Motor Action Media interviews top contender and talented Jet Ski racer, Stian Schjetlein. We talk training, his life away from home, and his love of Jetskis.
Motor Action Media: Stian, I understand that you have been involved in Jet Ski Racing for quite a while! Did you ever imagine you would be where you are today? What have been your favorite accomplishments?
I started riding jetskis when I was 13 years old, but It was not until 2010 that I actually thought that I could ever be something within this sport. At that time, having the money and support to be able to put together a GP ski seemed out of reach to me, even though I was national champion in Ski Lite which was the biggest class in Scandinavia at the time. When I won the World Finals in Pro Am Ski Lite I realized that GP was not that far away and with a lot of effort I might be able to compete in that class some day.
My favorite accomplishment is definitely my podium finish in Pro Ski at the 2014 World Finals. Another favorite was winning the 2013 European Championship. The European Champion title was really special as me and fellow Norwegian and Coach, Ronny “Smurf” Mangerud had been battling it out in every single moto the entire season, both in the Norwegian Championship and the European Championship. After the races in Belgium and Portugal, we were tied in points going into the final round in England. After two motos in England we were still tied. This is why this win was so special to me.
MAM: You have been living in the United States for a while now, but you are originally from Norway. How has your time living here been? Why did you make the decision to spend time living here in America?
I have had a lot of fun living here in Lake Havasu City for the last couple of months, body beach has been treating me very nice.
When I for the first time “officially” met Chris Hagest at the 2014 World Finals I tried some of his handling products and gave him a lot of feedback on them. After a long talk he decided to offer me a job here in Lake Havasu as a test rider and products developer in Pro Watercraft Racing.
To me, this was a great opportunity to spend a otherwise snowy and freezing winter on the legendary warm body beach. So I went a couple of rounds with my sponsors at home as well as my employer and everybody were very positive to me going to the USA for a while. So, I grabbed the opportunity and bought a plane ticket.
MAM: While you have been living in the U.S. you have been racing here and abroad as well. How has the 2015 season been for you so far? What other plans do you have for this year?
The 2015 season has had a good and early start where I have attended three races already. The 2015 season so far has given me a lot of good feedback both on my equipment and my body. I was in Qatar for the first race of the Aquabike World Championship where I actually ran out of gas on the last lap in both motos. The gas we got there was burning way to dry for my setup and this cost me two positions moving down from 4th to 6th.
I have a long list of races to attend this year with more than 12 races total on the calendar. There will be a lot of traveling for me. I am used to doing 12-15 races a year, but not all around the globe. I usually do most of the races in Europe, but this year I will be going to exotic locations such as; China, Qatar, Dubai, Thailand, USA as well as a series of great locations within Europe; England, Italy, Norway, Croatia, etc.
MAM: I understand that you have an impressive educational background in fitness and training. How has your knowledge affected your approach to Jet Ski racing? Do you also mentor other racers?
I have a Bachelors degree in sports science. This has definitely had a huge impact on my jetski career and been a enormous factor to my success. I have been training and coaching young jetski riders in Norway and Sweden for many years now. In fact, before I went to the USA I worked at a high school for top athletes as a trainer, teacher and coach.
I have been working closely with Team Norway Jetski ever since I left the team a couple of years ago and have been training and coaching these riders on a day to day basis.
I am currently head coach of the newly founded Pro Watercraft Racing Team here in the USA.
MAM: You have been working closely with Chris Hagest of Pro Watercraft Racing since moving to the U.S. How has that experience been? What kind of projects have you worked on?
I have definitely learned a lot from Chris, he is very open for suggestions even though he has substantial knowledge about handling products on his own. We work very well together on developing new parts, evolving the current parts and taking the Pro Watercraft Racing brand to the next level.
We are also working on a new complete hull which will be unveiled at the 2015 World Finals. This is very exciting for me and I am learning a lot through this process. On the road to World Finals we will also release some new handling components for all currently existing hulls.
MAM: You are considered to be one of the best racers in the world at this time. In your opinion, what does it take to be a world-class rider? On the track? Off the track?
The most basic and most important thing is definitely to have fun and love what you are doing. If you are not doing it for yourself and the joy that you get out of it, you might as well quit right away and save the money and effort.
Dedication and respect are two important keywords for me. You have to be dedicated enough to put on your wetsuit while looking at the snow flakes falling outside the clubhouse, get in the water and put down some good laps while the hail is smashing against your goggles and it really hurts on your chin. You have to have respect for all the people behind you and everybody that supports you. Remember, your are barely putting in 50% of the effort, the ones behind you stand for the remaining 50%+. You have to respect their time and effort by giving it your all. They dont really want anything back from you, other than that you give it your all.
Introspection into your own life, training, riding, technique and choices is a very important tool to improve yourself in this sport since most jetski communities dont have coaches and trainer available.
MAM: You have obviously been extremely successful, even for someone so young. What other goals do you have for yourself in the future?
Thank you very much! I have a lot of goals left to achieve and the way I see it, my Pro rider career has just begun. There are so many things I want to do right now, but unfortunately I can only be in one place at a time.
I definitely want to pursue my racing career as far as possible, but I also enjoy my coaching career a lot and want to continue doing that and give something back to the sport, and especially juniors. I have been doing quite a lot of coaching of young jetski riders lately and we have had quite some success with these riders, so I definitely think this is a good direction for me and it is absolutely something I enjoy.
MAM: I understand that you also do a lot of the work to your Jet Skis yourself. How do you think that has helped you as a racer?
When I first started racing in classes with a lot of enhancement and aftermarket parts on the skis, we didn’t really know what we were doing, even though we had a good mechanic we had a lot of trouble. My first season on a Yamaha Superjet with a limited setup we blew a lot of cylinders and pistons and other stuff. However, all these engine failures taught me a lot about how the ski acts when something is wrong. I quickly learned how different symptoms of trouble effected the ski and I could soon come in to shore and tell my father and my mechanic exactly what was wrong before I even looked under the hood. I have only in the last couple of years actually done a lot of work to my skis myself. I do some of the assembly and most of the tuning on my skis, but my father is still doing most of the work.
MAM: What do you love most about Jet Ski racing?
There is a lot to love about jetski racing. The feeling when you rip through a turn perfectly and the ski just hooks up perfectly and you feel like everybody´s jaws just dropped. The close combat fights you can have going through a closed course in 60 mp/h bumping into each other without the big risk of injury. The feeling of rolling across the water line and tumbling like a drunk gymnast after you face planted at 60+ mp/h and then just getting back on your ski and ripping a couple more laps.
The jetski community is also one of the things that I love about this sport. The unity and helpfulness that you find in a jetski paddock is truly wonderful.
When somebody asks my parents why they put so much money into my jetski career they always ask how much time the other parents spend with their own kids. They get to travel around the world together with their kids and meet a lot of great friends through jetski racing.
MAM: Is there anyone you would like to thank?
First of all I must thank my father for always helping me with whatever I need. My brother for being so supportive and helpful with my career and competitions. My mom for keeping up with the three guys in the garage… My greatest sponsors: Jørgen Kielland & Mats Örtendahl whom are my uncle and a Swedish friend whom both have invested greatly in making sure that I have great equipment for racing in the Pro Ski and GP class. The rest of my sponsors and supporters including, but not limited to; Jettribe, Tech One Racing, Yamaha, Pro Watercraft Racing, Blowsion, Yamaha Bergen, Bilskadesenteret, ODI Grips, Spy Optics, Jettrim, GoPro, Skat Trak, IPD Graphics, VRAB, and also a big thanks to everybody in Hjellestad Jetski Klubb back in Norway!