Sierra Nowlan has traded a wet Port Stephens winter for balmy summer days in the United States as she prepares to compete at her first waterski world championship.
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The 16 year old from Salt Ash will spend eight weeks training and competing in Florida before joining the Australian Ski Team in Spain for the International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation’s 2018 World Junior Waterski Championships.
“I’m a little nervous,” Sierra said. “I’m going over there [Spain] not knowing what to expect. But, I am excited.”
Sierra grew up waterskiing with her family on the Williams River. Her older sister, Karina Nowlan, was a professional waterskier and former world number one.
But it was not until about two years ago that Sierra began waterskiing competitively. Almost immediately she began posting top scores.
In 2017 and ranked 14th in the world for the under-18 women’s slalom, Sierra was added to the Australian Ski Team’s shortlist of 10 athletes for the world championship.
Sierra increased her world junior slalom ranking to ninth at a tournament in Port Macquarie late last year.
At the National Waterski Championships in Queensland during Easter, Sierra won a silver medal in the under-17 women’s slalom and secured her place in the six person ski team bound for Spain in August.
Also read: Salt Ash teen’s waterski talent | photos
“My goal was to make the team. I’ve done that now,” Sierra said. “I’ll be so happy just skiing there. If I don’t ski well, I will be disappointed. I will do my best. I want to get through to the finals.”
The world championship is high stakes. Skiiers must perform well in the preliminary rounds to make the final.
In slalom, athletes are required to ski around six buoys on a line that is shortened each pass they complete on the course.
Sierra said her best result was clearing five buoys on a 12m line at 55km/h, but it was not in a competition.
For the past two years during June and July Sierra teen has travelled to Florida where the waters are warmer and skiing is popular to train and compete in tournaments.
When home, Sierra travels from Salt Ash or Heatherbrae where she attends high school to Myuna Bay, Lake Macquarie each week to train.
On weekends she treks two-and-a-half hours up the highway to Port Macquarie to train at Stoney Park Water Ski Park.
Sierra flew to the US on June 12. She will spend the next eight weeks training twice a day during the week at the Jack Travers Water Ski School.
The teen is expected to go into the world championship event in peak form.
Sierra will be accompanied to Spain by her mother, Kath Nowlan, for the world championship.