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Jake Owen: How to Nail Labor Day

Rule No. 1: There Must Be Water

To Jake Owen, Labor Day isn’t really a thing.

“Where I grew up, in Florida, summer never ended. So I never understood Labor Day,” Owen admitted to me the last time we had a chance to catch up.

“It’s only the last weekend of summer for people who live where the sun doesn’t shine all year 'round,” he said. “For me, Labor Day was just another long weekend.”

It wasn’t until Owen moved to Nashville and saw people taking their boats out of the water that he started to put it all together. And now that he lives in Tennessee, he told me he takes advantage of the summer -- and, yes, even Labor Day -- by soaking up as much time in the sun and on the water as he can.

He’s even partnered with Discover Boating to encourage his fans, friends and family to do the same.

Owen is out on the road touring this Labor Day weekend, so he won’t be home on Nashville’s Center Hill Lake to celebrate. But when he does get out there, here are some of the ways he loves to chill, according to his conversation with Discover Boating.

Music on the water: “Anything sounds good on a boat. I listed to everything from Bob Marley to Jimmy Buffett to Chris Stapleton to Sublime to Merle Haggard.”

Food: “Mostly beer. Aluminum cans stay colder than sandwiches.”

About his boat: Mine is the Malibu Wakesetter 23 LSV in a pretty purple sparkle. It’s a wakeboarding boat. There have been times I’ve spent the night on it, but it’s really more of a ski boat.”

Learning to wake-surf: “I started doing it because there was less impact than something like wakeboarding. And it’s relaxing and fun. I’m not anywhere near mastering it, but it didn’t take me long to learn it. You really just need the proper boat for it. You can’t do that behind a boat with an outboard engine, because if you’re surfing behind it, you don’t want to be that close to an engine.”

Lakes or rivers: “I don’t discriminate when it comes to water. I like any body of water that my vessel will float on. I like that place.”

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