January 25, 2024 • 46 mins
Feel the rush of water beneath you and the tug of G-forces as I, Jake Bushman, share the microphone with Thomas Degasperi — or T-Gas to those in the know. He's not your average sportsman; he's a professional water skier with a story that stretches from Italian mountains to Floridian lakes. In this episode, Thomas reveals how a childhood surrounded by the love of water skiing and his parents' ski school led to a life of weaving through the slalom and chasing buoys at breakneck speeds.
Venture with us through the highs and lows of T-Gas's illustrious career, where victories on the junior European stage gave way to cultural hurdles and linguistic faux pas in Louisiana. It's a tale of resilience, family bonds, and the art of mastering a sport that's as demanding as it is rewarding. Thomas's transition from top-tier athlete to inspirational coach is a journey marked by his family's legacy and his own indomitable spirit. His insights extend beyond the ski, offering a philosophy that champions commitment in every walk of life, from competitive arenas to culinary adventures with family.
Wrap up your life jacket tight as Thomas takes us behind the scenes of the water skiing world's thrill and camaraderie. Learn what it takes to stay afloat in both professional tournaments and personal pursuits, as he balances the roles of coach and competitor. With tales of off-season reflection and the heart-pounding adrenaline of competition, we uncover the disciplined life of a world-class athlete who cooks with as much passion as he coaches. It's not just a conversation; it's an immersion into the life of someone who has skied the course of life with fervor and precision.
Be sure and give Thomas a follow on Instagram @this_is_tgas.
Visit LandPirate.com to get your gear that has you, the adventurer, in mind. Use the code "Journey with Jake" to get an additional 15% off at check out.
Visit geneticinsights.co and use the code "DISCOVER25" to enjoy a sweet 25% off your first purchase.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Years ago, I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with my
brother, will.
I rode a ride called Goliathand I remember almost passing
out as I experienced around 3-4g-forces against my body.
My next guess is somebody whoexperiences g-forces all the
time.
No, he is not a fighter pilot.
It is professional water skier,thomas de Gasperi, better known
(00:23):
as T-Gas.
So get ready to experience G'sand make sure you get rid of
your pillow top mattresses.
It's time to go water skiingwith T-Gas.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how, through our
adventures, we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures, this show willentertain you.
(00:45):
Each episode will feature adifferent guest or guest, as
they share experiences andstories from the different
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you will also
hear the failures and trialseach guest faces and what they
have done or are doing toovercome the hardships that come
their way.
My goal is to take each of uson a journey through the
(01:06):
experiences of my guests, withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all, it's not a lot aboutthe destination as it is about
the journey.
Hello everyone, my name is JakeBushman.
(01:34):
Welcome back to another episodeof Journey with Jake.
We are on episode 89 today.
We're just cruising right along.
This is the podcast thatinspires you to overcome
challenges through adventure,and my guest today is
professional water skier Thomasde Gaspery, and he has inspired
me, and I'm sure you will all beinspired as well.
(01:54):
Before we get to myconversation with Thomas, I
invite each of you to give me afollow on Instagram at Journey
with Jake podcast.
This is a fantastic way to getto know my guests a little bit
better.
It gives you a chance to seewho they are and what they look
like.
This is also a space that Ilike to share some of my
adventures and journeys as well,so be sure and check it out and
(02:14):
give me a follow Again.
That's at Journey with Jakepodcast.
Okay, let's get to myconversation with Thomas.
So I'm excited I have Thomasand Thomas.
I don't want to butcher yourlast name.
How do you say it?
How do you say your last name?
De Gaspery?
Just the way, de.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Gaspery De Gaspery.
Yeah, just use your hands,because I already said that
that's the Italian way, right?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You just got it, de Gaspery, which you are Italian.
You're from Italy, live part ofthe time in Italy, live part of
the time in Orlando, I believe.
So let's just jump into thatKind of tell me a little bit of
background of who you are, whereyou're from, all that good
stuff, before we get rollinginto the waterskiing.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So yeah, I grew up in this little city northeast of
Italy it's called Trento, veryclose to the Austrian border, in
the Dolomites, surrounded bythe Alps, beautiful mountains,
and a lot of people ask me howdid you get into waterskiing
from being in the mountains?
And maybe could have been asnow skier or a soccer player or
whatever the reason is.
(03:10):
My parents had, and still have,a ski school in Italy for 50
years.
So my dad was a teacher in highschool of physics and during
the summer he had a lot of freetime because school was out.
And his best friend acquiredhis ski school and asked my dad
to help him over the summer tomake some extra money.
And my dad did it and he lovedit.
(03:32):
He loved it so much that backthen, a long time ago, you could
retire whenever you wanted inItaly.
So he did I don't know a fewyears, like both jobs, and then
he asked my friend his friend toif he wanted to sell it,
because his friend was not notvery intrigued about it and my
dad really loved it.
So he acquired it and that'show it started Started with some
(03:55):
friends, just easygoing, andthen it became a little more of
a job, a job and he was goodbecause he could apply his
physics study to aerodynamicsyou know, hydrodynamics and
position and forces andleverages, and everything to
waterskiing lessons.
And then one day, my mom beingfrom almost our sea but still
(04:18):
part of Italy, german part shewanted to try and she came down
with her boyfriend and my dadwas there with her mom, with his
girlfriend, and then later theywere married and 40 years later
, here I am.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Wow, okay, that's a great story.
You pretty much grew up on thewater then.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I grew up in the water so in the winter, you know
, I was doing all kinds ofsports because my dad has always
been in sports.
So I snowski race for sevenyears.
I play volleyball, I playsoccer, I did judo, I did
swimming, I did tennis, so allkinds of competitive sports, but
it was always kind of inpreparation for waterskiing.
So since in the summer that myparents were running the ski
(04:57):
school, my mom was doing alittle bit still does a little
bit of restaurant there for theclients and my dad was in the
boat, we as kids, me and mybrother, were stuck at a ski
school year all summer.
So there was no vacations.
No, you know, it was work, work, work.
I remembered like doinghomework.
And then one day my dad I wasfive was like, do you want to
try it?
And I said sure, and then Itried and I was a little chubby,
(05:20):
let's say, and I love that, youknow.
And then it started just moreas a game, more than a sport or
anything.
Never thought it could havebeen my life.
And then my classmates camearound and we had a big group of
kids of skiing, startedcompeting and then, as progress,
I was doing a little better, alittle better, and I said, you
(05:41):
know, this is kind of cool.
And then I won my firstEuropean Junior title when I was
14.
A little unexpected but it wasstill good.
And then I think the breakingpoint was in 2001,.
I won the European under 21World Championships, european
Championships under 21.
And then I remember the coachat a time.
He was a French guy, just gothired a year and he was very
(06:05):
good on preparing you with theright mindset for a tournament.
And I remember forever I waslast one on the dock, so I was
seating first after thesemifinals.
So I was last one on the dockand the World Championships Open
division was gonna happen liketwo weeks later.
Never thought in a millionyears I was gonna get invited to
that because the team was madethey were in Italy, was right
(06:27):
after 9-11, it was 2001.
Like, never thought, like youknow.
And here comes, like twominutes before I get on the
water, I was already nervousbecause I was the last one and
he said, thomas, if you win thisevent, I'll take you to the
World Championships.
I was like wow.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
No pressure.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
More pressure, right, yeah, right.
So I went out and I won and Isaid what?
But Tangy, his name is Tangy.
I said Tangy, the team is done.
Like you know, people is justtraveling, start coming here to
Italy to get ready for worlds.
They've been ready gettingready for two years, since it's
every two years.
He's like let me take care ofthat.
So he took me.
It was a big mess in theFederation because, you know, I
(07:06):
was like created this kind oflike problems for this guy that
wanted to come to the worlds andhe didn't like me for that.
But I was doing my job, youknow.
So I went to the WorldChampionship as the younger one
of the Italian team.
I was my first WorldChampionship and I made the
finals and I missed the podiumby this much and I got fourth,
(07:27):
beating all the Italians and allthe Europeans, and from there I
kind of like I was like, okay,this could be, you know, it
could be my life, and my dad wasthere and my mom was there and
it was just, oh, a great startof the career.
And then the first four, in thenext year I got offered a
scholarship, university ofLouisiana, monroe, to do to be
(07:50):
part of the ski team and I got afull scholarship and I said,
why not?
I get to study for free and Iget to ski for free during the
winter.
It was really cool because Icombined, you know, studying and
sport together.
You know, I couldn't speakEnglish when I arrived in
Louisiana, like zero.
I was using my hands a lot more, a lot more than that.
So I did my marketing degreeand then, yeah, I was like okay,
(08:13):
now it's time to decide what Iwant to do in my life.
You know, because do I go backto Italy?
Do I stay in US?
You know?
I thought, okay, well, if Iwant to do it, I have to do it
right, cause that's, first ofall, the personality that I am.
But also there was no other wayaround.
Like in Italy, I could trainlike four, five, six months
maybe at a year.
If you want to be a pro andcompete with the guys that are
(08:34):
here all year round and trainall year round, you have to be
here.
So I came to Florida in 2007,working at a ski school, just to
didn't have much money.
I remember I was working at aski school until four o'clock in
the afternoon and then at nightI was going serving tables and
I was saving every penny to buymy first house.
(08:55):
Yeah, it was cool, like yeah,about my first house.
Then I bought this lake houseand then I opened my ski school
and then after college, when Ireally start, you know, deciding
that this was going to be mylife, the results start showing
up more, cause I was morecommitted, like, just start
working out more.
In college I was working out,but it's college life.
(09:16):
So we won two national titleswith the team.
I won one national title asindividual and funny things a
lot of the guys that arecompeting against me now were
the guys that were back indifferent schools, so the
rivalry was still there.
So, yeah, so my parents alwayshad this ski school in Italy.
That's why I go back to Italyin the summer.
My dad passed away last year,so my mom now is still involved
(09:39):
and it's good for her.
She's actually here in Floridanow spending the holidays with
me, so that's really cool.
And, yeah, it's a greatcombination, because Florida in
the summer it's not what I lovethe best, because it's humid,
rainy, too hot, and then peoplejust go away from the summer in
Italy I mean from Florida, likenobody stays here.
