Knoxify

In the val­ley of orange that we live in, there is much empha­sis on the time-honored tra­di­tion of foot­ball, bas­ket­ball, and other pop­u­lar sports.

In the midst of the orange blood that we all swim and live in, there is a large move­ment of young new sports that are emerg­ing on a gigan­tic plat­form that most of us (even I) ever thought possible.

Wake­board­ing in Knoxville is one of the fastest grow­ing sports to emerge in recent years. This barely 17-year-old sport has begun to grow at rapid rates here locally. With much of the action sports that sur­round us today, there is also a cul­ture that goes with it. Just as the pride of Ten­nessee Vols bleed orange to show faith, many of these wake­board­ers do the same through their daily lifestyles.

Alex Oliver, a 19-year film­maker, pro­ducer, club dancer, tar­get shooter, chim­panzee trainer, earth lover, and wake­boarder, is true exam­ple of where the pro­gres­sion of this sport is head­ing. Oliver pro­duced and directed a local wake­board film of Knoxville wake­board­ers that has not only received local acclaim, but also national awards.

As the tra­di­tion of hel­mets, pads, and jer­seys con­tin­ues there is a new breed of sport that is show­ing ded­i­ca­tion and growth with the young and old local rip­pers. I sat down with Oliver to find out why the pas­sion of this young film­maker is becom­ing one of the voices of young and old Knoxville, and who is the “Hatcherhoff”.

How old are you and where are you from?
18 and Knoxville, TN

What is the name of your movie?
South­ern Style

How many copies have you sold to date?
300 copies

What made you decide to get into film­ing and why did you choose wake­board­ing?
I’ve always been inter­ested in video and once we pur­chased our first boat and wake­board I decided to mix the two. My dad works at a local TV sta­tion, so as a Christ­mas present he had Car­son Hunt, a local video edi­tor, put together a wake­board video of us. We def­i­nitely weren’t good wake­board­ers at the time, but we felt so cool see­ing our­selves on screen that I knew I had to do some­thing sim­i­lar for the next sea­son. That moti­vated me to buy my own equip­ment, and once it arrived I found that I really loved wake­board­ing videog­ra­phy and it evolved into a pas­sion of mine.

What is your ver­ti­cal leap?
A foot? Haha! I don’t really know.

Why film­ing?
Because I’m nowhere close to being a pro wake­boarder! Haha! I love being cre­ative with video. To see peo­ple enjoy what I’ve pro­duced keeps me moti­vated to film.

What equip­ment do you use?
To avoid the tech­ni­cal jar­gon, two Sony high def­i­n­i­tion dig­i­tal video cam­eras and an iMac with Final Cut.

Tell us about the movie pre­mier?
South­ern Style pre­miered on August 15, 2007 at Barley’s Tap­room and Pizze­ria in down­town Knoxville. It was a great venue for a video pre­miere and we had an unbe­liev­able evening! There was a live remote for the pre­miere on “Live at Five” by WBIR-TV, which was a com­plete sur­prise and a great way to spread the word! By the time the video was ready to play, there was stand­ing room only. I couldn’t have asked for a bet­ter turnout and it just goes to show how great and sup­port­ive the KnoxWake scene truly is!

How did you choose the rid­ers?
Ini­tially, I remem­ber you (Ryan Jones) and I talk­ing about how many great, unex­posed wake­board­ers there are in Knoxville. I began by going to the Wakeshop at Amer­i­can Boat Cen­ter and Mis­sion Board­ing Com­pany at Over­board Water­sports to see if they would be inter­ested in spon­sor­ing the video. Both shops were were greatly sup­port­ive of the idea, and so we began to film with their team rid­ers. Then one day Daniel Walden, a pro rider, called me out of the blue to see if I could help him edit some video he was work­ing on. I offered to do it, so we started hang­ing out and have been great friends ever since. Then I went to the National Wake­board League tour­na­ment held on Fort Loudon Lake where I met Cor­rie Dyer, Phillip Aslinger, Drew Irons, Justin and Jor­dan Jenk­ins, and a bunch of other awe­some rid­ers who were totally down for being in the video. I then gave Jeff House a call and asked him if he would be inter­ested in rid­ing in the video. He was super eager to be a part of it and we soon caught up on Watts Bar to film. I couldn’t have asked for a bet­ter lineup for South­ern Style!

What did you want the movie to rep­re­sent?
The pur­pose of South­ern Style was to intro­duce all of the great wake­board­ers in the Knoxville area. We also wanted to show peo­ple that you don’t nec­es­sar­ily have to be in Orlando or Lake Pow­ell to have a good place to wake­board! But most impor­tantly, South­ern Style rep­re­sents how much fun it is to be a part of the KnoxWake community!

