Hugo Schaw hopes to claim jumping gold at the World Barefoot Waterskiing Championship at the Alma Centre in Wisconsin when he graces the Blue Moo Lake in August.
Hugo Schaw hopes to claim jumping gold at the World Barefoot Waterskiing Championship at the Alma Centre in Wisconsin when he graces the Blue Moo Lake in August.
Hugo Schaw has always been a pretty level-headed bloke growing up in the rural livestock farming community of Central Hawke's Bay.
But for some time in Tikokino his heart has been on treading water - not walking but skirting over the surface barefoot.
"It was probably a unique sport and looked like quite a lot of fun to stand up on water without any skis on," says Schaw whose passion has fuelled him to the World Barefoot Waterskiing Championship at the Alma Centre in the US state of Wisconsin in August.
The 18-year-old apprentice builder recalls how his childhood preference came more as a pleasant surprise rather than a shock to his parents, Colin and Jenny Schaw, whose other two sons, Scott and Angus, played cricket at representative level in the footsteps of several accomplished uncles, father and cousins.
"I always enjoyed being in the water and spending holidays there," he says of the Schaw family's visits to Kinlock on Lake Taupo during Christmas and New Year breaks.
Enter CHB farmer George Williams and the then youngster found himself garnering skills off the barefoot skiing enthusiast at the newly built Backpaddock Lake in Takapau.
In 2011, the year 9 pupil from Lindisafrne College took the plunge at the nationals at Lake Inspiration in Otaki and never looked back.
"I was brought up playing cricket, rugby and soccer but I think my parents were pretty excited I took a different path," says Schaw, appreciative of all his parents have done for him to attain a world-class level.
He will jet off to Florida on June 2 to train and acclimatise for the worlds from August 14-20 to be staged at the Heller family's Blue Moo Lake.
Schaw will hone his skills with some of the elite coaches, a preamble that'll cost him more than $10,000 which he has been saving and planning for since December 2014.
"I'm really trying to do well at this championship ... so I'm kind of aiming for the top three in the men's jumping event."
He isn't just going there to make up numbers but already boasts the season's highest jump of 26.5m in the world, recorded at Lake Okaro, Rotorua, in March, which sets the benchmark for the Blue Moo Lake championship.
"On review it was adjusted to 26.3 metres because the jumping camera was a little out and had to be adjusted."
With season ending here, the American one has just begun so there's a chance other competitors will raise the bar before the worlds.
For the record, the top jump was 25.7m at the last worlds two years ago but David Small, of England, holds the world record of 29.9m.
Schaw will compete in two events, the last one is the American nationals in a fortnight before the worlds at Blue Moo.
Hugo Schaw.
Ben Groen, Georgia Groen, Bevan Kelly, all of Wellington, Brooke Fitch, of Palmerston North, and Sarah Linton, of Greytown, will join him as part of the New Zealand team.
Georgia is the coach's niece and Fitch a relative from Ben's mother's side.
All of them will compete in the three disciplines - jumps, tricks and slalom.
In jump, the skier travels over a small, fibreglass ramp. The longest successfully landed one counts from three attempts.
In tricks, the athlete has two passes of 15 seconds to complete as many different manoeuvres as possible. They have specific point values depending on the degree of difficulty. The skier also collects points for the start trick to become airborne.
In slalom, water skiers have two passes of 15 seconds to cross the wake as many times as possible. They can cross the wake forwards or backwards and on two feet or one. Keith St Onge set the world record in 2006 (20.6).
Schaw fancies his biggest gold medal chance in the jump and harbours hopes of making the finals in the other two.
However, it was never easy for the boy from Tikokino.
"When I started it was a kind of different challenge. It wasn't easy because I never had the proper skiing boat," he says, reflecting on the two-hour trips to Otaki to be in the right environment and space.
Defying gravity to soaring to heights didn't bother the youngster who was quite adept at trampolining, finishing second at the North Island Championship in his first foray at that level. He sees his four-year trampolining stint as putting him in good stead for waterskiing because the flexibility and rhythm, akin to gymnastics, were pretty similar.
No doubt, water ski jumps take a bit of getting used to.
"My coaches were quite surprised how fast I got the hang of the next stage," he says, revealing the beginners' stage requires a 15m effort while the advanced one raises the bar to 30m.
"I had quite a smooth transition to the next stage - in six months at the end of 2013 and early 2014."
He does catch unsuspecting people when he lists barefoot waterskiing among his hobbies but his videotapes come in handy to cut to the chase.
"I enjoy telling people about it and I've got three people into it and coached them. They have no equipment but they all manage to get through the hard part of it," says Schaw, mindful it's not a code that receives much publicity. "It's neat to see as many new faces as possible."
At the Rotorua nationals, he won the slalom, was second in jump and third in tricks to finish second overall in the men's Open grade.
Accidents are "rare" but Schaw had a close shave at the Asia Oceania Championship in Perth in 2014 when he mistimed his jump to take a dunk just past the ramp.
"It took a while for me to get back after that," he says, building his confidence and physical constitution through his demanding occupation.
"I haven't taken any holidays for a while," he says of the 6.15am to 5.30pm shift
