Fort Fremont & Westrock Trip Recap

From August 5th through 9th, thirteen riders and leaders joined JSAW for a wakeboard trip. This trip was planned to offer a variety of wake experiences; from a wakeboard tournament at Fort Fremont Marine in central Wisconsin, to an opportunity to ride at Westrock wakepark in Rockford, Illinois. Riders were also put

in a position to be a light unto others in the wakeboard community throughout the trip by serving others. 

To start off the trip, we went and stayed at a donor family’s cabin the night before the wakeboard tournament. It was a perfect, peaceful place for riders to spend time in the Lord’s presence with prayer, worship, and time in the word before the tournament day. Then we went to the wakeboard tournament the next morning. All riders who were physically able to wakeboard competed all day in the four divisions from novice to outlaw. Before each rider had their set, the whole group would gather around and pray for the rider and encourage them. One rider reflected,“This trip really strengthened my ability to pray out loud and for more people. At the contest we got to pray over all of our riders individually. This stood out among the other riders, at the end of the day the owner of Fort Fremont came up to us and thanked us for our prayers. I thought it was really cool because we did something that stood out and people appreciated what we were doing.” After a full day of riding with great runs all around, the JSAW crew had three podiums; Jacob Aldrich placed third in advanced, while Avery Ruegsegger and Charlie Kohl placed first and third in Outlaw. 

The following day brought new growth and experiences to many of the riders with us on the trip. With another peaceful morning at the cabin, seven riders chose to be baptized! This was a really special moment and we are so happy for those riders who chose to do so. The group also took turns learning to barefoot, with many of them getting up for the first time. It was a great morning to close out our time at the cabin, and from there our group drove to Rockford to ride the cable park. A solid part of our crew had never ridden cable before, so it was a great learning experience and warm up for the coming days. 

The rest of the trip went by in a blur. We had a full day of riding the cable again and connecting with local riders. A lot of progression happened with multiple riders learning their first flips on a wakeboard. It was really cool to see how encouraging the riders in our group were both towards our riders and others. On our last day of the trip, we had an awesome opportunity to volunteer with an organization called Above the Wake. This organization focuses on getting kids with cognitive delays out on the water to go wakeboarding. It was really cool to see our riders humble themselves to serve these kids. A few riders got to talk to these kids about Jesus too!

Throughout the trip, our riders continually humbled themselves to serve others. Even when they were on top of the podium, they still went out of their way to pray and encourage those around them. With Above the Wake, riders who were learning and progressing took time to serve, offering kids with cognitive delays the chance to get on the water and experience something new.

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