Jaco Vlok is our most recent Freak Factory member. Jaco was born and raised in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa and speaks fluent Afrikaans and English. Jaco lived in South Africa for 22 years, finally migrating to the United States in 1999. Jaco was born September 29, 1976 and has been growing ever since.

Jaco is currently 6'4" and 308 pounds although that is expected to change as he fills out. Jaco has only been working out and doing strongman events for six months. This has been amazing for the rest of the Freaks to watch as Jaco improves literally with every repetition. His speed of learning totally new exercises and events is very rapid and because he has never worked out before his time with the Freak Factory, he has no bad habits or bodybuilding habits to unlearn.

Jaco currently lives in Newport Beach with his lovely wife Rebecca. Jaco met her at a rugby game, they fell in love, knew they were fated for each other and were married three weeks later. Jaco works in the field of finance, helping people get home loans and has a wide range of interests. He loves dogs and cats as well as reptiles and lived with an African grey parrot growing up. His favorite movies range from Pulp Fiction, Lord of the Rings, Braveheart to Harry Potter.

Jaco was born to play rugby and indeed is very skilled at it. He started playing rugby at the age of 6.
He played in his high school's first team for 3 years, during which he was chosen for the Cravenweek Team, the high school's provincial team and rugby tournament. Because of his skill, size and leadership abilities, he was also appointed captain of several of the teams. Jaco is very explosive and athletic for someone of his stature.

After High School he continued playing for a local club where he was selected for the Gauteng Falcons under 21 provincial team, and was also tapped as a reserve for the Gauteng Falcons senior team.
He was awarded the trophy for Most Valuable Player of the year at the Vaal Triangle Technikon in South Africa. He was given honoree colors, the highest award given to students and players. We are fortunate to have him playing with us instead of against us!

Jaco's size can be intimidating, yet he is a gentle giant, earning the nickname of Shrek the Ogre. Small children and animals instinctively know he is a good guy and flock to him. This is good because he assists his wife and her friend in the running of a nonprofit mentoring and family counseling program for children in extreme need of help. They make all sorts of resources available to these children and Jaco is an excellent way for these children who come from abusive or drug affected homes to see a positive and non-abusive male role model.

Jaco has a great attitude towards athletics and only becomes angry when he misses a rep he feels he should have gotten. He is able to channel this anger into a productive fury which enables him to accomplish his goals, one of which is to be World's Strongest Man.

Jaco traveled to New Mexico for the 2005 New Mexico's Strongest Man Competition with another Freak, Joe Miller. Jaco came home from his first NASS sanctioned strongman competition as a first place winner and qualified for the Strongman Amateur Nationals in Kentucky in November 2005. Not bad for a novice! Joe Miller took second and also qualified for Nationals so we are looking for a grand showing in Kentucky.

Jaco's Quotes

Chicken is a vegetable!
Stupid little rock!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!