Gisborne's Olympic-bound surfer Saffi Vette has already conquered adversity in life - now she's set to take aim at one of the world's toughest surf breaks and some of globe's top surfers. Photo / Neil Reid
Gisborne's Olympic-bound surfer Saffi Vette has already conquered adversity in life - now she's set to take aim at one of the world's toughest surf breaks and some of globe's top surfers. Photo / Neil Reid
Surfer Saffi Vette will face one of the world’s most notorious surf breaks – and some of the globe’s best surfers – at the upcoming Olympics. But Neil Reid reports she is no stranger to triumphing over adversity.
The challenges will be massive when Saffi Vette takes on Tahiti’s Teahupo’o surf break at the upcoming Olympic Games.
But tackling challenges head-on is nothing new for the proud Gisborne-based surfer.
Vette will take part in the Olympics after overcoming personal tragedy, a learning disorder, school bullying and funding shortfalls.
Heartbreak includes losing her father and surfing mentor Andy Vette to cancer, being bullied at school for her sporting ability, her struggles with school including feeling “dumb” after being diagnosed with dyslexia, and a lack of funding that could have curtailed her Olympic qualification dream.
Vette takes her dad everywhere she goes: his photo is proudly saved as the screensaver on her phone. She also sometimes travels to surfing competitions overseas with a “taonga” that he used to wear.
“I carry him with me everywhere, which is something very special,” she said.
“I have saved messages that I got from him which I look back on. Even just looking back on those messages ... it keeps me motivated and keeps me trying my hardest.”
Saffi Vette celebrates winning the Open Women's Division final at the National Championships in 2021 at Piha. Photo / Photosport
Andy Vette died in September 2020 while the country was in a Covid-19 lockdown.
“He wasn’t just my dad. He was also my coach, my mentor ... he was my life mentor pretty much,” Vette told the NZ Herald in an earlier interview.
“I was lucky enough to get 18 years of him.
“The knowledge I gained from my dad is something I definitely took for granted. I didn’t know how good I had it until I lost him. Losing something that was so important was very hard to come to terms with.”
The Olympic hopeful will be reading those messages again in the build-up to the Paris 2024.
Teahupo’o is a break which, until 2022, had been scrubbed from the women’s world tour for 16 years due to safety concerns.
Olympic-bound Kiwi surfer Saffi Vette at home with her mother Vanessa in Gisborne as she prepares for the 2024 Games. Photo / Neil Reid
Vette said this week from Tahiti that despite it being “one of the most dangerous waves on the planet”, she was ready to “learn how the wave works and push myself over the ledge”.
Given the location in French Polynesia, Teahupo’o will set a new record for being the venue furthest away – a massive 15,771km – from a Games host city.
With limited infrastructure around the island village, a 103-room cruise ship will be transformed into a floating Olympic village for competitors.
She recently travelled there for a pre-Games training camp and this week described the opportunity as “amazing”.
Saffi Vette will be taking on one of the world's most notorious surf spots when she represents New Zealand at Paris 2024. Photo / Photosport
Thankfully it ended better than her previous pre-Olympic training camp at Teahupo’o which resulted in a knee injury that kept her off her board for almost two months.
Vette said travelling back to the Olympic venue had been “amazing” and thanked everyone who had helped get her there. That included members of the Gisborne community who had raised funds to help with her Olympic build-up.
She described those supporters as “legends” and said riding the monster break had felt “pretty good”.
Earlier this year, Vette said: “Putting yourself in an uncomfortable position really pushes you mentally and physically, so I’m really looking forward to pushing my boundaries and seeing what I’ve got.
“I’m not going to hold back, and I’m really excited to be in this environment and push myself to the limits.”
Pushing herself was something Vette tried her best to do during her schooling.
But despite her best efforts, that didn’t always translate into scholastic achievements.
“I went through countless times crying to my mum, how I didn’t want to go to school,” she told the Herald earlier this year.
“Although I was giving it more attention than my peers, giving it 110 per cent, I was only getting 50 per cent out of what I was learning. It was really unrewarding and I got to the point where I was so upset and frustrated going to school that I didn’t want to be there anymore.”
The settlement at Makorori Beach on the outskirts of Gisborne is both home and the training ground for New Zealand Olympic-bound surfer Saffi Vette. Photo / Neil Reid
Tests carried out three years into her secondary schooling showed Vette had dyslexia. The condition makes it hard to read, write or do work involving numbers.
Dyslexia affects an estimated one in 10 New Zealanders, including about 70,000 school children.
Vette said it took time for her to come to terms with her diagnosis, saying, “I thought I was dumb, I thought I was stupid”.
Her time at school was further made tougher when she was the subject of bullying from other schoolgirls due to her sporting passion.
“I knew from a really young age that I wanted to be involved in sport and I wanted to go to the Olympics,” she said.
Saffi Vette battled endured verbal bullying at school due to her sporting ability. Photo / Neil Reid
“It didn’t matter what I was doing, whether it was athletics, rugby or surf lifesaving ... I was quite good at it naturally. And I did get bullied for that which sucked. [It was] mostly verbal ... it was more like a mean-girl thing.”
She said “school wasn’t for me”, leaving in Year 13 to concentrate on “something that I was good at, and that was surfing”.
“I just always loved the unpredictability of the ocean and I wanted to push myself against something that is bigger than me. There is so much energy and power to the ocean.”
Vette has already proven to be a huge inspiration to youth in the Gisborne and East Coast regions regardless of how she goes in Paris 2024.
Given a lack of central funding for her Olympic build-up, a group of local businesses and supporters have dug deep to contribute to a fund that has helped her prepare.
That includes Gisborne company Pultron Composites, which donated and asked Vette to visit local schools to tell students how “all the hard work and sacrifices you have made will always pay off”.
Vette said she felt “privileged” to have the opportunity to share her life story, adding the feedback from students had been touching.
Surfer Saffi Vette says if she can motivate and change one kid's life with her incredible tale of coverage then it was worth going public. Photo / Neil Reid
“Even if it is just one person who I can change their perspective on life, it feels like I have made a difference,” she said earlier.
“I don’t consider myself a famous athlete or person, but I would just like to make some sort of change to someone’s life.
“I have been telling them how I started, about how loss has turned me into a better athlete and person – someone who is stronger, more determined and resilient – [and] how I have turned the challenges I have faced into a positive.
“I don’t want kids to think, ‘Oh, life is s***’. Sure, you are going to go through s**** times, but things will improve. Spreading awareness around that is super important.”
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the NZ Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience.
