Wiki Jones is truly a force of nature. The New Zealand native is a professional surfer and snowboarder who also plays high-level polo. Now Wiki the Kiwi is bringing her considerable athletic talent to the sport of sailing.
Jones currently lives in Utah, where she works as a snowboard instructor at Solitude Mountain Resort. Los Angeles resident John Kilroy and his wife have been taking snowboard lessons from Jones for years and have gotten to know her well.
Kilroy, president and CEO of Kilroy Realty Corporation in L.A., is also a highly-successful sailor — having campaigned a series of boats named Samba Pa Ti on the grand prix circuit. Having heard all about Wiki’s exploits in other sports, Kilroy decided to introduce her to sailing.
“Wiki is an amazing athlete with a go-for-it personality and I thought to myself, ‘We’ve got to get her out sailing.’ There hasn’t been much snow this winter so I asked Wiki if she wanted to come down to Key West and get out on the water,” Kilroy said on Sunday. “Her first time on a sailboat was two days ago and she loved it. We let her steer the boat on the way into the harbor and she was just a natural, kept it right in the groove the whole way.”
Jones, 32, hails from the beachside town of Raglan, New Zealand and grew up surfing the famous break of Manu Bay. She pursued pro surfing and was sponsored by Rip Curl before channeling her efforts into snowboarding and becoming one of the top female professionals on the circuit with numerous contest victories to her credit.
Jones, who has also played polo for both the New Zealand and Australian national teams, said she already loves the sport of sailing and is eager to get more involved. Kilroy’s latest Samba Pa Ti is a Melges 32, a sport-boat that requires tremendous athleticism to sail.
“I’m definitely hooked. I have a natural affinity for water sports and sailboat racing is very exciting,” she said. “This is a team sport, which is a bit different for me, but everyone on the boat was very welcoming and made me feel real comfortable.”
Kilroy believes in the viability of crossover athletes and figures if Jones can become a world-class athlete in surfing and snowboarding she can certainly do so in sailing as well.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Wiki can be a top sailor if she puts her mind to it. She has no fear, great confidence and loves to be on the edge,” Kilroy said. “I think it’s really neat when you can introduce athletes from other sports to sailing. These Melges 32s and many other race boats are challenging to sail so we need as many top athletes as we can get in our sport.”