I can’t believe the first two AVP tourneys have come and gone.  They were pretty bitter sweet.  Anytime you don’t win I think you feel like that.  It’s kind of brutal really because there are 31 teams each week that lose their last game and are leaving the beach bummed about it.  On the other hand I’m always stoked to make it to the final cause then you’re atleast giving yourself a chance to win.  And the incentives from sponsors for being on TV is always nice.  As I write this I wonder, why do I feel like I need to justify a 2nd place finish to myself???  Because losing sucks period and maybe I’ll look back and be happy about playing in finals, but right now I just want to win Opens period.  I guess that’s why…??

The off season was interesting.  I golfed on average about 100 holes per week thanks to my friend Bob at Goosecreek.  I got away from volleyball for several months and that was much needed.  Last year was a fun, exciting, but also a very stressful year.  With the Olympic qualification stress then the Olympic games pressure, I was definitely needing some time away from volleyball.  I know Sean certainly took some time off.  I mean I’ve heard of a kid blowing off some steam before but he took it to a whole new level.  I won’t go into details.

We finally started training on the beach in about mid February.  I’ve never taken that much time off, but I waited until I felt hungry again and that was huge.  Hungry to train, to workout each day, to compete, to play this phenomenal sport of beach volleyball.  I love going to the beach everyday to train.  I love my workouts with Zach everyday after practice.  I love the massage and stretching I go through to keep my body healthy,  I love getting home and feeling completely wiped but most of all,  I love playing the sport of beach volleyball for a living.  I love my life.

Jake

On a plane to Brazilia, Brazil.  We were bumped on our original flight that left Monday so now we get in about 12 hrs before we have to play.  Not ideal but we got upgraded so it could’ve been worse.  United has stepped up there business class seats by the way.  I could actually lay flat and you have your own cubicle so you’re not crushing down the person behind you.  I slept like 5.5 hrs which is huge for me.

I can’t believe the first two AVP tourneys have come and gone.  They were pretty bitter sweet.  Anytime you don’t win I think you feel like that.  It’s kind of brutal really because there are 31 teams each week that lose their last game and are leaving the beach bummed about it.  On the other hand I’m always stoked to make it to the final cause then you’re atleast giving yourself a chance to win.  And the incentives from sponsors for being on TV is always nice.  As I write this I wonder, why do I feel like I need to justify a 2nd place finish to myself???  Because losing sucks period and maybe I’ll look back and be happy about playing in finals, but right now I just want to win Opens period.  I guess that’s why…??

The off season was interesting.  I golfed on average about 100 holes per week thanks to my friend Bob at Goosecreek.  I got away from volleyball for several months and that was much needed.  Last year was a fun, exciting, but also a very stressful year.  With the Olympic qualification stress then the Olympic games pressure, I was definitely needing some time away from volleyball.  I know Sean certainly took some time off.  I mean I’ve heard of a kid blowing off some steam before but he took it to a whole new level.  I won’t go into details.

We finally started training on the beach in about mid Fe

Let’s talk about my golf game.  I can’t hit the fairway with my driver right now for the life of me.  I shot 1 over for 36 holes last thurs and I probably hit about 25% of the fairways.  Good news for me is that I can scramble and still score well, but I have to figure something out soon before I lose it.  I tried swithching drivers and it got worse.  I played with the new driver and shot a 83 and my cousins country club.  I was pull hooking everything off the tee and I was short so it made for a brutal round.  I’m sure people are interested in my golf so I’ll tell you more.  Alright I’ll kill it, but you can see what’s been on my mind.  Golf season.  I love the stupid sport for some reason.  I’m playing 36 tomorrow with Jeff Alzina at Gooscreek.

I’ve been trying to just let my body heal from the year.  Yoga in the morning with my sister Christine, who teaches Vinyasa style Yoga has been a big help.  I never thought I’d be a Yoga guy but I can’t believe how good it feels.  Jane has been doing it as well and I can’t believe how strong and flexible she is getting. Fun to see. 

I’ll probably rest for another month and then start back with the gym in mid November.  I’ll play volley again maybe in January.  Atleast that’s the thought process right now.  I plan on playing some of the Hot Winter Nights events.  There is actually a stop in Salt Lake City so that should be fun.  Any chance I have to get home and see my old friends from Utah is all good with me. 

