By JONATHON HOWARD
NOOSA sailing athlete Ryan Palk is training his heart out to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics where he hopes to achieve Olympic glory.
To find out more, Noosa Today put several questions to Ryan including his advice to other young sailors.
1. Could you give our readers a brief insight into your background, sailing experience and your connection with Noosa?
I’ve grown up in Noosa and spent my youth in and around the local beaches, rivers and lakes surfing, swimming and fishing. I got into sailing when I was around eight years old at the local Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club. I initially did it for fun and to learn a new skill and spending time with friends. I soon found the racing side a great challenge and something I wanted to pursue. My parents didn’t know too much about the sport but encouraged me, along with other sailors, locals and old salts at the club who were all keen to foster young sailors like me. Sailing is an interesting sport in that many people have often tried it at least once in their life, everyone has a story about it, and they usually have an interesting lesson they learned from the experience as well.
I learnt a lot from the collective experience of everyone’s lessons, mistakes and successes. As a child I would often chase around the older sailors around the club for advice on sail settings, tactics and racing strategy. As a kid, some of it was confusing at the time but over the years it has accelerated my learning and allowed me to explore the art of racing sailboats to a higher level. I always love learning and every day I go sailing there is something new to learn about, so it’s a great experience. I have now against some of the best in the world, against some of the legends of the sport and even had some of my own success along the way. I’m now looking forward to executing it in my own Olympic quest, but also passing that knowledge on to foster the next generation.
2. What’s life like for an athlete? Do you have a stringent regime?
Life as an athlete now is very different to growing up here in Noosa. In Australia, I am mostly based in Sydney for training out of the National Training Centre in Middle Harbour. My day revolves around the wind and the conditions we are targeting for certain events. Sydney Harbour is a great place for training, but gets very busy at times. For this reason we train five to six days a week, but always avoid the harbour on Sundays. For performing on the water, we also do a lot of off-water cross-training, which is usually on the bike and in the gym. This is alternated between each day and depends on weight targets for each event. Nutrition and recovery also follows a routine to ensure we are properly fuelled and stay injury free, especially for long blocks of training or windy events.
3. What’s the competition like and how are you training for the 2016 Rio Brazil Olympics?
The competition is as fierce as ever. Australia has a really strong sailing pedigree. In the laser class, which I sail, we won Gold in London. We only have one spot at the Olympics so it’s a battle between my team-mates for the spot. We are all mates off the water but on the water it’s all on. We train and represent Australia as a team, which is why we improve and have such a good squad and chance at winning Gold. The selectors just had to do a cull on the team, for the final year leading into Rio. There are only five of us left now, it’s tough on those who didn’t make it, but it’s the reality of Olympic sailing. I will be training mostly in Sydney and overseas for my final preparations for the 2016 games.
4. How are you supported from within the Noosa business community?
The support from locals has been the backbone of all my sailing. Whether it was as a child learning from the locals, or now as an adult being supported from local businesses who are helping me to go for gold. Sailing isn’t the cheapest sport, and the funding from the QAS and Australian Sailing Team program does help but isn’t enough to cover all the costs. Assistance from local businesses has gone a long way in keeping me in the game and my campaign alive. Local businesses like Madills Motor Group, the Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club, Podfirst and Jetts Fitness Noosa have all contributed in their own way during my campaign. The other teams I face from down south and overseas are often well funded, and there has not been an Olympic laser representative from Queensland ever, which if you look at the great conditions we have here in Queensland, doesn’t add up. Unfortunately being well resourced does make a big difference, like in a lot of sports, but especially in sailing, and it’s a challenge I have had to deal with my entire Olympic campaign.
5. What advice would you give to other potential sailors eager for gold?
My advice would be if you’re interested in the sport, or think you might want to have a go at racing competitively, go for it. Local clubs have a great support network and at the grass-roots level it is quite affordable. Sailing is a life-long skill that will take you to many unique places and meet many interesting characters. I have done four years of olympic campaigning now after qualifying for the Australian Sailing Squad at the tender age of 18. I have now seen a lot of the world, sailed in some amazing venues and made life-long friends. I never thought my little boat would take me so far but like most things you would be surprised how far a little hard work can take you.
For more info: see ryanpalksailor.com or blog ryan2rio.com
