WW: You were out of competitive wakeboarding since the first stop of the 1998 tour where you hurt your knee. What, exactly, did you do to it?
JK: I severed my ACL and I tore my MCL.

Jeremy Kovak (photo: LTen Magazine)

WW: How did you hurt it?
JK: Doing a front flip.

WW: So you just landed wrong on it?
JK: Yeah, I just landed the wrong way. It's a long story that goes into it. I had 6 months off the water. I took 3 months off to give my body a rest, and tried to come back to the United States.

WW: Is this the whole immigration problem you had?
JK: Yeah, that cost me another three months. So by the time I got to the U.S. I had 6 days before the tour stop and I went too hard and my body just…my condition wasn't up to par and my leg just kind of failed on me and went blahh. So that was another reason why. I did land wrong, but I just wasn't strong at that time and it went.

WW: Was that a partial tear?
JK: At the time it was a partial tear. I was going to get it taken care of, but the doctor told me to wait another month. Then I hurt it again. I did a whirly bird and banged it. Realizing something was wrong, I was going instantly to get surgery. However, I was convinced to just wear a brace and try to make the X Games. So I went to the X Games without ever riding on it at all. I just went straight to the X Games, put a brace on it, gave it a try and totally blew my knee out. So that's the story behind that.

WW: What were you doing when you blew it out the second time?
JK: The second time, which was a month after the first, I did a whirly bird and screwed it up, and at the X Games did an S bend and came down and just blew it out.

WW: Sounds like a painful year?
JK: Yeah, it was pretty shitty and each time it made it worse. By the time I went in to get it done I had severed my ACL and torn my MCL.

Jeremy Kovak (photo: Iconn Sports)

WW: How long did you wait before you started riding again after your surgery?
JK: My surgery was August 13th and I started riding mid January.

WW: What did your rehab consist of?
JK: Well for a month I had to just work on getting my knee back to being flexible and being able to straighten it. Just to being able to bend it and get reasonable motion back. Then once I got that back it was straight to the gym.

It was crazy because they used my hamstring to replace my ACL and when I was doing the hamstring lifts, like when you lay on your stomach and you lift with the backs of your feet, I couldn't lift the bar. I pulled the pin out so no weight was on it. It was just the bar. I could not lift it. I had to use my other leg to help me. It was the weirdest thing in the world.

WW: So if they use your hamstring, what do you use for a hamstring?
JK: Well they cut a piece of my hamstring, like the fiber, just a strip of it. Actually they took two strips of it and doubled up on it. You have a lot of muscle for your hamstring and they just used a piece of it.

WW: So you have to build that back up again as well?
JK: Yeah, so I had to work my hamstring back up again. Just the fact that my knee was one operation/tragedy and the cut into my hamstring was another thing in itself.

WW: So is that something that you are fully recovered from now or is that something you'll always be working on?
JK: Oh no, I'm 100% right now. Uhh, I almost had to bite my tongue. Nobody knows this right now, but I was 100% recovered and, actually, on Friday I blew my knee out again.

Jeremy Kovak (photo: Iconn Sports)

WW: Oh no!
JK: Yeah, it was Friday the 13th that just past and it was exactly one year to the date I had my last surgery. I went out just a couple days ago and did a whirly bird and came down wrong and blew my knee out. I thought it was gonna be way worse, like I couldn't walk. It swelled up worse. I had surgery yesterday. It was orthoscopic surgery. They removed my meniscus. I ripped my meniscus to shit and tore my outside ligament and I had surgery yesterday. I know this doctor pretty well and he was able to take me in, do it and get me out. The good thing is, I'll be riding in two weeks, so I thought it was gonna be way worse than what it was.

WW: Riding competitively or just riding?
JK: Well he said I'll be riding within a week or two and full force within a month. When I heard this I was, you know, "Wow!" because I knew what my knee felt like and I knew what it was like to blow it out. I thought I finished it and my career was done. I really thought, "if I have to take off another 6-9 months, by the time I come back I'm gonna be too worried about my knees. I'm gonna be too far behind." I thought, "I'm done, I gotta quit. I'm done wakeboarding." Fortunately, it was just my meniscus. You know, the meniscus in between your two bones at the top.

So the surgery was orthoscopic. He went in and said it was real bad. He took it right out and patched up a little chip in my bone. Believe it or not, Friday until yesterday morning I couldn't walk because it was so painful. I couldn't do anything. But if you saw me now you'd barely be able to tell there was anything wrong. I'm walking around completely fine. The doctor says in a week to two weeks I'll be able to ride and in a month I'll be full force.

WW: So it was the same knee?
JK: Yeah it was the same knee, but it was a completely different injury, what he did last year, I didn't hurt at all. He said it's perfectly fine and strong and not to worry. And it was the biggest relief of my life because I thought I was done.

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