My brother Coleman has the cutest baby boy named Lawrence.  He keeps telling me n Jane that we should get pregnant so they have cousins to play with.  Not that that’s a reason to get pregnant, but Jane n I are thinking about it and that’s a weird feel in and of itself.  We always said we were waiting until after the Olympics to get prego and now that it’s here we’re not quite there for some reason.  I just don’t want Jane to be at home with the “kids” as I’m out travelling the world.  I just like having her travel with me if she wants.  It’s funny how we feel like we need to explain ourselves.?!  That’s Utah mentality I guess.

I can’t wait to golf tomorrow.  I’m a dork!

What is Twitter and why should you care?

What is Twitter: Twitter is a website application that helps people communicate with each other through short text entries.

Why should you care: By signing up to follow Jake’s Twitter, you can get updates (sent to your phone via text messages) on how Jake is doing in tournaments.

There will be no updates on what Jake is doing each and every minutes of the day, only news worthy stuff like how Jake and Rosie took down the Olympic Gold Medalists to win the AVP event in San Francisco. If you were “following” Jake’s Twitter…you would have gotten updates as the boys rolled through the tournament.

So Sign up now and get the scope on your favorite “Spiker” from Utah.

First was Wong n Olson.  1st set Wong served great and we lost 19-21 with a spade down the middle from Wong.  Starting the 2nd set we wanted to change it up a bit so we split blocked (I block 1/2 the time, Rosie blocks 1/2 the time) the rest of the match.  If you know volleyball, you know that me in the backcourt and Sean at the net is not our strongest defense, but sometimes getting a little wierd shakes things up enough to get the juices going again and we were able to squeak out the win.  Some how it worked and we won 21-18 and 15-10.

Second up was Scott n Lucena.  These guys have had our number this year with a 2-0 record against us this year, including a smashing of 21-12 n 21-13 in Cincinatti.  In both sets of this one we were down and came back in the end with blocks by Rosie and a great late pull at the net for a critical point in game 1.  Highlight for me was scooping (digging) Sean Scott twice in second set at 18-17 to go 20-17 and then hearing Nick say to S Scott “Dude it’s Jake Gibb back there!”.  They then got it to 20-19 when Scott blocked me and then I  sided out for the win.

Third up was Keenan n Hyden.  The week before in Santa Barbara they beat us 19-21, 21-6, 15-6.  They outscored us 36 to 12 in the final 2 sets!  No we weren’t injured and no we weren’t sick.  I wish I had an excuse for it but it was just an old fashioned beat down.  So this week in San Fran some lady kept yelling “just like last week” whenever we would give up a point.  So we squeaked out a 3 set win, 15 to 10 in the 3rd, and made it to the finals.  Yeah!  We’re back!

Finals was interesting.  21-10 in the first against Todd n Phil.  We actually didn’t play that poorly.  Phil was just Phil and went on a scoring rampage with blocks and aces galore.  Oh how I hate him sometimes.  2nd set Rosie sided out for the 21-19 win.  Then Geeter went on his “Under Pressure” rant to get the players and the crowd going for the 3rd set.  This one was all time!  He said “….from Bountiful, Utah!  Where the hell is Bountiful, Utah son!”.  Then over to Phil where he says, “Fabio from Brazil is still having nightmares about you isn’t he Phil?!”  Classic!  Maybe you had to be there, but that guy carries our tour.

So I can’t even remember how exactly but we were up in the 3rd 14-13 and I hit a cut shot over Phil for the win!  Even while recapping this, I’m still in awe we beat all those great teams with the way we played!  We just kinda hung around all tournament and pulled it out in the end somehow.  Beautiful really!

Outside of volleyball I got to play some fun golf with JT and hung out with a childhood friend Dave Bigelow on Saturday night.  My sisters Christine and Marali were at the tournament and we had a good time as well.  I’m out…I need to play some golf!

