Taupo teen a waterski champ
His love for water skiing has already resulted in a number of national titles for taupo’s Max Duckworth and on Waitangi Weekend he added three more big titles to his name.
Duckworth [16] has just skied away with the junior boys, open men, and F2 men’s titles at the 2017 Asian and Oceania IWWF Waterski Championships at Lake Karapiro and he is now able to tick that off the bucket list.
‘‘This was the one I’ve never done before,’’ Duckworth said.
Duckworth has been water skiing since he was eight-years-old because it is a family sport.
‘‘Mum did it with her Dad [and] my step-dad drives for me,’’ he said.
‘‘One day I just thought I’d give it a go.’’
Reaching speeds of about 140kmh, Duckworth said it’s the thrill of it that keeps him holding on.
‘‘Just going along knowing if you make a mistake it’s not going to end well. Also, going 88mph [140kmh], knowing there’s another racer just metres away.’’
Duckworth said keeping fit was a big part of the sport but mental toughness also played a big role.
‘‘It’s definitely something you need to train for. There are times when you just need to grit through it.’’
Water ski racing involves boats and skiers racing each other in a time period.
Duckworth said he competes in about 11 national titles throughout the summer period and also dabbles in the New Zealand selection races.
While he has been racing for a number of years now, he said it has only been in the last couple of seasons that has really got serious.
‘‘I’ve got six national titles over the years,’’ he said.
With his latest goal now complete, Duckworth is gearing up for his next challenge - making the National Under-19 team. The team will travel across the ditch to take on Australia. His biggest goal is to go to the Waterski World Championships in Seattle in July.
Although Duckworth managed to hold on to victory, he owes his team a big thank you.
‘‘Just to my major sponsors, my family and also a big thanks to Paul Skipper, who is my observer and coach. He’s taught me everything I know.’’
Now this title is over, Duckworth is prepping himself for the next one.
‘‘We were fortunate in that our contractors were able to respond quickly and sucker trucks were used to remove a good quantity of sewage almost immediately,’’ Lewis said. ‘‘What is unfortunate is that sewage entered the lake at all.’’
Each year council spends hundreds of thousands of dollars cleaning sewer pipes around the district but Lewis said there are some blockages impossible to stop.
’’Fat, grease and wipes also cause problems when they are not disposed of the correct way,’’ Lewis said. ’’Then there are the number of foreign objects that end up in the wastewater system.’’
Once there was even a pair of curtains shoved down a manhole.