We have one of our locals for the next rider in
the spot light. Soco Joe, a true supporter of WakeFactory. He has been with us since the very begging, tossing out ideas and helping out whenever we needed it. Even when we when on shutdown for awhile, he still sported the WakeFactory stickers
and always talked about how we needed to bring
the wake scene back to Guntersville. Last year was my first time back on the water in 2 years and who did I run into...Soco Joe. We had a day of riding and hitting his rails. As we did, we had time to reflect about the ol' boardshop and all the riding we use
to do. As i was leaving I saw a couple of the old WakeFactory stickers on his Pathfinder, so I said something about it. His reply, "dude, you gotta get the Factory started back up." That was all it took. He may not realize it, but he is the main reason we decided to go back on line...THANKS BRO!!

Name: Soco Joe (aka: Joe Jones)

Age: 26

Height/Weight: 5’10” / 145 lbs.

Hometown: Guntersville, Alabama

What kind of boat you cruising around in? 2002 Super Air Nautique 210 team. Any jet ski we can con off someone to hit rails with.

What boards/skates are you riding on? Either a Roam or a LF Press 142 Without the fins on with Closed toe Shane Bindings and a Byerly Legacy
39" Wakeskate.

Have you had any injuries? This might take awhile. First I tore my ACL and Meniscus, after surgery and 2 1/2 months of therapy i was back riding feelin good and fell out the front on a big heelside nose
grab and broke my Femur. That shit hurt for real. Since then my knee has been real unpredictable. I've had two more surgerys since then, so now i just wake skate and hit rails. I have definately paid my
dues to the sport I love.

What crew do you ride with? I mostly ride with G'ville locals like Dustin Middlebrooks, Zac Shifflet, Codeye (i don't even know his real name), Jathan Stisher, and Brian "Butters" owens. Theres also alot of riders from nearbye lakes that I shred with pretty regularly like Shaun Nelson, Jason Long, Mark Marbot, T.J. Allen, and Matt "Pokey" Wright.

How did you get started riding? I grew up here on the lake tubing and knee boarding, then at the beginning of the 96 summer my dad came
home with a wakeboard. It was an Icon, Jeremy Kovak pro model. It was taller then me at 147. Once i cleared the wake that first time I was hooked!

What are you doing to push the sport in your area? Thats Actually my main focus these last few years is progressing our local scene through just takin out the local kids that don't always have a pull, Organizing photo and video shoots of the riders here that deserve some exposure, and by building rails so we dont haft to drive to Orlando all the damn time. I just want Guntersville to be known as a great freeriding lake with friendly locals who are Alwayz willin to help out a fellow rider. Oh and we Party pretty hard in the summer!

Have you gone on any fun trips this last year? Hellz yeah! Me and Dustin flew down to Orlando last September for surf expo without any hotel reservations or anything. I was kinda worried where we were gonna stay but Dustin just kept sayin "Don't worry bout it bro...people will let us stay with um. Sure Enough without shellin out a dime we stayed 4 different places 4 different nights and all 4 places were a blast, Not to mention one night we stayed with Rob Corum and J.D. Webb. Everyone involved in the scene down there is so friendly and they know how to party. We also went to The Pro Tour in
Acworth, Wakefest in Nashville, and Step Up Production's rail jam in Knoxville.

What do you think about the upcoming event? Well its def the best location I've ever seen for a wake event. Havin all the bars and condos on the water will make for a weekend without cars...and DUI's.
I think the fact that there are some sliders not a mile from the event site and the night time rail jam will bring in some people that wouldn't normally show up to a wake 2 wake only contest. Also the
guys from the Wake Factory are putting in alot of work to make sure everything is ready and getting plenty of sponsors so everyone can go home with free swag.

Are you riding in it? I'm nomaly not a contest rider but since this event is going on practically in my back yard I'm gonna enter the wakeskate class
as long as we don't have to go first early in the
morning. And I'm def gonna rep G'ville in the rail jam.

Give us a closing statement to wrap this interview up. I'm running out of questions: I just wanna thank my parents for raising me in the water and allowing the scene here in town to take place from their
backyard. I wanna thank the WakeFactory for considering me for this interview. I wanna thank Ian from dirtbag productions for taking a chance on us and getting Guntersville it's first bit of exposure
through his video. My homie Butters for building these awesome rails for us. I wanne thank Zac at Adroit Photography for constantly documenting the progression and all the riders pushing the level of
riding around here. Also if anyone wants to come ride some rails you are welcome to come stay at the lake house and shred the gnar with us.