Interview with Britain’s fastest snowboarder, Jamie Barrow, on his jet powered snowboard speed record

After setting both the outdoor and indoor snowboard speed records in 2013, Jamie Barrow is officially Britain’s fastest snowboarder and has some more exciting projects coming up this year. We sat down for a catch up and he spilled the beans…

So Jamie, rumour has it you’ve got a very exciting project coming up involving electric jet engines of some kind?! What can you tell us?
Well, after seeing videos of my previous speed records, a guy called Adam at Dreamscience Propulsion contacted me and asked if I was interested in testing out his ‘Thrusters’ (electric jet engines). I said yes straight away, it sounded pretty exciting! So we briefly tested them in the UK and then came up with a plan to try them out properly somewhere with my snowboard. After doing some research, the frozen lake at St Moritz seemed perfect and the team at St Moritz said they were happy to support me, they’re even pisting a runway for the event! I’m off there next week with Adam to test the jet engines and see how fast I can go.
Has anyone done this type of speed record before?

No one has ever done anything like this before on a snowboard as far as I’m aware, so this is all pretty much unknown to us! 

What kind of risks are you expecting?

The jet engines themselves are perfectly safe but they’re not that light. This will affect my balance dramatically and make me more likely to catch an edge and fall over, which at speed isn’t that fun! Other than that it should be fine…!

How does this compare to the two records you set last year?

It’s completely different, in the other two records I relied on gravity to take me down the slopes. In this one, I’m on the flat and using the electric engines to propel me forward, so it’ll be really interesting to see how fast I can go.

What speed do you think you’ll get up to?

Honestly, I’ve got no idea! We’ll only know once we start testing them on the lake.

What other speed records or projects do you have in mind for the future?

There’s definitely a few similar projects in mind at the moment but we need to get the right support to make them possible.

What advice do you have for other budding speed demons?

Don’t fall over! No seriously, go for it, see what records you can break, push your limits and just enjoy yourself.
Jamie will be in St Moritz from 18th – 25th January attempting to set a speed record with the electric jet engines.

To keep up to date on this, you can follow Jamie on:

www.twitter.com/JamieBarrow_UK
www.facebook.com/JamieBarrowSnowboarder
www.jamiebarrow.com

Jamie’s electric jet engine speed record is being supported by:

GoPro
RedBull
DJI
Dreamscience Propulsion
St Moritz
Delazify
SnoKart
Summit Goggles
Varg Eyewear
Hats for the Hill

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