(09:59):
So, yeah, I go back to Italyand run the ski school there
without a couple of guys thathelped me, and then I have most
of the pro tournaments are inEurope in the summer, so that's
great for me.
I can go in and out for theweekend, but I'm based in Italy
and then, yeah, the winter,usually from middle and
September till June, I'm here.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
That was a lot.
I mean, that was awesome.
Oh, sorry man, no, that wasgreat, because that was just so
much of who you are and whatyou're about and how it all came
out.
I didn't realize that there'sski teams with colleges.
Yeah, I had no idea, so that'swhy I love doing this podcast.
I learned so many things, whichis really cool.
Louisiana Monroe is where youwent to school.
What are some of the other bigtime players in college then?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Monroe and Loughby.
At both on Louisiana RagingCajuns and we were the Indians,
now that were the Warhawks.
I remember getting like three,four scholarship.
There was one in Florida, onein Arizona State University I
think they were offering smallerscholarship but I couldn't
speak English.
So I had a couple of friendsfrom Italy, from my Italian team
, that they were readingLouisiana and the Louisiana
(11:03):
programs were more complete asfar as for a student, like they
were offering full scholarshipand because they won so many
national titles the school wasfunding a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Wow, okay, very cool.
So you made the right decisionas far as financially and things
like that go for sure.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
No, it was great experience because I you know
you always seen the movies butit was actually like the movies.
You know, like you go throughnationals of Waterski collegiate
tournaments that doesn't happenin Europe, they don't have that
and there's like 50 teams orwhatever.
There's like a bunch of kidsand they look at you like you're
God because I was one of thebest ones, but a lot of them
(11:43):
were just there for fun, youknow.
Yeah, more excuse to party andwe were not able and allowed to
party unless we were winning.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So, serious business with you guys.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Well, I mean, the money came from the school so
they couldn't let us get drunkduring the day.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, and you know trying to ski the next day with
a hangover or whatever else.
Wow, Okay, Awesome.
So yeah, I came to US not evenspeaking any English.
You speak great English now.
I mean it's been whatever yearsI speak four languages.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So I pick up languages pretty quick.
In Europe we learn earlydifferent languages.
I mean I could speak a littlebit of English, but it was very
like basic.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Minimal.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, yeah, like hi, my name is Thomas.
How are you?
You know like that, but so itwas a little hard the first year
to the school program for mebecause I couldn't understand
much the teachers and some stuffalready learned.
But so yeah, it was a littlebit challenging.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Did you learn the Louisiana English?
What is that?
Cajun or whatever, However theyspeak down there, louisiana.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I remember one time I was in aclass and the teacher wrote on
the board like Y, apostropheA-L-L, and I was looking through
my dictionary back then Likewhat the hell is this?
Y'all yeah I went to theteacher after I say excuse me,
I'm from Italy.
What does that mean, y'all?
(13:06):
And I was like I can't find it.
And she goes oh, you all, I'mlike whoa.
If you don't speak properEnglish, how can I know Exactly,
how do you learn that?
Something funny though.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, that's great.
So your father's passed away.
Your mom still helps you.
She's here for the holidays.
You have a brother.
Is your brother older oryounger?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
My brother is older.
He was a water skier at first,but then he never really liked
it, so he pursued what he reallywanted, like he was in music a
little bit, but then he studiedpsychology, became a doctor in
psychology Wow, yeah, yeah.
So he has his own practice and,yeah, he does that and it's
pretty good.
He has two kids and no, I getto see him in the summer.
He came here last year.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Okay, so he's still in Italy, your brother.
Yeah, he's still in Italy.
Yeah, good, so you got a nieceor nephew there in.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Italy.
Yeah, two nephews, two nephews,very cool, all right.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Very good Family for you, married or anything or no?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Well, no, dodge the bullet.
A couple of times, a couple oftimes I was engaged and then
let's not get in there.
But it didn't work out, no, sofar.
No, it's hard to date somebodylike with the mentality of the
athlete, you know, because Ilive for what I do and I'm sure
all the other athletes do.
We travel a lot.
It's not easy to understand.
(14:18):
I always say to whoever I'mgoing out because, like, it's
not going to be easy, becausethere's times that are going to
be gone, there's times that Ineed to put my 100% effort in
this and this is my DNA, this iswho I am, you know, and I
always say it first.
So maybe we'll come aroundsomebody.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
But Just looking at you here and I know people might
see some snippets of this.
They're not going to, it'smostly just audio, but you look
like an athlete and from what Iread, are you your six foot four
.
Is that correct, is that?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
correct yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
So you're six four.
You've got a great look as anathlete.
So that takes effort.
You got to work like an athlete, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I'm not fighting anymore.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Well, you still look good, so it's carrying over, I
guess.
Good, I'm good at food.
Yeah, there you go.
Good at time, right.
I don't know a whole lot aboutprofessional water skiing.
I've only just skiedrecreationally a couple of times
, like years ago when I was inhigh school.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
What?
Okay.
So when I've watched some ofyour videos, is it pretty much
just slalom.
You're kind of going back andforth around the buoy Like kind
of explain give us a littlebasic education if you don't
mind.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
In water skiing there's three main.
There's three disciplines.
There's slalom, tricks and jump.
Jump is whoever goes furthestout of the ramp.
Tricks.
You have two Passes of 20seconds.
You do the best tricks that youcan do and each trick has a
point, a sign point.
Okay, so I know is a littledifferent.
So there's a set of buoys, abow path where the bow goes
straight, and there'salternative.
(15:42):
Left and right there's sixbuoys, so the bow goes straight.
We go around six buoys, gpsspeed of 36 miles an hour, so
the boat go by itself.
The driver has to go straight.
Just in perspective.
It's every time we finish apass in a tournament.
We make the rope shorter, so westop, and each rope has a
different colors, if you look atit, and each color correspond
(16:04):
to rope length.
So whoever runs more buoys withthe shortest rope wins.
So every time we conclude apass of six buoys, we stop, the
rope get shortened.
If we miss a buoy or we fall,it's game over, normal again.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Thank you for explaining that to me, because I
was trying to figure it out.
I'm like the boats got to begoing the same speed for
everybody, so it's not quick.
It can't be speed of goingaround these things, it's got to
be how you're going around them.
That makes total sense.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
You can like.
If you go around the buoy andyou fall, that's half a buoy.
If you get to the buoy a littlebit earlier, it's quarter buoys
, a full buoy.
You have to go around the buoyand come back to the center,
right behind the boat, to be Incase you don't get to the next
one, you know.
So you have to go around thebuoy in order to get a piece of
a buoy or a complete buoy.
So you can have like two and ahalf, two and a quarter or three
(16:52):
.
These are the three.
There's a quarter, half and afull buoy.
A buoy always Counts a lot, youknow, because we all so tight
at a shortest line.
So if you think about it, aboutit like, where does the pylon
of the boat is to the buoy?
I don't know your feet, I knowin meters it's 11, 11.5 meters.
So what is it?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
37 feet or something about 30 something feet.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, close to 40 we get to a point where the rope is
like six feet shorter than thatdistance.
So we have to use that.
That's why there's so muchAcceleration, more than a
formula one car, because thebogos 36, but we decelerate
around the buoy about 1520 andin a Six feet we are about 75,
(17:33):
80.
So the force there's a lot by.
I Think it's 3g is a force ormaybe more, I don't know.
The force on your body it'sincredible.
So it looks brutal, but if youlearn out, you know, with
correct position and Of courseworking out helps, you have to
be strong because it's notinjuries start coming, but it's,
it's pretty cool, like it'spretty cool if you see a front
(17:55):
of boat perspective.
It's live, it's really, reallycool.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
It's very interesting Just watching some of your
videos.
It was impressive and you beingsix foot four, that's got to
help a little bit right.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
That's how we have a bigger reach, but it doesn't,
because my center of gravity isa lot higher than somebody that
is lower.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Okay, yeah, so you got a positive and a negative.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Correct he that I generate.
It's harder somebody that isshorter, it's harder to reach
his feet, you know.
So you don't want to be tootall, but you don't want to be
too short.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
This is awesome.
This is great for me to hear itbecause I'm just learning all
this cool stuff.
So let's kind of go back toyour childhood a little bit.
So you're kind of growing up onthe water.
Your mom goes down there with aboyfriend, meet your dad.
They end up, they end uphitting it off, getting married
here.
You and your brother come along.
So you're kind of raised onthis, this lake.
In the summer it's part for meto imagine a little bit, because
I, you know you picture lakesof people waterski.
(18:45):
It's usually desert areas orwarm areas like Florida.
Yeah you're about this like amountain lake, right?
I mean, this is pine trees andlike mountains all around it.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, yeah.
So this is like a big naturallake and my area is very they.
They're very conservative abouthaving boats and environmental
Hazard on our area.
So there's no boat allowed inour lake, only small, four
horsepower for likeTransportation or or fishing.
(19:13):
So very small boats.
Because in water skiing youwant always flat conditions.
So we're very lucky that ourlake is not open to the public.
So there's no jet skis, there'sno big wake surf boat, there's
nothing, so you are the onlyboat on the lake.
Correct so well.
There's lifeguards that havebigger boats, but they know, we
know it.
We know it so well thatwhenever they go through the
(19:35):
course, unless there's emergency, they'll we stop idle and then
take over again.
Yeah, we're friend.
Well, we offer them lunch everyday, so hey yeah, that's the
smart, smart businessman rightthere.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
That's smart, yeah for sure.
So you grew up learning how toski.
Now I see you got a ski in yourbackground here.
It's like once you're just onone ski, right.
So in slalom.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
It's one ski.
You have one foot in front ofthe other one.
So you have them, yeah, stackup in front, one in front of the
other one.
For jumping there's two skisand Trick, it's a smaller ski,
like 40 inches, compared to likea 67 inch ski, and if the back
foot is always Tilted becauseyou're a lot quicker to make
flips and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
So you're growing up in the water, you're doing this,
you find out, you kind of likeit.
Your first competition, we say,was junior nationals in Europe,
or what.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Now my first tournament.
Actually, my parents used toorganize.
It's the Mickey Mouse trophy,which was sponsored by Disney,
really okay.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
And how old were you for this one?
I was like seven or eight.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Okay, just a young kid, just run young, yeah, maybe
a little bit like ten or.
