Aerial Assault: 18-year-old Jason Semler has proven himself as one of the nation's top snocross riders

When Jason Semler was in fifth grade, all of his friends had snowmachines, and all he could do was nag his parents about wanting one too. Turns out, it's a good thing they finally gave in two and a half years ago.

Semler, 18, took his first snowmachine, "a 1990 piece of crap," and started jumping it in the backcountry on outings. A short time later, he got on a new Polaris snowmachine and started jumping it, too. And now -- just more than two years after first getting on a snowmachine -- he's got a national contract to freestyle with one of the largest freestyle snocross teams in the country, the BRAAAP Pack.

"Things just started happening and I kept getting better and better," Semler said of his sudden rise through the national freestyle scene. "I'd watch some crazy snocross movies when they were jumping and those guys were my idols. I thought, 'I can do that,' and now I am."

Last year, Semler did a basic Superman seat grab trick for the first time, and three weeks later headed for the national competition in McCall, Idaho. There, he placed fifth, and immediately, his phone started ringing from freestyle snocross teams looking to add Semler to their rosters.

"All of the teams were calling -- Team Slednecks, the BRAAAP Pack, all of them," Semler said. "I signed with BRAAP Pack because they are one of the biggest teams. I'm still excited about it."

Last year, the International Freestyle Snocross Association (IFSA) held an event at the Sullivan Arena, and Semler saw it as his first chance to break into the sport. Ironically, it took him almost a year to prove he could do it to one of the BRAAAP Pack leaders.

"I skipped two days of school to go there and try to convince them to let me jump in the event, but they wouldn't," Semler said. "When I signed with BRAAAP Pack, I asked Grant [Reeves] if he remembered not letting me jump there, and he said, 'No way!' He didn't remember, but I did."

The BRAAAP Pack formed in December 2001, with six of the eight team members calling Alaska home. Riders Tim Needles and Jim Fejes hail from Valdez and Anchorage respectively. There are several other Alaskans on the IFSA circuit, but Semler is the first Valley resident to break into the scene.

Semler and his suitcase are going to get well acquainted this year as his contract calls for him to criss-cross the country several times for events and appearances. Freestyle events will take him to Michigan, Colorado, North Dakota, Minnesota, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Anchorage this winter, while making appearances with sponsors will take him from New York to Las Vegas, with stops nearly everywhere in between.

Such a grueling schedule may shatter the image people have of a young freestylin' snocross rider -- fast sleds, fast girls, fast times. Semler said that couldn't be further from the truth.

"I like to come home and not live out of the suitcase," Semler said. "The only things I have time to do are go to school, work and hang out with my girlfriend."

Semler graduated from Colony last May, and he is already enrolled at Mat-Su College and UAA, studying architecture.

"You've got to have something other than sleddin' to fall back on," he said. He said going to Mat-Su College was important because he can work with professors to help accommodate his snocross contract. He's also working at Hartley Motors.

"Everybody has been really cool to help work around everything," he said.

He said his friends think his rise to snocross fame is pretty cool, but there is one drawback he said.

"I don't get to see them nearly as much now," he said. "Those are the guys I got started with."

Another demand is keeping up with his sponsors, but he said he knows that is one of the most important parts of his new job. He has several local sponsors, such as AK Roteq, Turnagain Hardcore, Studboy, C&A Pro Skis and the Kicker stereo company, as well as national sponsors. He makes appearances at sponsors around the country, putting on exhibitions and meeting snocross enthusiasts.

"It's pretty nice to have the support of all my sponsors," he said. "They keep me on my sled."