Las Vegas is home to some great names in sports, including Andre Agassi, Greg Maddux, Orel Hershiser and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. It’s also home to Rob Flores.
Flores, 40, is a top contender on the international circuit for Jet Ski racing. He’s been the nine-time National Championship title holder, is a three-time Pro-Am World Cup champ, three-time Expert World champ, two-time Japan World Cup champ, the 1995 Long Beach Indoor Arena champ and has taken the U.S. Regional Championship title 20 different times. That’s for U.S. Region No. 1, which includes California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.
His next competition is the International Jet Sports Boating Association Jet Ski World Finals, slated for Monday through Oct. 18 on Lake Havasu in Arizona.
Competitions can take Flores, who lives just north of Summerlin, across the country or across the world. Each event attracts as many as 10,000 spectators. The sport is popular internationally, too. He races in countries such as Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.
“I’m going to Thailand in December to race for the King’s Cup,” he said. “I haven’t won that one yet.”
Some years, Flores enters as many as 15 competitions. The purse for each win can mean a check for anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000. His best year brought in $90,000 in prize money.
“I’m not getting rich,” he said. “It’s not like I’m a football player.”
To supplement that income, he holds a supervisor job with a transportation company and repairs personal watercrafts through his own business, www.raceski.com.
Flores’ sponsors include Hydro-Turf, a mat company, Walts Motorsports and Fly Racing. They provide him with a stipend and things such as engine parts.
Tony Beck, general manager of Walts, said the World Finals win carried the most weight in the racing world.
“It’s a very big deal,” he said. “You’ve got 30 to 40 countries represented in a seven-day event.”
Brian Edwards, owner of RO Truck and Equipment, another sponsor, said, “It takes a strong personality to race. You have to have someone with the capacity to handle things when the going gets tough.”
Flores enters races in different divisions, using one of his two Jet Skis. The smaller one is the 85-horsepower “stock” Jet Ski. Its top speed is 52 mph. The larger one has a 220-horsepower engine and goes up to 65 mph. He said it was less thrilling to race the 85-horsepower one after being on the more powerful Jet Ski.
“It’s like cars,” he said. “After driving a Corvette, you don’t want to get into a Hyundai.”
He said the sport is as much mental as it is physical. He hangs back in the early portion of a 10- or 15-lap race, then picks the spots where he’ll pass other contenders.
Racing does not come without risk. Flores tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left leg during the 1994 competition season and didn’t let it slow him down. He kept racing. He’s also torn his ACL in his right leg and broken his wrist.
Flores’ schedule means constantly being on the road. A calendar in his garage is marked with upcoming competitions.
“So far this summer, I’ve driven coast to coast five times, back and forth,” he said.
There is no entry fee for spectators of the IJSBA Jet Ski World Finals.
For more information, visit www.ijsba.com.
By JAN HOGAN
VIEW STAFF WRITER
http://www.viewnews.com/2009/VIEW-Oct-06-Tue-2009/Summerlin/31521307.html
Contact Summerlin View and South Summerlin View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.