But I remember that my parentsorganized is so good that Disney
sent Minnie and and MickeyMouse costumes and that's
something that doesn't happenevery day, like I remember that
my dad was like was telling methroughout the years I was like
(20:59):
so hard to get a real deal likethe real Mickey Mouse costumes
and Minnie and there was like300 kids coming from all around
the world to do this tournament.
So those kind of where, like myfirst big tournaments that I
consider big back then, yeah,then if you do well and in some
like Italian tournaments, if theteam, the Italian team, will
(21:19):
take you to like Europeans andWorld Championship juniors, you
know level.
So 94 I did my first EuropeanJunior tournament.
I didn't go well but in 95 Iwon okay, so 94, not as good 95.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
You won.
So you have to go though as ateam.
You're part of the Italian team, right?
So you're competing as a team,like you get a score as a team
as well, and then it's no, it'sstill individual.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
But you bring points team, so there's a, there's a
team Standing at the first atthe end of the tournament.
So like, let's say, team USAhad the best scores or team
Italy had the best scores.
They add up those numbers andthen a presentation of the teams
.
The most it's it's individual,but it's still in a video.
Yeah, I still compete for Italy, but I don't do it for of
(22:04):
course I do it for the team, butit's me.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, and that's kind of let's like runners, you know
, runners at college and stuff.
They're representing theircollege or whatever, but they're
still running for theirindividual, their individual
races and trying to do theirbest.
Very good.
So 1995 you did it, you youwanted.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, it was great.
And then I decided to Doculinary school because in Italy
you can do in high school, youcan do Kind of in preparation of
what you want to be in future.
So there's like plumbing school, there's engineering, there's
electrical, there's hair cutters, cooking.
I don't know why, because mysome of my friends did it.
(22:40):
I did cooking culinary schoolso I was doing it all more
classes, but I also was learninghow to cook.
And those were the years that Istart getting bigger Because I
was eating all day.
I was in the kitchen in schoola lot.
So those years for me were notso good as far as a Tournament
results.
But then, once I got out of it,start losing weight and that
(23:03):
was the year of 2000, 2001 andyou know the results of coming
with the team under 21 and fastforward.
You know, after the world's inItaly I am I won my first World
Championship title in 2007 inAustria Great best memory of my
life because my parents werethere.
Then in 2009, in Canada, sincethey are every two years, I got
(23:23):
second.
My dad was there.
Then in 2011,.
I won in Russia, then I secondin 15, second in 21, and this
year didn't go so well.
Conditions were not so wellThen I chased every pro
tournament around.
So two World titles, I don'tknow, three silver medalists, 10
(23:47):
European titles and eight or 29pro-tour stop winners, the
European championships that youdo in Europe, do they kind of
rotate all over Europe?
Correct.
Every year is a different,different, different.
I won this year and I won thelast four in a row.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Where was this most recent one?
Where did it take place?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
This one was in Italy this summer, close to where I'm
from, nice.
The year before was in Milan.
So two back to Italy, which isunusual.
The year before was in Greece,the year before was in Spain.
Next year they're talking aboutFrance, but we'll see.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
And then, of course, the worlds are like you said.
You've been to Russia andyou've been in.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Malaysia, china, canada, chile everywhere.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Where was the first one that you won?
Where are you both?
I?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
was seven.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And where was that at ?
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Austria.
So very close like I drove up.
Oh, okay, you drove up verygood A bunch of people came up
and watched from my door.
That's cool, very good, yeah,really cool yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So tell me about that feeling when you won that one,
when you found out you won, Idon't know, do you know kind of
at the moment, or did you haveto wait for some other people to
compete?
Like how did you know?
When did you find out you won,and what was that like?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I was, I think, fourth last on the dock in the
finals, so I had like four moreguys after me, but I knew the
score that I put up was prettygood.
I didn't think somebody wouldbeat me but I was thinking
somebody can tie me and if theytie me then there's a runoff.
So I was staying warm andgetting ready, sitting on the
(25:15):
dock when the last one went out,and with my coach and the
doctors and another team memberor something, and yeah, when
they didn't beat me, it was like, you know, like as soon as you
win, everybody comes up to you,your phone's starting and it's
crazy, like I ran to my parentsthat were on the other side of
the lake, you know, and I don'tknow it.
Just it takes so a little bitof while to kind of like step
(25:38):
away from it.
Once you get back home andrealize what you do, you know
and what you just did, and Imean you got your world champion
forever Right, and it's a cool,the coolest thing ever.
You know, I won the Masters, Iwon all of the event, the slimes
we call them the slimes, likekind of like in tennis.
(26:00):
I won all the big events, youknow, but something about the
world, since we don't haveOlympics.
You know, the world is the mostprestigious.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And it's great that you're both.
Your parents were there.
You got to have them with you.
How has that been?
How has the support been fromyour family?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
You know I always say , like without my parents I
would never be where I am now.
You know I owe everything tothem, pretty much because, even
with limited, I mean, we're notrich.
You know, okay, it's not thatwe were missing food on the
table, but we're not like, hey,let's go on vacation for a month
.
You know, like that didn'thappen, but they gave me always
(26:37):
an opportunity to live the bestlife.
And you know, like and with theright of vices, and never told
me no, like if you feel likeyou're going to do it, this is
my opinion.
You know, no, I owe everythingto them.
You know, like they'reeverything to me.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
How about injuries?
Have you dealt with anyinjuries or did you get in good
enough shape to where you'vebeen?
Okay, I had some back problemsin the past.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Actually, he's getting much better now, like
the last two, three years hasbeen great.
But four or five years ago Iwas at the stage that I couldn't
even walk, like my hips wereout of alignment.
I went every kind of doctorpossible in the world and I
changed my bed and it changed mylife Incredible.
I changed my mattress.
Really.
That was the trick, wow.
(27:21):
And it was funny because I wasgoing back to Europe in the
summer, in Italy, and a weeklater I was great, like I was.
It was incredible.
I was like what is it?
Is the food, is it?
And I never thought about thebed, the mattress, you know.
And then I realized that hereit was common to have the
(27:42):
mattress and a pillow top on top.
We don't use that.
There's no pillow top.
So the softness even if I was astiff mattress was always
causing me to have a curve and Iwas like I was getting good for
a while and then I startedskiing and pushing hard in the
gym and I would start gettingbad again and I couldn't figure
out what it was.
It's like I can't stand hereanymore.
(28:03):
You know, like I was certainpoints I couldn't even walk.
I was hurting just standinglike laying on the floor, and
then I started buying a mattress.
Is that?
At some point I had like fivemattresses laying around the
house and I keep rotating themand then I finally find the one
that I have and I'm straight asan arrow?
Incredible.
Huh, that is incredible.
I looked it up so much.
You spend 33 years in bed inaverage life.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Wow, that's a lot of time.
I need my wife to hear thisbecause we have this pillow top
that drives me nuts.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah, so never again pillow top and it's been great.
Yeah, so that was.
Of course water skiing didn'thelp, because it's very
symmetrical.
You have one floor one hip isin front of the other one and I
mean we pull serious, heavyloads on our back.
But if you stay healthy, youeat right, you take care of your
body, then you can do it aslong as I'm doing it, you know.
(28:55):
And no other injuries, no knockon wood.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, good for you.
And, speaking of that, how longyou've been doing it.
You're what?
42?
42, yeah, 42 years old andyou're still going strong.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Oh yeah, ice ski.
Today was freezing, but it wasawesome.
Freezing in Florida doesn'tsound very normal, but the water
was cold.
It was like in the 50s.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Oh wow, yeah, that is chilly yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
And I was like, oh, this is a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Any experiences or stories that you would mind
sharing, of whether it was atournament or whether it was
just a moment that you learnedsomething, or just kind of what
you think would be fun for theaudience to hear the guests you
know the people listening tohear about something that maybe
you went through.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Well, I mean for sure last year was the toughest year
of my life when I lost my dad,because he was my mentor, my
rock, my best friend.
You know he's the one thatbrought me to all these
achievements and titles and Imean he was sick for a while.
But you know, you can kind ofalways wonder how it's gonna end
.
You know, yeah, last year wasreally tough, like really tough,
(30:02):
and it still is now.
You know, like it's been alljust a little over a year and
you know, first year I thinkyou're kind of in shock of
what's going on.
And then the second year islike you start realizing a
little bit, hey, he's not reallyhere anymore.
You know, you start reallymissing him.
So that's been kind of hard andfor sure that's been the
(30:23):
toughest year of my life and formy mom and but my mom she's
doing okay now, so that's good.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
What do you do to kind of overcome that?
Because I'm in the boat, Istill both my parents are still
around.
I'm a few years older than youand you know you never know
something could happen any timeto any of us.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's nothing really you can
do.
The only good thing that in allthis bad picture is like I was
in Italy, you know.
I didn't go to any tournamentsduring the time and I was there
with him until the end, from thebeginning until the end, you
know.
And my mother, my mom, mybrother, all their relatives
(31:00):
were there.
So of course, if he was sickand I was in Florida I would
just close everything and go.
But I was there from thebeginning and you know I held
his hand until the end and I wastalking to him until the end.
Yeah, it's something like youcan't prepare.
Be prepared for this thing, youknow.
But the memories that I have,growing up at a ski school with
(31:20):
him and going to tournaments andhe was taking me around
everywhere, for him water skiingbecame everything, you know.
It was almost obsessed becauseit became part of the DNA, is
everything he was doing, and forme to succeed so much in the
sport for him was everything.
So it bonded us so much.
(31:41):
I'm too, because I left home togo to Louisiana.
Well, for Europe is early, likeat 20 years old, and being away
kind of brought me back closerto my family.
So again, this bond that wascreated because of the sport,
because of the same ideas, thesame passion, and then we got so
(32:03):
close and the last 10 yearsthey were here, like in Florida,
for three months duringChristmas and we spent time
together.
We go everywhere.
Oh, just for me it's nothingbest, it was like nothing better
than that.
It was great.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Love that.
Thank you for sharing that, andI know it's hard.
You lost someone who's meanteverything to you and oh yeah,
thank you for sharing that,because I think people like to
hear that, like to know who youare.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, I mean a lot of people.
