I was born in England and at the age of 10 my parents, sister and I made the move to South Australia. My parents quickly enrolled me into a surf club, chasing that Home and Away vision they had. As a nipper I did not excel in the sport but found myself loving the atmosphere and community that surf lifesaving provided. It wasn’t until I jumped on a mal board that I found myself achieving in the sport, winning both my age group and opens in the same year. At 15 I joined kayaking and again found myself taking to it like a duck to water. After making the U16 Australian Team, I was invited into SASI where I then proceeded to create a career in Sprint Kayaking. Over an 8 year period in Sprint Kayaking, I was a member of 6 Australian Teams, won numerous Australian Championship Medals, and Australian Champion for my age group. I was able to transfer my kayaking experience into surf ski paddling, which enabled me to excel at the discipline at both a state level, and at a national level.

What gets me up in the morning, especially on a cold winter’s day, is to ensure that I don’t feel like I will regret anything come race day. I never want to race knowing that I could have done that 1 or 2 per cent extra but chose the easy way out. I want to wake up on a race day morning, knowing I could not have done any more to be my best. My goals going forward are to consistently look for those 1 or 2 percenters, which I know could make all the difference come States and Aussies when you are racing the best of the best.

To give back to the sport which has provided me my Australian family, I have coached ski paddling to the fresh U17’s moving into the discipline, provide technique and skill advice during training sessions, and facilitate goal setting meetings with younger athletes from my surf club. I believe that it is this culture of giving back in our sport that has encouraged me to become a teacher for my career path. This is my second year of full-time teaching, and I could not be more fulfilled in the path I have chosen.