Brazil match is a bit hard to write about. I felt like we played well and I had a feeling the whole match that we were going to pull out a win, if we could just stay steady. We’ve done it before against them where when we don’t go away and put them away late in the match. But Emmanuel made some really big plays in the end of each game that got them the win. They played great sideout volleyball on top of that. It’s a tough match to think about but we gave it everything we had and that’s all I can ask of myself and Sean.

- My brother John, chanting “Megua” and Chineses people responding “Jai Yo”

- Chris, my sister and my sister-in-law in their blue and red hair. Normally pretty conservative, which made this pic even better. What a sight!

- Dad staying up at night working out the brackets

- Family dinners at Hilton. I ate out once with the fam and it seemed a bit sketchy after the treatment I got at the Hilton.

- Fam’s attitude about the whole thing. They had the time of their lives and you’d never know they stayed 11 people in one 3 bedroom apartment. Never complained, instead had a ton of fun and let me do my thing during the tournament and then I got to hang out with them after the tourney was over. They couldn’t have been any cooler.

- Meeting the fam after every match by the front scoreboard.

- Seeing the fam front row for my first match in the pouring rain. My favorite pic from the whole Olympics is this one of bros John n Dale holding American flag and cheering in the down pour.

Tournament:
- Team huddle before each match. Mike Dodd would call us in and give us powerful words leading in to each match.

- Walking out to stadium court from the players hall waiting area. My heart would race and butterflies galore each time. The toughest part of losing was not being able to run out just one more time on to center court. What a feeling of excitement! Something I’ll never be able to describe, but will always cherish.

- Kelly’s (our Physical Therapist) fives, actually we “blew up the rock”, before each match. She’s very superstitious and had to do it before each match because we won our first doing so. Kelly took such great care of Sean and I during the last 2 years. She was an essential part of the team. She saw us twice a week in our homes and traveled to almost all World Tour events. Thanks for keeping us healthy girl!

Random stuff:
- Shopping was more fun then I ever expected. Bargaining for price is expected. I bought 4 shoes, 2 belts, 1 tailor made suit, 3 tailor made shirts, 3 ties, 2 t shirts, and 4 pairs of jeans. More shopping than I’ve done in 3 years.

- Great Wall of China was incredible! We took a ski lift up and an Alpine Slide down.

- Walking around Olympic village and trying to guess each athletes sport

- Sneaking through security with Rosie’s credential right after he had used it because I’d left mine at the hotel.

- Realizing I’d forgotten my hats before my last match. Al Lau got em for me.

- Heather Cox from NBC said there was a shot of one of Rosie’s Raiders offering my Dad a beer. I giggle just at the thought of that. My Dad politely said no.

- Mike Dodd starting the “USA Jai Yo!” chant in the van after our wins. We celebrated after each of our 4 wins like we had just won the Super Bowl. Sooo fun!

- We had 2 drivers that didn’t speak a lick of English and drove like they were in a game of Frogger.

- I got a 1 hr Chinese massage for $12. No happy ending. Dang it!

- Getting PT work from Kelly with Venus and Serena Williams getting work done right next to me. I chatted it up with a Bryan brother from the #1 doubles team in tennis. I didn’t know who he was and at the end of talking I asked when he played and what seed they were?? #1 he says. What a dork I am!

- Watching Phil n Todd and Misty n Kerri all win gold! What a cool experience to be there and watch them both play so well. Great accomplishment for USA Beach Volleyball.

- Having Geeter there to emcee all my matches. I felt like we had a little home court advantage having him there with us.

- Meeting President Bush twice in 2 days. I got to talk with him for a bit on the sand. Surreal!

My team:
- Sean Rosenthal my partner. Great friend and volleyball partner. I spend more time with Sean than my wife Jane. I hope to play with him for a long time.

- Mike Dodd our coach. Mike is the glue that holds our team together. Great coach, and a better friend.

- Marcus Elliott my strength coach. He has worked with me since the end of 2004. I feel the best physically I’ve ever felt in my life because of his workouts. He always sends great energy my way, which is why I love the guy most. Let’s keep it going.

- Ryan Morgan my agent. Ryan gives me freedom to just focus on volleyball because I don’t have to have a second job. I have great deals with Speedo, Wilson, Bolle, Hilton and Power Crunch and I sincerely want to thank them for their support.