Just, you know, just see mypictures, and but it's hard
sometimes to tell your storybecause you know it's like if
somebody else tells it it'sdifferent, like I'm not just
going to get on the phone andsay, hey, this is my story.
You know, family is everything,man, it's, it's who we are and
where we come from.
And if we don't, if we don't,you know I'm knowledge that I'm
(32:49):
here because of them, then Idon't know it's like when my mom
is gone.
I call her every day.
You know when my dad was aliveand I was here, like every day.
You know, just five minutes aday.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
That's all.
I love that.
Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, family.
Without a doubt, that's mynumber one priority as well, so
I appreciate you sharing that.
What does the future hold forThomas?
What do you think?
Where are you going to be goingwith this?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Well, I'm still going .
You know, I've been askingmyself when is going to be the
day that I'm just going to hangthis key on the wall.
I've been asking us that forfive or six years now, you know.
But the passion drives me to beyoung, you know, I think my
main, the thing that makes methe most well, let's say, I'm
(33:31):
still competitive and I'm stillwinning and I'm still successful
, because I love this game somuch.
But it's not just the game,it's just the journey that takes
me to where I am and whatbrought me to that?
So my family bonds again, youknow, it gives me a purpose.
Like, without a purpose, Iwouldn't be going to the gym
every day, like, you know, Iwouldn't wake up early in the
(33:53):
morning to go to the gym.
I wouldn't want to, like, Iwouldn't want to stay in shape,
but I wouldn't be so strictabout it.
I want to ski when it's coldoutside?
No, but it keeps me young.
It keeps me, it gives me a goal, which is every year is a new
goal, and for me there's nostopping.
I love it too much and as longas my body can do it and I can
(34:14):
still compete with the otherguys, I will do it.
It's not even a passion anymore, it's a way of life, you know.
And of course sometimestournaments don't go well and I
get angry and I get upset.
But because I care and people'slike asking me, like on the
dock, are you still gettingnervous before tournaments?
Like, of course, the day thatI'm gonna not get nervous on the
dock is the day that I'm gonnaquit, because doesn't mean it
(34:35):
means that I don't care.
I don't care as much.
So my fire, my anger inside isstill very much alive and I want
to pursue myself, maybe becauseI'm a little wiser now and I
want to work harder, to bebetter, but not just in sport,
in life in general and with myrelationship with people.
So the day that you know youstop learning or you stop
(34:59):
wanting to improve, that's theday that you're going to stop
doing whatever you're doing.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Can you take us through kind of a typical day
for you, Like not a tournamentday, but just like maybe a day
that you're training or whatever?
What's kind of a typical dayfor Thomas.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
What is skiing?
It's not golf, it's notbaseball, it's there's no much
money involved.
Okay, so I kind of follow whatmy dad did, which is coaching,
and I love it because I'm aperson.
I'm a person, people person,sorry, sometimes I'm a people
person.
I like hanging out and knowingand learning about new people.
(35:31):
Why not sharing my knowledgewith others, you know?
And so ski school, of course,allows me to, you know, be able
to travel and do whatever I cando and I want to do.
So my day is I wake up in themorning, depending on the day.
So, like now, it's kind of likeslow season as far as coaching,
because it was the end of this,just the season ended.
(35:52):
People don't really want totravel, they want to rest and
holidays and everything.
So I have a lot more time in myhands, jim, in the morning, not
a mama Mazeer, come back lunchwith her, hang out with her,
take her shopping a little bit,some lessons, depending on the
day, you know.
Then I ski and then I will do alittle workout, maybe a home
(36:12):
and night that's it.
Having dinner with my mom cooktogether, you know, I ask her
all the time it's like how canyou make it so good and I do the
same thing and I can't.
She's like oh, we ended updoing it together, you know, and
that's another thing Like weshare time together, we share
these memories together, so it'sgreat, yes, it's very easy, and
it sounds like, you know, like,oh, you don't do much, but then
(36:33):
when it's tournament season,which right after New Year's Eve
, the first pro tournament is inMarch, it's in Australia.
That's the time that it's timeto get serious again.
You know, like the lasttournament this year was the
World Championships and itdidn't go well for me.
Conditions were really hard, soa lot of the top guys didn't do
well, but I was like, you knowwhat, I'm not going to waste any
(36:54):
time this year.
I'm not going to wait untillike January to start working
out and go to the gym.
I was like I felt like I didn'tdeserve to have a break because
I'm so tough on myself, youknow.
So, yeah, maybe I didn't skifor a week or a few days or
whatever, but comes like, okay,the tournament is over 23, is
over 24 starts now and I startgoing to the gym.
(37:16):
You know, I started watchingwhat Are you Better?
I started doing this.
I do exercises, I have myroutines and once you start
getting to this mechanism ofgoing and going and going, it's
really hard to stop Because,again, the mentality of the
athlete is not.
We're never happy enough of theresults.
You know, I won a big pro eventlike two weeks before the
(37:39):
Worlds, and it gave me a goodboost of confidence, you know.
And like the tournament was onSaturday, on Sunday we're flying
back to Orlando and people waslike I had a couple podcasts and
they're like so are youenjoying this week?
I'm like.
I was like whoa, did you goparty?
And I'm like no man, we haveWorlds in two weeks or three
weeks.
(37:59):
I was like, come on.
I was like, no, this is not theway I do it.
Maybe I'm too tough on myself,but that's the way, but I enjoy
it.
I enjoy it.
You know, it's not a punishmentto me, you know, it's just
where I am.
And now, with the routine ofgoing to the gym early and often
, like I went, I think I wentevery day in the last three
(38:23):
weeks, you know.
So it's hardcore.
Like I go hard on it, you know,and just be committed to go
every day.
You know I when I could say I'mtired, I want to take a day off
.
And of course, I got to listento my body.
Sometimes this is the time thatI can push, because when I
start traveling I have to skimore, you know.
So I have to do more time inthe water instead of in the gym,
(38:45):
and yeah, so from March untilSeptember, october, sometimes
November it's hectic so this isthe time that I now I can enjoy
my mom and have a little bit ofbreak, Exactly, Take advantage
of that time You're stillworking hard.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
I sometimes wonder that about, about athletes and
people like you like.
If you're too hard on yourselfand you kind of admitted that
you are, but you said you likeit though that's you kind of
thrive on that and that's kindof who you are.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I read some articles and there's actually a couple of
books that they talk about.
The mentality of the athletesis completely different of sorry
, a normal person like some thatis not an athlete.
Sure, and the drive and youknow, the commitments that are
evolving around being an athleteare incredible, and then it
translates to everything in life.
(39:30):
So, everything I do, if Icannot do it right, I'm not
going to do it, but if I, if Iknow I can't do it right, I'm
gonna give my 100% until it'sover, you know.
I think, you know, as I said,yeah, my parents gave me a great
opportunity to travel the world, me new people, see new
cultures, learn, learn languages.
Being here in a beautiful lake,on the lake, beautiful house on
(39:51):
the lake in Florida.
I gotta be appreciative ofeverything that brought me here.
You know it's the journey that.
Makes everything better.
Of course I can win on Sundayand be happy.
I talk to everybody, tons ofcall, phone calls, photos and
everything.
But then on Monday you startover.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
I mean, you said it, it's the journey.
That's why I do journey withJake, because I love, I love the
journey, I love the, whatpeople do to get to where they
are.
It's, it's incredible.
I appreciate that We've beenchatting for quite a while.
I don't want to take up toomuch of your time, especially
away from your mom.
I do want to ask you kind ofone last question.
So you got some, I don't know,10 year old, 11 year old Italian
(40:29):
kid or American kid who'sthinking, hey, I like to ski.
What would you tell them?
What would you tell them asthey're looking to maybe get
into skiing?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
It's a beautiful unknown sport Because back in
the 90s was, it was a hot sportbecause it was an ESPN with hot
summer nights.
I don't know if you ever seenit I didn't see it because I was
in Italy, but I rewatch it soit was broadcasting on ESPN all
the pro tournaments every summer, every week.
So what would I tell?
You know, it's a little bitunknown but it's a great sport.
(40:59):
You're out in the nature, outin open air, in the water.
You have, you know, the wind,the water, the adrenaline, the
speed.
It's just you and yourself.
And it's such a great sportbecause it's such a complete
sport and it's so competitiveand there's never an ending goal
, like there's never ending goalas far as like, okay, I want to
break the world record, butthen you want to re-break it.
(41:21):
You know, and I think it's just,I don't know it, just it gives
you so, like, people that waterski and people that don't water
ski don't understand.
But people that water ski,they're addicts, like, I'm sure,
in many other sports.
But there's people that theyare like obsessed, like there
it's their life.
You know, it's great people.
(41:41):
It's a clean sport, there's,there's no much drama.
You know, it's just, it's a bigfamily.
That's what it is.
It's a big family and everybodyhelp each other and the coolest
thing about water to ski is youcan come ski with me Any day of
your life.
Tell me when you can go playgolf with Tiger Woods?
Never, so that's the coolestthing, you know.
(42:03):
You can go to water skier andski with them and meet with them
and chat with them and that'sso cool.
Like the kids, you know theylove it and I coach kids here
all the time and they're like atfirst, when the condor, like
their eyes are like this, I cansee it and then we become
friends and I teach them andthen I see their improvement and
for me, so rewarding, you know,no, it's cool, it's the coolest
thing.
(42:23):
The coolest thing is becauseit's small and we're trying to
grow it, but it's small and itwill stay small because the
people in it not as far as likethe sport is growing, because
it's coming back.
It is a comeback in the sport,but the people in it stays the
same as far as accepting newpeople and Treat people
correctly, you know.
(42:43):
So the coolest thing is likeyou can go to any pro water
skier and talk to them and itdoesn't happen in all the other
sports.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Absolutely, and here I am talking to you this.
For me, this is awesome, I loveyour professional water skier
and I get the chance to talk toyou.
To me, that's just.
I love it for me, so Iappreciate it.
Thomas, this was fantastic.
I got to know a little bit moreabout your sport, about who you
are, and I love who you are asa person, how much you care
about family, how that'simportant to you.
(43:11):
I Think it's fantastic.
I appreciate everything youshared with us.
Thanks for coming on journeywith Jake.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Yeah, it was great.
Thank you for having me and Iappreciate the time that you
gave me.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Special thanks to my guest, thomas de Gasperi, for
coming on the show chatting withme.
