Ryan Birch Big Air Memorial Competition 2009 results

When Lesley Birch lost her husband Tony and son Ryan, a promising young wakeboarder, in an aircraft accident following a competition, you’d be forgiven for thinking she’d want nothing more to do with the world of wakeboarding. However, two years on, Lesley has proved herself as an inspirational force in the arena of women’s wakeboarding. She competed for the first time in last month’s memorial competition for her boys, placing third in Open Women where 18 of the 50 amateur entrants overall were girls! Lesley now pledges to embrace her love for wakeboarding, and help encourage and inspire other female wakeboarders. Here’s her moving story.

This is my story - Lesley Birch

My name is Lesley and I am 54 years old, and I have worked as a teaching assistant in a local school for over 10 years. I was married to a fantastic man for 28 years and had two lovely boys aged 15 and 19. Ryan our younger son had a keen interest in wakeboarding, so my only hobby was taking him to our local lake at Chasewater most evenings and weekends to have either lessons or generally to ski. Our elder son Craig’s interest was mostly football and as my husband was a keen footballer himself so our time was spent between skiing and football matches.

We had been club members of Chase water for about 6 years and in that time Ryan’s ability had grown enormously, his wakeboarding, mono, trick and barefooting was an amazing sight to see! With his talent growing I embarked on towing our boat myself to the lake and home again and I even passed my SBDA so that I could drive for Ryan too. Ryan entered numerous wakeboarding competitions and was always placed in the top 3. We were so proud of him and his dream was to join the professionals like his idol Matt Crowhurst.

On the 5th August 2007 my life was shattered, I had gone out to France with friends for a waterskiing holiday on the 3rd August, Tony and Ryan had stayed behind due to Ryan competing in a competition on that Saturday, but they were going to join me on the 5th after the comp. Ryan wanted to ski as he was told that there would be talent scouts attending so it was important to him to be there. He was also excited about coming over to France in a small light aircraft that Tony had organised after the comp.

On that fateful evening of the 5th I was told that the plane that they were travelling in had crashed and that Tony and Ryan had died along with the pilot and another person. I was devastated; my thoughts were immediately with Craig who was alone at home. I could not comprehend life without my husband and son. Our family and friends have been tremendous, with their love, understanding and companionship we are still here today, but 2 years on I still miss them both terribly.

Chasewater Sports centre members and our friends have been amazing, after the accident which hit all our skiing friends hard they organised a special memorial book to Ryan and Tony which all members and friends signed, they also made a remembrance garden especially for them both. On the 10th July last year Ryan’s 16th birthday they kindly allowed us to scatter their ashes into the lake, the lake that Ryan loved so much.

It was sometime afterwards that I was asked “why didn’t I wakeboard”?, as I still spent every weekend there, well I did a little skiing before but I was always driving for Ryan so I never bothered really. So I decided to start to have some lessons, so each Thursday evening after school I would go over to Chasewater and have a wakeboard lesson, it turned out to be a weekly social event to meet up with other ladies having a go, learning the basics. It was a good release for me and I began to really enjoy myself. I get real enjoyment when out on the water, I feel close to my boys there! I find trying to do a move challenging (lots of face plants) but enjoyable and the social side is great, meeting new and old members, giving encouragement to others to join me out on the water.

Chasewater as a club has been everything to me, my son and my family. They have been there for us in my highs and also my lows. There is always someone there to chat to, whether talking about wakeboarding or anything else. I support with the cutting edge programme each weekend encouraging the young skiers to have a go. I am also the Ladies representative at the club, we still have our own boat which I still take over to the lake, gas up and launch myself each week for Craig (who has also taken up boarding) who is now a good skier. I drive the boats for others and also coach those who need a little help.

Last year the club decided to have a wakeboarding competition in memory of Tony and Ryan, it was called the Big Air, we were so overwhelmed by this gesture and our family fully supported the event, by helping every way we could, selling memorial wrist bands and T shirts. We could not believe how big the event would be! It was an amazing day, sun shining and flat water!! Young wakeboards competed just to be part of the celebration; we even had some pro riders enter. Tony’s flying colleagues did a fly past of micolights aircrafts that afternoon which was so emotional not just for my family, but for everyone who remembered them. It was a great day, we didn’t think it could be any better, then we had this years Big Air competition. A two day event bigger and even better.

I decided in my wisdom that while my son was going to be taking part in the competition I should enter myself! I felt very nervous so I asked friends what they thought about me entering. They all said it would be amazing and very fitting it would have made Tony and Ryan very proud. So I put my name down, I was so nervous I had only ever skied for fun, competitions were something else! My first run wasn’t the best but I really enjoyed the excitement and thrill of being there! I managed a couple of wake jumps and a 180 switch, I managed to come 4th out of 4 but that didn’t matter I thought of what Ryan would be saying “do this do that” ! Day 2 and I had to ski again so nervous again but my run this time was a lot better, so much so I came 3rd the shock on my face when the results came out said it all. Standing on the podium with girls who were a lot younger than me was inspirational, I was so proud of what I had achieved and hoped I would inspire other ladies to take part in such events.

The future now holds for myself to embrace the love I have of wakeboarding, to learn more. Give confidence to other ladies whether young or old to have a go even if its only to ride behind a boat. Be there for others who are in the same situation of loosing loved ones or just to be there. Encourage the young wakeboarders and skiing stars of tomorrow in the sport. Next year I have promised myself to enter Ryan’s competition again, but this time I’m going to go over the slider and kicker! A few of the ladies I ski with have already said I have inspired them to enter themselves next year, so I have a lot of practicing to do. But most of all to carry on enjoying the sport that Ryan and Tony loved.

Girls
1 Katie Batchelor
2 Charlotte Millward
3 Lauren Powell
4 Charlotte Bird
5 Kelly Barker
6 Lucy Mattimoe

Junior Women
1 Nancy Creedy
2 Becky Wood
3 Kim Roddie
4 Tabz Nixon
5 Layla Eyre

Open Ladies
1 Laura Middleton
2 Nicola Holmes
3 Lesley Birch
4 Shelly Nunn

Pro Ladies
1 Robbie Rendo
2 Jules Haley
3 Louise Nott

Sunday 11 October 2009 | Permalink