go commando” for one day.