That was a lot of fun for me.
I was super inspired by what hehad to share.
I appreciate his honesty,talking about his father, just
the things that he's gonethrough.
I know that meant a lot to him.
I'm grateful that he was ableto come on the show and chat
about that with me.
Check him out.
Give him a follow on Instagram.
You can find him at.
(43:43):
This is T gas.
It's at.
This underscore is underscore Tgas.
That's this underscore isunderscore T gas.
Check him out on Instagram.
A lot of fun things to checkout from Thomas see what he's up
to, see how he's doing in Hisprofessional water skiing career
.
What a great conversation.
Thanks to each and every one ofyou.
(44:05):
Listening to journey with Jakeeach and every week.
It really means a lot to me.
I appreciate it very much.
Just remember, it's not alwaysabout the destination as it is
about the journey.
Take care everybody.
Years ago, I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with my
brother, will.
I rode a ride called Goliathand I remember almost passing
out as I experienced around 3-4g-forces against my body.
My next guess is somebody whoexperiences g-forces all the
time.
No, he is not a fighter pilot.
It is professional water skier,thomas de Gasperi, better known
(00:23):
as T-Gas.
So get ready to experience G'sand make sure you get rid of
your pillow top mattresses.
It's time to go water skiingwith T-Gas.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how, through our
adventures, we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures, this show willentertain you.
(00:45):
Each episode will feature adifferent guest or guest, as
they share experiences andstories from the different
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you will also
hear the failures and trialseach guest faces and what they
have done or are doing toovercome the hardships that come
their way.
My goal is to take each of uson a journey through the
(01:06):
experiences of my guests, withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all, it's not a lot aboutthe destination as it is about
the journey.
Hello everyone, my name is JakeBushman.
(01:34):
Welcome back to another episodeof Journey with Jake.
We are on episode 89 today.
We're just cruising right along.
This is the podcast thatinspires you to overcome
challenges through adventure,and my guest today is
professional water skier Thomasde Gaspery, and he has inspired
me, and I'm sure you will all beinspired as well.
(01:54):
Before we get to myconversation with Thomas, I
invite each of you to give me afollow on Instagram at Journey
with Jake podcast.
This is a fantastic way to getto know my guests a little bit
better.
It gives you a chance to seewho they are and what they look
like.
This is also a space that Ilike to share some of my
adventures and journeys as well,so be sure and check it out and
(02:14):
give me a follow Again.
That's at Journey with Jakepodcast.
Okay, let's get to myconversation with Thomas.
So I'm excited I have Thomasand Thomas.
I don't want to butcher yourlast name.
How do you say it?
How do you say your last name?
De Gaspery?
Just the way, de.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Gaspery De Gaspery.
Yeah, just use your hands,because I already said that
that's the Italian way, right?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You just got it, de Gaspery, which you are Italian.
You're from Italy, live part ofthe time in Italy, live part of
the time in Orlando, I believe.
So let's just jump into thatKind of tell me a little bit of
background of who you are, whereyou're from, all that good
stuff, before we get rollinginto the waterskiing.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So yeah, I grew up in this little city northeast of
Italy it's called Trento, veryclose to the Austrian border, in
the Dolomites, surrounded bythe Alps, beautiful mountains,
and a lot of people ask me howdid you get into waterskiing
from being in the mountains?
And maybe could have been asnow skier or a soccer player or
whatever the reason is.
(03:10):
My parents had, and still have,a ski school in Italy for 50
years.
So my dad was a teacher in highschool of physics and during
the summer he had a lot of freetime because school was out.
And his best friend acquiredhis ski school and asked my dad
to help him over the summer tomake some extra money.
And my dad did it and he lovedit.
(03:32):
He loved it so much that backthen, a long time ago, you could
retire whenever you wanted inItaly.
So he did I don't know a fewyears, like both jobs, and then
he asked my friend his friend toif he wanted to sell it,
because his friend was not notvery intrigued about it and my
dad really loved it.
So he acquired it and that'show it started Started with some
(03:55):
friends, just easygoing, andthen it became a little more of
a job, a job and he was goodbecause he could apply his
physics study to aerodynamicsyou know, hydrodynamics and
position and forces andleverages, and everything to
waterskiing lessons.
And then one day, my mom beingfrom almost our sea but still
(04:18):
part of Italy, german part shewanted to try and she came down
with her boyfriend and my dadwas there with her mom, with his
girlfriend, and then later theywere married and 40 years later
, here I am.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Wow, okay, that's a great story.
You pretty much grew up on thewater then.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I grew up in the water so in the winter, you know
, I was doing all kinds ofsports because my dad has always
been in sports.
So I snowski race for sevenyears.
I play volleyball, I playsoccer, I did judo, I did
swimming, I did tennis, so allkinds of competitive sports, but
it was always kind of inpreparation for waterskiing.
So since in the summer that myparents were running the ski
(04:57):
school, my mom was doing alittle bit still does a little
bit of restaurant there for theclients and my dad was in the
boat, we as kids, me and mybrother, were stuck at a ski
school year all summer.
So there was no vacations.
No, you know, it was work, work, work.
I remembered like doinghomework.
And then one day my dad I wasfive was like, do you want to
try it?
And I said sure, and then Itried and I was a little chubby,
(05:20):
let's say, and I love that, youknow.
And then it started just moreas a game, more than a sport or
anything.
Never thought it could havebeen my life.
And then my classmates camearound and we had a big group of
kids of skiing, startedcompeting and then, as progress,
I was doing a little better, alittle better, and I said, you
(05:41):
know, this is kind of cool.
And then I won my firstEuropean Junior title when I was
14.
A little unexpected but it wasstill good.
And then I think the breakingpoint was in 2001,.
I won the European under 21World Championships, european
Championships under 21.
And then I remember the coachat a time.
He was a French guy, just gothired a year and he was very
(06:05):
good on preparing you with theright mindset for a tournament.
And I remember forever I waslast one on the dock, so I was
seating first after thesemifinals.
So I was last one on the dockand the World Championships Open
division was gonna happen liketwo weeks later.
Never thought in a millionyears I was gonna get invited to
that because the team was madethey were in Italy, was right
(06:27):
after 9-11, it was 2001.
Like, never thought, like youknow.
And here comes, like twominutes before I get on the
water, I was already nervousbecause I was the last one and
he said, thomas, if you win thisevent, I'll take you to the
World Championships.
I was like wow.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
No pressure.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
More pressure, right, yeah, right.
So I went out and I won and Isaid what?
But Tangy, his name is Tangy.
I said Tangy, the team is done.
Like you know, people is justtraveling, start coming here to
Italy to get ready for worlds.
They've been ready gettingready for two years, since it's
every two years.
He's like let me take care ofthat.
So he took me.
It was a big mess in theFederation because, you know, I
(07:06):
was like created this kind oflike problems for this guy that
wanted to come to the worlds andhe didn't like me for that.
But I was doing my job, youknow.
So I went to the WorldChampionship as the younger one
of the Italian team.
I was my first WorldChampionship and I made the
finals and I missed the podiumby this much and I got fourth,
(07:27):
beating all the Italians and allthe Europeans, and from there I
kind of like I was like, okay,this could be, you know, it
could be my life, and my dad wasthere and my mom was there and
it was just, oh, a great startof the career.
And then the first four, in thenext year I got offered a
scholarship, university ofLouisiana, monroe, to do to be
(07:50):
part of the ski team and I got afull scholarship and I said,
why not?
I get to study for free and Iget to ski for free during the
winter.
It was really cool because Icombined, you know, studying and
sport together.
You know, I couldn't speakEnglish when I arrived in
Louisiana, like zero.
I was using my hands a lot more, a lot more than that.
So I did my marketing degreeand then, yeah, I was like okay,
(08:13):
now it's time to decide what Iwant to do in my life.
You know, because do I go backto Italy?
Do I stay in US?
You know?
I thought, okay, well, if Iwant to do it, I have to do it
right, cause that's, first ofall, the personality that I am.
But also there was no other wayaround.
Like in Italy, I could trainlike four, five, six months
maybe at a year.
If you want to be a pro andcompete with the guys that are
(08:34):
here all year round and trainall year round, you have to be
here.
So I came to Florida in 2007,working at a ski school, just to
didn't have much money.
I remember I was working at aski school until four o'clock in
the afternoon and then at nightI was going serving tables and
I was saving every penny to buymy first house.
(08:55):
Yeah, it was cool, like yeah,about my first house.
Then I bought this lake houseand then I opened my ski school
and then after college, when Ireally start, you know, deciding
that this was going to be mylife, the results start showing
up more, cause I was morecommitted, like, just start
working out more.
In college I was working out,but it's college life.
(09:16):
So we won two national titleswith the team.
I won one national title asindividual and funny things a
lot of the guys that arecompeting against me now were
the guys that were back indifferent schools, so the
rivalry was still there.
So, yeah, so my parents alwayshad this ski school in Italy.
That's why I go back to Italyin the summer.
My dad passed away last year,so my mom now is still involved
(09:39):
and it's good for her.
She's actually here in Floridanow spending the holidays with
me, so that's really cool.
And, yeah, it's a greatcombination, because Florida in
the summer it's not what I lovethe best, because it's humid,
rainy, too hot, and then peoplejust go away from the summer in
Italy I mean from Florida, likenobody stays here.
(09:59):
So, yeah, I go back to Italyand run the ski school there
without a couple of guys thathelped me, and then I have most
of the pro tournaments are inEurope in the summer, so that's
great for me.
I can go in and out for theweekend, but I'm based in Italy
and then, yeah, the winter,usually from middle and
September till June, I'm here.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
That was a lot.
I mean, that was awesome.
Oh, sorry man, no, that wasgreat, because that was just so
much of who you are and whatyou're about and how it all came
out.
I didn't realize that there'sski teams with colleges.
Yeah, I had no idea, so that'swhy I love doing this podcast.
I learned so many things, whichis really cool.
Louisiana Monroe is where youwent to school.
What are some of the other bigtime players in college then?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Monroe and Loughby.
At both on Louisiana RagingCajuns and we were the Indians,
now that were the Warhawks.
I remember getting like three,four scholarship.
There was one in Florida, onein Arizona State University I
think they were offering smallerscholarship but I couldn't
speak English.
