PWC – the term encompasses what is, to some, a sport; to others, a hobby or recreational outlet; and to still others, a livelihood – but to most, PWC denotes even more than that – it is part of a lifestyle and an attitude, and one that sticks with you.
For some – the interest in all things jet ski can easily cross boundaries – rec riders become racers, and many racers spend just as much time goofing around on non race-related on-the-water excursions as they do waiting for the band to snap. Businessmen become racers, and jet ski fishers become powersport entrepreneurs – the crossovers are many.
But today, in perusing the PWC newsfeeds, we at The Watercraft Journal came across one that we haven’t before – at least not recently.
Jeremy “Jez” Crook was a British novice jet ski champion in the 1980s – and like many, that early involvement didn’t end when the race ended. Crook started working in the hire department for Jet Ski UK at the age of 21 in 1985 and won the Novice Jet Ski Championship in 1986. In 1990 he set up the spare parts distribution for Jet Ski UK in and in the same year won the UK Jet Ski Freestyle Championships.
Today, Jez Crook is the managing director of UK’s Line One Distributors, founded in Gloucestershire, England in the 1970s and billed as the largest source of PWC spare parts & accessories in Europe for both the trade and retail customers (including RIVA Racing inventory, to boot!)
But as impressive as those accomplishments are, that’s not what caught WCJ’s attention; instead it was Crook’s recent Big Adventure – literally. Well, kind of. The adventurer is actually not Jeremy “Jez” Crook – it’s Jeremy The Jet Ski – the main character in Crook’s first children’s book, “Jeremy The Jet Ski – An Awfully Big Adventure.”
Published by Austin Macauley Publishers and illustrated by Crook’s son, Freddie, the book is aimed at 3 to 5-year-olds and features characters based on real people from Crook’s life who share his love of adventure.
As detailed in a recent article in the Gloucestershire Standard, “The book is based on an idea Jez first had 25 years ago while babysitting for his nephews and nieces. As an adventurer and a former British novice jet ski champion in the 1980s, his tales of mischief and daring deeds kept his young audience captivated for hours.”
Freddie Crook, a talented artist in his own right who grew up hearing of those stories of his father’s experiences piloting jet skis on the Cotswold lakes and along coastlines across the world for 40 years, created the illustrations based on the initial work of one of his father’s old friends – conceptual artist Tim Rochfort.
Crook told Standard reporter Kate Jones, “I’ve worked with jet skis all my working life, hiring them out, racing and supplying spare parts across the world. Finally getting Jeremy The Jet Ski into print would not only surprise my old teachers, but also working with Freddie on the book has been one of my proudest achievements.”
“Jeremy The Jet Ski” is available from Austin Macauley Publishers and Amazon as well as bookshops, including Octavia’s Bookshelf, LoveReading4Kids, Waterstones, and WHSmith.
