Catching Up With Jake Canada

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Tue, Nov 22 2011 11:43 am | Comments

Catching Up With Jake Canada
By Jordan Powell

Jake Canada

Three weeks after having the best season in his pro career, Jake Canada had a big get-off at Pala Raceway that resulted with a broken navicular. Since then, the MotoConcepts’ rider spent the majority of the off-season sidelined due to his injury, but he has remained optimistic about being back at 100-percent before the season starts up. Working with his trainer Charles Dao at Icon Sports Performance and Wellness Alliance in Murrieta, California, Canada has managed to keep up on his training regimen, even with a cast on his arm. Fortunately for Jake, his injury had a quick recovery time, and he was able to get his cast removed today. So, we called him up to see how everything has been going.

How has the off-season been going for you?

It’s been going pretty well, other than the fact that I haven’t been riding. After coming back from my vacation, I took my new MotoConcepts’ Honda out to Pala to put some laps in, and I ended up crashing on my third lap. I’m not sure what happened, but I know the bike cut out on me in the air and I went over the bars when I landed. So, I ended up breaking my navicular because of it. After that, I had to have surgery on my wrist, and I’ve been in a cast for about five weeks. I was able to get the cast removed today, though.

Canada will continue to ride for MotoConcepts for 2012, but he'll be riding a Honda CRF250R in the Lites class. Photo: Kinman

Were you pretty bummed at first?

Yeah, I was feeling pretty bummed because it was my first day on the new Honda, and I was feeling pretty good on it after three laps. It sucked, but it was a pretty quick injury to heal from because I already have my cast off now. Plus, I’ve been training with Charles Dao for the past couple of weeks, and he’s helped me out by keeping me in shape. Now that I have my cast off, Eddie Casillas is going to help me with my physical therapy so that I can get my wrist moving again.

How were you able to keep training with an upper-body injury like that? Were you only doing a bunch of cardio?

Well, because of my cast I was pretty much bulletproof. I was able to do pretty much every exercise that the other guys were doing, except for a couple. My wrist was pretty stable in my cast, so that helped out a lot. Now that I have it off, man, it’s definitely a lot harder to do some off those workouts [laughs]. But I’ve been able to do a lot of circuit training and cardio, so I should be good once I can ride again.

The 2012 season brings new numbers to almost all of the riders, and you'll now see the number 57 on the back of Canada's jersey instead of 592. Photo: Emter

As far as riding goes, you were one of the first riders on the MotoConcepts team to have a deal finalized, right?

Yeah. I’m pretty excited about that. The original goal for us was to race the Lites class on the West Coast, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen now. We’ll see what happens when I’m able to ride in about a week or two.

Last year, everyone on the team rode Yamaha’s, but this year, was the decision left up to the riders on which brand of bike they wanted to ride?

No, that decision wasn’t left up to me. Mike and Jeff [Alessi] are doing their own deal with the team, and they’re going to be riding Suzuki’s. They have their own motors, and their own everything. The other guys on the team, which are Tommy [Weeck] and I, are going to be racing Honda’s in the Lites class.

Did you notice a big change when you jumped on that Honda, even though you only had three laps on it?

[Laughs] Yeah it was good! The first lap I was getting used to it, the second lap I was starting to feel good, and the third lap I was pumped! It’s really light, and it breaks really quick. Maybe it breaks too quick and that’s why it died in the air [laughs].

Are you looking forward to the Supercross season?

Yeah I am! I haven’t came into a Supercross season 100-percent prepared since I’ve turned pro, but I feel that I’m going to be ready with all the help from Dao. So, I’m looking forward to putting it into the top five for MotoConcepts and everyone helping us out.

Are you going to be racing a 250 for Supercross and a 450 for the Nationals?

I’m going to be racing a 250 for Supercross, for sure. If I feel really good on the bike and I want to keep riding it, I’m going to stay on it for the outdoors. If not, well, I guess we’ll see what happens.