So I had a couple of friendsfrom Italy, from my Italian team
, that they were readingLouisiana and the Louisiana
(11:03):
programs were more complete asfar as for a student, like they
were offering full scholarshipand because they won so many
national titles the school wasfunding a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Wow, okay, very cool.
So you made the right decisionas far as financially and things
like that go for sure.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
No, it was great experience because I you know
you always seen the movies butit was actually like the movies.
You know, like you go throughnationals of Waterski collegiate
tournaments that doesn't happenin Europe, they don't have that
and there's like 50 teams orwhatever.
There's like a bunch of kidsand they look at you like you're
God because I was one of thebest ones, but a lot of them
(11:43):
were just there for fun, youknow.
Yeah, more excuse to party andwe were not able and allowed to
party unless we were winning.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So, serious business with you guys.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Well, I mean, the money came from the school so
they couldn't let us get drunkduring the day.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, and you know trying to ski the next day with
a hangover or whatever else.
Wow, Okay, Awesome.
So yeah, I came to US not evenspeaking any English.
You speak great English now.
I mean it's been whatever yearsI speak four languages.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So I pick up languages pretty quick.
In Europe we learn earlydifferent languages.
I mean I could speak a littlebit of English, but it was very
like basic.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Minimal.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, yeah, like hi, my name is Thomas.
How are you?
You know like that, but so itwas a little hard the first year
to the school program for mebecause I couldn't understand
much the teachers and some stuffalready learned.
But so yeah, it was a littlebit challenging.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Did you learn the Louisiana English?
What is that?
Cajun or whatever, However theyspeak down there, louisiana.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I remember one time I was in aclass and the teacher wrote on
the board like Y, apostropheA-L-L, and I was looking through
my dictionary back then Likewhat the hell is this?
Y'all yeah I went to theteacher after I say excuse me,
I'm from Italy.
What does that mean, y'all?
(13:06):
And I was like I can't find it.
And she goes oh, you all, I'mlike whoa.
If you don't speak properEnglish, how can I know Exactly,
how do you learn that?
Something funny though.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, that's great.
So your father's passed away.
Your mom still helps you.
She's here for the holidays.
You have a brother.
Is your brother older oryounger?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
My brother is older.
He was a water skier at first,but then he never really liked
it, so he pursued what he reallywanted, like he was in music a
little bit, but then he studiedpsychology, became a doctor in
psychology Wow, yeah, yeah.
So he has his own practice and,yeah, he does that and it's
pretty good.
He has two kids and no, I getto see him in the summer.
He came here last year.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Okay, so he's still in Italy, your brother.
Yeah, he's still in Italy.
Yeah, good, so you got a nieceor nephew there in.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Italy.
Yeah, two nephews, two nephews,very cool, all right.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Very good Family for you, married or anything or no?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Well, no, dodge the bullet.
A couple of times, a couple oftimes I was engaged and then
let's not get in there.
But it didn't work out, no, sofar.
No, it's hard to date somebodylike with the mentality of the
athlete, you know, because Ilive for what I do and I'm sure
all the other athletes do.
We travel a lot.
It's not easy to understand.
(14:18):
I always say to whoever I'mgoing out because, like, it's
not going to be easy, becausethere's times that are going to
be gone, there's times that Ineed to put my 100% effort in
this and this is my DNA, this iswho I am, you know, and I
always say it first.
So maybe we'll come aroundsomebody.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
But Just looking at you here and I know people might
see some snippets of this.
They're not going to, it'smostly just audio, but you look
like an athlete and from what Iread, are you your six foot four
.
Is that correct, is that?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
correct yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
So you're six four.
You've got a great look as anathlete.
So that takes effort.
You got to work like an athlete, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I'm not fighting anymore.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Well, you still look good, so it's carrying over, I
guess.
Good, I'm good at food.
Yeah, there you go.
Good at time, right.
I don't know a whole lot aboutprofessional water skiing.
I've only just skiedrecreationally a couple of times
, like years ago when I was inhigh school.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
What?
Okay.
So when I've watched some ofyour videos, is it pretty much
just slalom.
You're kind of going back andforth around the buoy Like kind
of explain give us a littlebasic education if you don't
mind.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
In water skiing there's three main.
There's three disciplines.
There's slalom, tricks and jump.
Jump is whoever goes furthestout of the ramp.
Tricks.
You have two Passes of 20seconds.
You do the best tricks that youcan do and each trick has a
point, a sign point.
Okay, so I know is a littledifferent.
So there's a set of buoys, abow path where the bow goes
straight, and there'salternative.
(15:42):
Left and right there's sixbuoys, so the bow goes straight.
We go around six buoys, gpsspeed of 36 miles an hour, so
the boat go by itself.
The driver has to go straight.
Just in perspective.
It's every time we finish apass in a tournament.
We make the rope shorter, so westop, and each rope has a
different colors, if you look atit, and each color correspond
(16:04):
to rope length.
So whoever runs more buoys withthe shortest rope wins.
So every time we conclude apass of six buoys, we stop, the
rope get shortened.
If we miss a buoy or we fall,it's game over, normal again.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Thank you for explaining that to me, because I
was trying to figure it out.
I'm like the boats got to begoing the same speed for
everybody, so it's not quick.
It can't be speed of goingaround these things, it's got to
be how you're going around them.
That makes total sense.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
You can like.
If you go around the buoy andyou fall, that's half a buoy.
If you get to the buoy a littlebit earlier, it's quarter buoys
, a full buoy.
You have to go around the buoyand come back to the center,
right behind the boat, to be Incase you don't get to the next
one, you know.
So you have to go around thebuoy in order to get a piece of
a buoy or a complete buoy.
So you can have like two and ahalf, two and a quarter or three
(16:52):
.
These are the three.
There's a quarter, half and afull buoy.
A buoy always Counts a lot, youknow, because we all so tight
at a shortest line.
So if you think about it, aboutit like, where does the pylon
of the boat is to the buoy?
I don't know your feet, I knowin meters it's 11, 11.5 meters.
So what is it?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
37 feet or something about 30 something feet.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, close to 40 we get to a point where the rope is
like six feet shorter than thatdistance.
So we have to use that.
That's why there's so muchAcceleration, more than a
formula one car, because thebogos 36, but we decelerate
around the buoy about 1520 andin a Six feet we are about 75,
(17:33):
80.
So the force there's a lot by.
I Think it's 3g is a force ormaybe more, I don't know.
The force on your body it'sincredible.
So it looks brutal, but if youlearn out, you know, with
correct position and Of courseworking out helps, you have to
be strong because it's notinjuries start coming, but it's,
it's pretty cool, like it'spretty cool if you see a front
(17:55):
of boat perspective.
It's live, it's really, reallycool.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
It's very interesting Just watching some of your
videos.
It was impressive and you beingsix foot four, that's got to
help a little bit right.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
That's how we have a bigger reach, but it doesn't,
because my center of gravity isa lot higher than somebody that
is lower.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Okay, yeah, so you got a positive and a negative.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Correct he that I generate.
It's harder somebody that isshorter, it's harder to reach
his feet, you know.
So you don't want to be tootall, but you don't want to be
too short.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
This is awesome.
This is great for me to hear itbecause I'm just learning all
this cool stuff.
So let's kind of go back toyour childhood a little bit.
So you're kind of growing up onthe water.
Your mom goes down there with aboyfriend, meet your dad.
They end up, they end uphitting it off, getting married
here.
You and your brother come along.
So you're kind of raised onthis, this lake.
In the summer it's part for meto imagine a little bit, because
I, you know you picture lakesof people waterski.
(18:45):
It's usually desert areas orwarm areas like Florida.
Yeah you're about this like amountain lake, right?
I mean, this is pine trees andlike mountains all around it.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, yeah.
So this is like a big naturallake and my area is very they.
They're very conservative abouthaving boats and environmental
Hazard on our area.
So there's no boat allowed inour lake, only small, four
horsepower for likeTransportation or or fishing.
(19:13):
So very small boats.
Because in water skiing youwant always flat conditions.
So we're very lucky that ourlake is not open to the public.
So there's no jet skis, there'sno big wake surf boat, there's
nothing, so you are the onlyboat on the lake.
Correct so well.
There's lifeguards that havebigger boats, but they know, we
know it.
We know it so well thatwhenever they go through the
(19:35):
course, unless there's emergency, they'll we stop idle and then
take over again.
Yeah, we're friend.
Well, we offer them lunch everyday, so hey yeah, that's the
smart, smart businessman rightthere.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
That's smart, yeah for sure.
So you grew up learning how toski.
Now I see you got a ski in yourbackground here.
It's like once you're just onone ski, right.
So in slalom.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
It's one ski.
You have one foot in front ofthe other one.
So you have them, yeah, stackup in front, one in front of the
other one.
For jumping there's two skisand Trick, it's a smaller ski,
like 40 inches, compared to likea 67 inch ski, and if the back
foot is always Tilted becauseyou're a lot quicker to make
flips and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
So you're growing up in the water, you're doing this,
you find out, you kind of likeit.
Your first competition, we say,was junior nationals in Europe,
or what.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Now my first tournament.
Actually, my parents used toorganize.
It's the Mickey Mouse trophy,which was sponsored by Disney,
really okay.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
And how old were you for this one?
I was like seven or eight.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Okay, just a young kid, just run young, yeah, maybe
a little bit like ten or.
But I remember that my parentsorganized is so good that Disney
sent Minnie and and MickeyMouse costumes and that's
something that doesn't happenevery day, like I remember that
my dad was like was telling methroughout the years I was like
(20:59):
so hard to get a real deal likethe real Mickey Mouse costumes
and Minnie and there was like300 kids coming from all around
the world to do this tournament.
So those kind of where, like myfirst big tournaments that I
consider big back then, yeah,then if you do well and in some
like Italian tournaments, if theteam, the Italian team, will
(21:19):
take you to like Europeans andWorld Championship juniors, you
know level.
So 94 I did my first EuropeanJunior tournament.
I didn't go well but in 95 Iwon okay, so 94, not as good 95.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
You won.
So you have to go though as ateam.
You're part of the Italian team, right?
So you're competing as a team,like you get a score as a team
as well, and then it's no, it'sstill individual.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
But you bring points team, so there's a, there's a
team Standing at the first atthe end of the tournament.