How do you think the level of Knoxville rid­ers com­pares to that of other areas?
I think Knoxville has some absolutely fan­tas­tic rid­ers and great poten­tial for upcom­ing tal­ent. East Ten­nessee is home to pros like Daniel Walden and Jeff House, and ris­ing tal­ent like Justin Jenk­ins, Philip Aslinger, and Cor­rie Dyer, just to name a few. There are so many beau­ti­ful lakes and water­ways in and around Knoxville that pro­vide a great oppor­tu­nity to get into wake­board­ing. Although Orlando, Florida is known as the “wake­board cap­i­tal of the world”, I think Knoxville rid­ers and the entire KnoxWake scene is truly mak­ing an impact on the sport.

Big Mac or Whop­per?
Big Mac

I heard that you filmed this from a float­ing fire truck, true or false?
True, luck­ily the alarm only went off twice. Haha! We did spend one week this sum­mer on a house­boat cour­tesy of Sequoyah marina on Nor­ris Lake. It was a great chance to hang out, ride, and film with all of the rid­ers. The house­boat was def­i­nitely a cru­cial ele­ment to South­ern Style. I think when I returned home I logged some­where around 20 hours of footage onto my computer!

You received some national response from sev­eral web­site, tell us about that?
Def­i­nitely! Most recently, Daniel Walden’s sec­tion from South­ern Style won 1st place in the action sports chan­nel on OurStage.com and Jeff House’s sec­tion took 2nd place! South­ern Style also received a great response on both KnoxWake.com and Wakeboarder.com.

How do you think Knoxville is grow­ing in wake­board­ing and why?
I think Knoxville wake­board­ing is grow­ing in great part due to KnoxWake.com, set up by Chris Moon. The site is a great place to meet new rid­ers, talk about events, get tip tricks, and more. Also rail jams like Bent Fork, Rail-O-Ween, the Rock and Rail Jam, and the weekly events at Wild Wings Cafe have really given wake­board­ing a ton of expo­sure in Knoxville. When peo­ple attend these
events, they see how much fun it is to be a part of the wake­board­ing com­mu­nity here in Knoxville!

Are you going to make another movie?
Definitely!

Have you ever been to the Nether­lands?
No, but I’d love to go!

Do you see Knoxville get­ting more national recog­ni­tion for wake­board­ing films?
I hope so! In the next video we hope to have a mix­ture of both nation­ally rec­og­nized rid­ers as well as a solid group of local Knoxville rid­ers. I think this will help give our wake­board­ing com­mu­nity the expo­sure it deserves!

Do you plan on film­ing out­side the realm of wake­board­ing?
For sure! I would love to do more snow­board­ing videog­ra­phy. Although east Ten­nessee isn’t the prime loca­tion for great snow, Snow­shoe Moun­tain and Appalachian both have great parks and even bet­ter rid­ers! I actu­ally just got back from Jack­son Hole, Wyoming which really moti­vated me to get some footage on the snow next sea­son! Also, I have enjoyed pro­duc­ing some local com­mer­cials and have worked with sev­eral local com­pa­nies on pro­mo­tional videos, one being XTP (Xtreme Tower Prod­ucts) in Maryville, Tennessee.

Is there any­one you want to thank?
Do I have a time limit? Haha! Firstly, God, my fam­ily, and then you, my friend (Ryan Jones)! Thanks to Knoxify.com, Amer­i­can Boat Cen­ter, the Wakeshop, Over­board, Mis­sion, Travis Marine, Pilot Travel Cen­ters, SoBe No Fear, Label Indus­tries, XTP, Kurt Jenk­ins at DMG Pro­duc­tions, Sequoyah Marina, Chris Moon and KnoxWake.com, Barley’s, Jen­nie Huet­tel, Daniel Walden, Nick Oliver, Rob Craw­ford, “The Hatch­er­hoff”, Blake Jones, Matt Waters, Car­son Hunt, Alpine Ski Cen­ter, Rolf Lanz, Pluto Board Sports, all of the many chase boat dri­vers, my four-legged friend Queso, and of course all of the rid­ers who are push­ing the sport here in Knoxville!

Nike or Con­verse?
Converse

Who is the “Hatch­er­Hoff”?
No com­ment, but I can tell you one thing “Gatlin­burg TriAth­lete of the Year 1982”.

Thanks to Alex for his time for talk­ing with Knoxify.com, and all the work he does. To view excerpts from his film “South­ern Style” visit jaopro.com and click on videos.

This is a guest post by Ryan Jones, a wake­board proshop owner in Knoxville, TN.