Fifteen-year-old Jake Lienhoop spends hours in the blistering cold with frozen toes, barely being able to move his pinkies.
His body is forced to endure hard impacts of hitting his leg on rails. One time, he even thought he suffered a concussion, despite wearing a helmet, when he slipped back on a rail, slamming his head on the hard packed snow when snowboarding.
Along his shins are bumps and a scar which formed over time from his skateboard repeatedly smacking the front of his legs.
The Columbus East freshman said these bumps and bruises are all a part of the process of becoming a good snowboarder and skateboarder.
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“It’s like a payoff,” Lienhoop said. “You keep on trying a trick. You keep failing, and you get hurt, but the real success is when you make that trick and then you get paid for it.”
Lienhoop is not actually getting paid for any of his tricks just yet, but plans to participate in both snowboarding and skateboarding competitions when he feels his skills are proficient enough to compete. He has been snowboarding for almost seven years and now is able to do flips after practicing six hours every Sunday during the winter at Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg.
The Rodeo and a backflip are two snowboarding moves that are on Lienhoop’s wish list, but he said learning new tricks comes with progression through time. Lienhoop is able to skateboard year-round, so he has been able to get in more skateboarding practice lately.
Lienhoop’s latest skateboarding trick is landing the 360 flip where the skateboard does a 360 and a flip. He is planning on working toward a 540 on a half pipe and the mic twist on the half pipe.
Lienhoop has been skateboarding since he could remember and will be looking to move to a place that will accompany both his skateboarding and snowboarding interests. Utah and California are his top two choices once he is done with school.
“California is a good mix because they have good snow there, and they have the streets of San Francisco or Los Angeles because of skateboarding,” Lienhoop said. “The mix of the two tie together so well.”
Lienhoop was interested in the more conventional team sports like basketball but lost interest after getting cut from the seventh-grade team. He did not like the pressure of making a mistake and having the team put it all on him. In skateboarding and snowboarding, he is able to do his own thing, and the only expectations on him are the ones he puts on himself, he said.
He has placed some pretty high goals for himself for later on in both sports. Lienhoop would love a chance to compete in the S.O.S skateboarding competition, which is the biggest in the world.
The three snowboarding competitions that intrigue Lienhoop are the big air, folk style and rail grind. Big air is when snowboarders try to get the biggest amount of air to do the biggest and most elaborate tricks. Folk style is a mix of rail grinding and big air. Lienhoop said he is excited about competing in the rail grinding and folk style but has his concerns about the big air.
“Big air is massive, massive amounts of air,” Lienhoop said. “People break their back and stuff on that, so it’s kind of scary.”
The competitions are a bit more down the line. Right now Liehnhoop is still working on landing new tricks and will take the bumps and bruises that come with them.
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Name: Jake Lienhoop
Age: 15
Grade: Freshman
High School: Columbus East
Primary sports: Skateboarding, snowboarding
Secondary sport: Lacrosse
Most recent skateboarding trick: 360 flips
Most recent snowboarding trick: Flips
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