So like, let's say, team USAhad the best scores or team
Italy had the best scores.
They add up those numbers andthen a presentation of the teams
.
The most it's it's individual,but it's still in a video.
Yeah, I still compete for Italy, but I don't do it for of
(22:04):
course I do it for the team, butit's me.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, and that's kind of let's like runners, you know
, runners at college and stuff.
They're representing theircollege or whatever, but they're
still running for theirindividual, their individual
races and trying to do theirbest.
Very good.
So 1995 you did it, you youwanted.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, it was great.
And then I decided to Doculinary school because in Italy
you can do in high school, youcan do Kind of in preparation of
what you want to be in future.
So there's like plumbing school, there's engineering, there's
electrical, there's hair cutters, cooking.
I don't know why, because mysome of my friends did it.
(22:40):
I did cooking culinary schoolso I was doing it all more
classes, but I also was learninghow to cook.
And those were the years that Istart getting bigger Because I
was eating all day.
I was in the kitchen in schoola lot.
So those years for me were notso good as far as a Tournament
results.
But then, once I got out of it,start losing weight and that
(23:03):
was the year of 2000, 2001 andyou know the results of coming
with the team under 21 and fastforward.
You know, after the world's inItaly I am I won my first World
Championship title in 2007 inAustria Great best memory of my
life because my parents werethere.
Then in 2009, in Canada, sincethey are every two years, I got
(23:23):
second.
My dad was there.
Then in 2011,.
I won in Russia, then I secondin 15, second in 21, and this
year didn't go so well.
Conditions were not so wellThen I chased every pro
tournament around.
So two World titles, I don'tknow, three silver medalists, 10
(23:47):
European titles and eight or 29pro-tour stop winners, the
European championships that youdo in Europe, do they kind of
rotate all over Europe?
Correct.
Every year is a different,different, different.
I won this year and I won thelast four in a row.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Where was this most recent one?
Where did it take place?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
This one was in Italy this summer, close to where I'm
from, nice.
The year before was in Milan.
So two back to Italy, which isunusual.
The year before was in Greece,the year before was in Spain.
Next year they're talking aboutFrance, but we'll see.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
And then, of course, the worlds are like you said.
You've been to Russia andyou've been in.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Malaysia, china, canada, chile everywhere.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Where was the first one that you won?
Where are you both?
I?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
was seven.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And where was that at ?
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Austria.
So very close like I drove up.
Oh, okay, you drove up verygood A bunch of people came up
and watched from my door.
That's cool, very good, yeah,really cool yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So tell me about that feeling when you won that one,
when you found out you won, Idon't know, do you know kind of
at the moment, or did you haveto wait for some other people to
compete?
Like how did you know?
When did you find out you won,and what was that like?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I was, I think, fourth last on the dock in the
finals, so I had like four moreguys after me, but I knew the
score that I put up was prettygood.
I didn't think somebody wouldbeat me but I was thinking
somebody can tie me and if theytie me then there's a runoff.
So I was staying warm andgetting ready, sitting on the
(25:15):
dock when the last one went out,and with my coach and the
doctors and another team memberor something, and yeah, when
they didn't beat me, it was like, you know, like as soon as you
win, everybody comes up to you,your phone's starting and it's
crazy, like I ran to my parentsthat were on the other side of
the lake, you know, and I don'tknow it.
Just it takes so a little bitof while to kind of like step
(25:38):
away from it.
Once you get back home andrealize what you do, you know
and what you just did, and Imean you got your world champion
forever Right, and it's a cool,the coolest thing ever.
You know, I won the Masters, Iwon all of the event, the slimes
we call them the slimes, likekind of like in tennis.
(26:00):
I won all the big events, youknow, but something about the
world, since we don't haveOlympics.
You know, the world is the mostprestigious.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And it's great that you're both.
Your parents were there.
You got to have them with you.
How has that been?
How has the support been fromyour family?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
You know I always say , like without my parents I
would never be where I am now.
You know I owe everything tothem, pretty much because, even
with limited, I mean, we're notrich.
You know, okay, it's not thatwe were missing food on the
table, but we're not like, hey,let's go on vacation for a month
.
You know, like that didn'thappen, but they gave me always
(26:37):
an opportunity to live the bestlife.
And you know, like and with theright of vices, and never told
me no, like if you feel likeyou're going to do it, this is
my opinion.
You know, no, I owe everythingto them.
You know, like they'reeverything to me.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
How about injuries?
Have you dealt with anyinjuries or did you get in good
enough shape to where you'vebeen?
Okay, I had some back problemsin the past.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Actually, he's getting much better now, like
the last two, three years hasbeen great.
But four or five years ago Iwas at the stage that I couldn't
even walk, like my hips wereout of alignment.
I went every kind of doctorpossible in the world and I
changed my bed and it changed mylife Incredible.
I changed my mattress.
Really.
That was the trick, wow.
(27:21):
And it was funny because I wasgoing back to Europe in the
summer, in Italy, and a weeklater I was great, like I was.
It was incredible.
I was like what is it?
Is the food, is it?
And I never thought about thebed, the mattress, you know.
And then I realized that hereit was common to have the
(27:42):
mattress and a pillow top on top.
We don't use that.
There's no pillow top.
So the softness even if I was astiff mattress was always
causing me to have a curve and Iwas like I was getting good for
a while and then I startedskiing and pushing hard in the
gym and I would start gettingbad again and I couldn't figure
out what it was.
It's like I can't stand hereanymore.
(28:03):
You know, like I was certainpoints I couldn't even walk.
I was hurting just standinglike laying on the floor, and
then I started buying a mattress.
Is that?
At some point I had like fivemattresses laying around the
house and I keep rotating themand then I finally find the one
that I have and I'm straight asan arrow?
Incredible.
Huh, that is incredible.
I looked it up so much.
You spend 33 years in bed inaverage life.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Wow, that's a lot of time.
I need my wife to hear thisbecause we have this pillow top
that drives me nuts.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah, so never again pillow top and it's been great.
Yeah, so that was.
Of course water skiing didn'thelp, because it's very
symmetrical.
You have one floor one hip isin front of the other one and I
mean we pull serious, heavyloads on our back.
But if you stay healthy, youeat right, you take care of your
body, then you can do it aslong as I'm doing it, you know.
(28:55):
And no other injuries, no knockon wood.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, good for you.
And, speaking of that, how longyou've been doing it.
You're what?
42?
42, yeah, 42 years old andyou're still going strong.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Oh yeah, ice ski.
Today was freezing, but it wasawesome.
Freezing in Florida doesn'tsound very normal, but the water
was cold.
It was like in the 50s.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Oh wow, yeah, that is chilly yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
And I was like, oh, this is a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Any experiences or stories that you would mind
sharing, of whether it was atournament or whether it was
just a moment that you learnedsomething, or just kind of what
you think would be fun for theaudience to hear the guests you
know the people listening tohear about something that maybe
you went through.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Well, I mean for sure last year was the toughest year
of my life when I lost my dad,because he was my mentor, my
rock, my best friend.
You know he's the one thatbrought me to all these
achievements and titles and Imean he was sick for a while.
But you know, you can kind ofalways wonder how it's gonna end
.
You know, yeah, last year wasreally tough, like really tough,
(30:02):
and it still is now.
You know, like it's been alljust a little over a year and
you know, first year I thinkyou're kind of in shock of
what's going on.
And then the second year islike you start realizing a
little bit, hey, he's not reallyhere anymore.
You know, you start reallymissing him.
So that's been kind of hard andfor sure that's been the
(30:23):
toughest year of my life and formy mom and but my mom she's
doing okay now, so that's good.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
What do you do to kind of overcome that?
Because I'm in the boat, Istill both my parents are still
around.
I'm a few years older than youand you know you never know
something could happen any timeto any of us.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's nothing really you can
do.
The only good thing that in allthis bad picture is like I was
in Italy, you know.
I didn't go to any tournamentsduring the time and I was there
with him until the end, from thebeginning until the end, you
know.
And my mother, my mom, mybrother, all their relatives
(31:00):
were there.
So of course, if he was sickand I was in Florida I would
just close everything and go.
But I was there from thebeginning and you know I held
his hand until the end and I wastalking to him until the end.
Yeah, it's something like youcan't prepare.
Be prepared for this thing, youknow.
But the memories that I have,growing up at a ski school with
(31:20):
him and going to tournaments andhe was taking me around
everywhere, for him water skiingbecame everything, you know.
It was almost obsessed becauseit became part of the DNA, is
everything he was doing, and forme to succeed so much in the
sport for him was everything.
So it bonded us so much.
(31:41):
I'm too, because I left home togo to Louisiana.
Well, for Europe is early, likeat 20 years old, and being away
kind of brought me back closerto my family.
So again, this bond that wascreated because of the sport,
because of the same ideas, thesame passion, and then we got so
(32:03):
close and the last 10 yearsthey were here, like in Florida,
for three months duringChristmas and we spent time
together.
We go everywhere.
Oh, just for me it's nothingbest, it was like nothing better
than that.
It was great.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Love that.
Thank you for sharing that, andI know it's hard.
You lost someone who's meanteverything to you and oh yeah,
thank you for sharing that,because I think people like to
hear that, like to know who youare.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, I mean a lot of people.
Just, you know, just see mypictures, and but it's hard
sometimes to tell your storybecause you know it's like if
somebody else tells it it'sdifferent, like I'm not just
going to get on the phone andsay, hey, this is my story.
You know, family is everything,man, it's, it's who we are and
where we come from.
And if we don't, if we don't,you know I'm knowledge that I'm
(32:49):
here because of them, then Idon't know it's like when my mom
is gone.
I call her every day.
You know when my dad was aliveand I was here, like every day.
You know, just five minutes aday.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
That's all.
I love that.
Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, family.
Without a doubt, that's mynumber one priority as well, so
I appreciate you sharing that.
What does the future hold forThomas?
What do you think?
Where are you going to be goingwith this?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Well, I'm still going .
You know, I've been askingmyself when is going to be the
day that I'm just going to hangthis key on the wall.
I've been asking us that forfive or six years now, you know.
