Expat Aussie wins NZ wavesailing champs at Taranaki
ow long have you been wave sailing?
About 5 or 6 years
Q. How many hours do you train a week?
A. I might train about 6 hours/week including about 4 hours/week in the gym but it depends upon the weather and time of year. In summer, I can get out on the water a lot more due to the extra daylight hours.
Q. Where are your regular sailing locations?
A. In Auckland - Point Chevalier (I'm a committee member of the club there), Manukau Harbour, Takapuna
Q. Where is your favourite wind surfing spot in New Zealand?
A. Taranaki - I like all the spots there - but Wellington is also great because of the strong winds.
Q. What have been the highlights of your years in wave sailing?
A. Sailing in 4 metre swell at Waitara (Taranaki) and not getting wasted. The wave face was so steep, it felt like I was falling at times. I remember doing about 10 top and bottom turns down a wave and wondering what was behind me, jibing over the wave and seeing it dead flat all the way out to the back. Perfect.
The other highlight would be sailing in the nationals last weekend on a perfectly formed mast high wave and watching the wave crest at the level of the top of my mast. It was a sight I'll never forget.
Q. What have been the greatest challenges in wave sailing?
A. Fear is definitely the enemy. It causes you to make mistakes and sail badly just when you can't afford to. The way out of it is to gradually increase the challenge as your skill level improves. Don't go out in conditions that you can't handle as it will knock your confidence but also, try not to panic if you do cop a pounding - the best have been there too.
Waitara is a great place as it allows you to sail in big conditions but, if you mess up, then it will spit you out safely into flat water.
Q. If you could wave sail anywhere in the world with guaranteed perfect conditions, where would you go?
A. It's hard to go past Taranaki as it's such a beautiful and deserted spot but I do like the warm water in Maui, just not the crowds and show offs.
Q. What brought you to New Zealand?
A. Work
Q. And what kept you here?
A. Family and beautiful country [Be truthful – it’s the wind and proximity to the beach!]
Q. And your family – are they totally supportive?
A. Well mostly but my husband is windsurfing less now as a result and he's not so happy about that.
Q. Tell me about the weekend. What were the conditions like?
A. Light winds but very nice, long period ground swell ranging from head to mast high waves.
Q. Tell me about your championship run. How did it go?
A. Because of the light conditions, people had trouble getting many waves during the 10 minutes allotted. I went out on big gear; 93 litre board and 5.8 metre sail which was bigger than most of the guys. It meant that I could catch waves easily but couldn't turn so sharply on them so I sort of cruised rather than ripped. I got through the first round against some guys though, so must have done ok. In my next round, I caught a great, mast high wave and pushed it pretty hard but the result was that I couldn't get out of it and had to ride it all the way into the rocky shore. Came away unscathed, so it was well worth it.
Q. I heard that no other women actually competed. What happened there?
A. Were the conditions too extreme? Not many women windsurf in NZ anyway and the ones that do are often short term residents in NZ who got into the sport before they came here. Many are also middle aged and I see very few younger women getting into the sport, unlike surfing where there are quite a few. There are even fewer women who wavesail. There are a couple of other women I know who would have been capable of competing but other obligations prevented them from doing so.
Q. Where to from here? Do you have any new challenges to tackle?
A. There are always challenges. I want to sail at Pungarehu [Taranaki] which is famed to have the best windsurfing wave in the world on the right day. I would also like to learn more tricks as I'm not very good at those - it took me ages to learn to duck jibe. Maybe one day, I'll learn to loop. I'm happy that my sailing has actually improved heaps over the last few years despite my age so, maybe anything is possible!
|
|