But the passion drives me to beyoung, you know, I think my
main, the thing that makes methe most well, let's say, I'm
(33:31):
still competitive and I'm stillwinning and I'm still successful
, because I love this game somuch.
But it's not just the game,it's just the journey that takes
me to where I am and whatbrought me to that?
So my family bonds again, youknow, it gives me a purpose.
Like, without a purpose, Iwouldn't be going to the gym
every day, like, you know, Iwouldn't wake up early in the
(33:53):
morning to go to the gym.
I wouldn't want to, like, Iwouldn't want to stay in shape,
but I wouldn't be so strictabout it.
I want to ski when it's coldoutside?
No, but it keeps me young.
It keeps me, it gives me a goal, which is every year is a new
goal, and for me there's nostopping.
I love it too much and as longas my body can do it and I can
(34:14):
still compete with the otherguys, I will do it.
It's not even a passion anymore, it's a way of life, you know.
And of course sometimestournaments don't go well and I
get angry and I get upset.
But because I care and people'slike asking me, like on the
dock, are you still gettingnervous before tournaments?
Like, of course, the day thatI'm gonna not get nervous on the
dock is the day that I'm gonnaquit, because doesn't mean it
(34:35):
means that I don't care.
I don't care as much.
So my fire, my anger inside isstill very much alive and I want
to pursue myself, maybe becauseI'm a little wiser now and I
want to work harder, to bebetter, but not just in sport,
in life in general and with myrelationship with people.
So the day that you know youstop learning or you stop
(34:59):
wanting to improve, that's theday that you're going to stop
doing whatever you're doing.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Can you take us through kind of a typical day
for you, Like not a tournamentday, but just like maybe a day
that you're training or whatever?
What's kind of a typical dayfor Thomas.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
What is skiing?
It's not golf, it's notbaseball, it's there's no much
money involved.
Okay, so I kind of follow whatmy dad did, which is coaching,
and I love it because I'm aperson.
I'm a person, people person,sorry, sometimes I'm a people
person.
I like hanging out and knowingand learning about new people.
(35:31):
Why not sharing my knowledgewith others, you know?
And so ski school, of course,allows me to, you know, be able
to travel and do whatever I cando and I want to do.
So my day is I wake up in themorning, depending on the day.
So, like now, it's kind of likeslow season as far as coaching,
because it was the end of this,just the season ended.
(35:52):
People don't really want totravel, they want to rest and
holidays and everything.
So I have a lot more time in myhands, jim, in the morning, not
a mama Mazeer, come back lunchwith her, hang out with her,
take her shopping a little bit,some lessons, depending on the
day, you know.
Then I ski and then I will do alittle workout, maybe a home
(36:12):
and night that's it.
Having dinner with my mom cooktogether, you know, I ask her
all the time it's like how canyou make it so good and I do the
same thing and I can't.
She's like oh, we ended updoing it together, you know, and
that's another thing Like weshare time together, we share
these memories together, so it'sgreat, yes, it's very easy, and
it sounds like, you know, like,oh, you don't do much, but then
(36:33):
when it's tournament season,which right after New Year's Eve
, the first pro tournament is inMarch, it's in Australia.
That's the time that it's timeto get serious again.
You know, like the lasttournament this year was the
World Championships and itdidn't go well for me.
Conditions were really hard, soa lot of the top guys didn't do
well, but I was like, you knowwhat, I'm not going to waste any
(36:54):
time this year.
I'm not going to wait untillike January to start working
out and go to the gym.
I was like I felt like I didn'tdeserve to have a break because
I'm so tough on myself, youknow.
So, yeah, maybe I didn't skifor a week or a few days or
whatever, but comes like, okay,the tournament is over 23, is
over 24 starts now and I startgoing to the gym.
(37:16):
You know, I started watchingwhat Are you Better?
I started doing this.
I do exercises, I have myroutines and once you start
getting to this mechanism ofgoing and going and going, it's
really hard to stop Because,again, the mentality of the
athlete is not.
We're never happy enough of theresults.
You know, I won a big pro eventlike two weeks before the
(37:39):
Worlds, and it gave me a goodboost of confidence, you know.
And like the tournament was onSaturday, on Sunday we're flying
back to Orlando and people waslike I had a couple podcasts and
they're like so are youenjoying this week?
I'm like.
I was like whoa, did you goparty?
And I'm like no man, we haveWorlds in two weeks or three
weeks.
(37:59):
I was like, come on.
I was like, no, this is not theway I do it.
Maybe I'm too tough on myself,but that's the way, but I enjoy
it.
I enjoy it.
You know, it's not a punishmentto me, you know, it's just
where I am.
And now, with the routine ofgoing to the gym early and often
, like I went, I think I wentevery day in the last three
(38:23):
weeks, you know.
So it's hardcore.
Like I go hard on it, you know,and just be committed to go
every day.
You know I when I could say I'mtired, I want to take a day off
.
And of course, I got to listento my body.
Sometimes this is the time thatI can push, because when I
start traveling I have to skimore, you know.
So I have to do more time inthe water instead of in the gym,
(38:45):
and yeah, so from March untilSeptember, october, sometimes
November it's hectic so this isthe time that I now I can enjoy
my mom and have a little bit ofbreak, Exactly, Take advantage
of that time You're stillworking hard.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
I sometimes wonder that about, about athletes and
people like you like.
If you're too hard on yourselfand you kind of admitted that
you are, but you said you likeit though that's you kind of
thrive on that and that's kindof who you are.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I read some articles and there's actually a couple of
books that they talk about.
The mentality of the athletesis completely different of sorry
, a normal person like some thatis not an athlete.
Sure, and the drive and youknow, the commitments that are
evolving around being an athleteare incredible, and then it
translates to everything in life.
(39:30):
So, everything I do, if Icannot do it right, I'm not
going to do it, but if I, if Iknow I can't do it right, I'm
gonna give my 100% until it'sover, you know.
I think, you know, as I said,yeah, my parents gave me a great
opportunity to travel the world, me new people, see new
cultures, learn, learn languages.
Being here in a beautiful lake,on the lake, beautiful house on
(39:51):
the lake in Florida.
I gotta be appreciative ofeverything that brought me here.
You know it's the journey that.
Makes everything better.
Of course I can win on Sundayand be happy.
I talk to everybody, tons ofcall, phone calls, photos and
everything.
But then on Monday you startover.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
I mean, you said it, it's the journey.
That's why I do journey withJake, because I love, I love the
journey, I love the, whatpeople do to get to where they
are.
It's, it's incredible.
I appreciate that We've beenchatting for quite a while.
I don't want to take up toomuch of your time, especially
away from your mom.
I do want to ask you kind ofone last question.
So you got some, I don't know,10 year old, 11 year old Italian
(40:29):
kid or American kid who'sthinking, hey, I like to ski.
What would you tell them?
What would you tell them asthey're looking to maybe get
into skiing?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
It's a beautiful unknown sport Because back in
the 90s was, it was a hot sportbecause it was an ESPN with hot
summer nights.
I don't know if you ever seenit I didn't see it because I was
in Italy, but I rewatch it soit was broadcasting on ESPN all
the pro tournaments every summer, every week.
So what would I tell?
You know, it's a little bitunknown but it's a great sport.
(40:59):
You're out in the nature, outin open air, in the water.
You have, you know, the wind,the water, the adrenaline, the
speed.
It's just you and yourself.
And it's such a great sportbecause it's such a complete
sport and it's so competitiveand there's never an ending goal
, like there's never ending goalas far as like, okay, I want to
break the world record, butthen you want to re-break it.
(41:21):
You know, and I think it's just,I don't know it, just it gives
you so, like, people that waterski and people that don't water
ski don't understand.
But people that water ski,they're addicts, like, I'm sure,
in many other sports.
But there's people that theyare like obsessed, like there
it's their life.
You know, it's great people.
(41:41):
It's a clean sport, there's,there's no much drama.
You know, it's just, it's a bigfamily.
That's what it is.
It's a big family and everybodyhelp each other and the coolest
thing about water to ski is youcan come ski with me Any day of
your life.
Tell me when you can go playgolf with Tiger Woods?
Never, so that's the coolestthing, you know.
(42:03):
You can go to water skier andski with them and meet with them
and chat with them and that'sso cool.
Like the kids, you know theylove it and I coach kids here
all the time and they're like atfirst, when the condor, like
their eyes are like this, I cansee it and then we become
friends and I teach them andthen I see their improvement and
for me, so rewarding, you know,no, it's cool, it's the coolest
thing.
(42:23):
The coolest thing is becauseit's small and we're trying to
grow it, but it's small and itwill stay small because the
people in it not as far as likethe sport is growing, because
it's coming back.
It is a comeback in the sport,but the people in it stays the
same as far as accepting newpeople and Treat people
correctly, you know.
(42:43):
So the coolest thing is likeyou can go to any pro water
skier and talk to them and itdoesn't happen in all the other
sports.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Absolutely, and here I am talking to you this.
For me, this is awesome, I loveyour professional water skier
and I get the chance to talk toyou.
To me, that's just.
I love it for me, so Iappreciate it.
Thomas, this was fantastic.
I got to know a little bit moreabout your sport, about who you
are, and I love who you are asa person, how much you care
about family, how that'simportant to you.
(43:11):
I Think it's fantastic.
I appreciate everything youshared with us.
Thanks for coming on journeywith Jake.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Yeah, it was great.
Thank you for having me and Iappreciate the time that you
gave me.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Special thanks to my guest, thomas de Gasperi, for
coming on the show chatting withme.
That was a lot of fun for me.
I was super inspired by what hehad to share.
I appreciate his honesty,talking about his father, just
the things that he's gonethrough.
I know that meant a lot to him.
I'm grateful that he was ableto come on the show and chat
about that with me.
Check him out.
Give him a follow on Instagram.
You can find him at.
(43:43):
This is T gas.
It's at.
This underscore is underscore Tgas.
That's this underscore isunderscore T gas.
Check him out on Instagram.
A lot of fun things to checkout from Thomas see what he's up
to, see how he's doing in Hisprofessional water skiing career
.
What a great conversation.
Thanks to each and every one ofyou.
(44:05):
Listening to journey with Jakeeach and every week.
It really means a lot to me.
I appreciate it very much.
Just remember, it's not alwaysabout the destination as it is
about the journey.
Take care everybody.
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