Danielle McKenzie is the multiple world champion you've probably never heard of.
That's a shame, as the feats of the 25-year-old in recent times have been outstanding, and she is one of New Zealand's best athletes.
Already an accomplished triathlete and ironwoman, as well as a three-time surf lifesaving worldchampion, McKenzie added another string to her bow with some remarkable recent feats in canoe ocean racing.
In just her third attempt on the ocean kayak, McKenzie blitzed an impressive field to win the world championships in France last September, before winning three other ocean races in Hong Kong, Sydney and Perth towards the end of last year.
"It's cool to be across a couple of different sports," McKenzie told the Weekend Herald.
"Sometimes it might seem like beginner's luck, when you go well in a new discipline. But I worked really, really hard last year, training a lot, and started backing myself more. I really have a drive for winning at the moment and it seems to be paying off."
McKenzie's effort at the world championships was phenomenal and a touch serendipitous. Paddling in open water was nothing new, after years in surf lifesaving, although the craft is quite different. An ocean kayak is around 10kg, while a surf ski is up to 18kg.
"It's a slightly different boat, but if anything, it's lighter and faster, so it's almost a bonus when you go on to one," said McKenzie, "but it's all still pretty new."
McKenzie raced one ocean canoe event in 2017 in Sydney, and once last year on the Gold Coast, before deciding to enter the world championships, partly because it coincided with a surf rescue event in South Africa, where she would be competing as part of the Black Fins team.
"I didn't know much about it ... I just knew I was going to France to do a 23km race," said McKenzie.
"On the day, I didn't take any hydration with me because I just heard it's cold, so I thought 'I won't need anything'. I didn't even know how long it was going to take.
"I was quite lucky because the following day, there was no wind and it was a super hot day, so I would have really been needing hydration. I probably made some mistakes, learned from what I didn't do."
Danielle McKenzie won the Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships last year. Photo / Zsuzsanna Vekassy
McKenzie was also unable to do a reconnaissance of the course, or drive down to see the finish line.
"The course went down one side of the peninsula almost in a straight line," said McKenzie. "[But] it was overcast and rainy and hard to see where the finish line would be.
"At the start, I wasn't 100 per cent sure of where I was going. Someone tried to explain it to me; 'It's between the trees and this big house up on the hill'."
From the start, McKenzie tracked fellow Kiwi and 2015 world champion Teneale Hatton, before using her surf experience to make an early break.
"I started feeling the swells and the runs in the waves," said McKenzie. "I went really hard, put a break on the girls and that sort of split everyone up. After 7km, the guys, who had started later, came past us and I jumped on their line. Lucky I didn't have to find my own way [and] I followed the boys to the end. I couldn't see any girls and had absolutely no idea where I was."
McKenzie crossed the line in 1h 43m 48s, 1m 20s clear of defending champion Hayley Nixon of South Africa, with her achievement recognised by the male competitors.
"They were like 'wow, you just blitzed the field'," said McKenzie. "They were really top guys who had been doing it for years."
There was also an unexpected bonus; a decent wedge of euros as prize money.
"I didn't even realise there was any money," said McKenzie. "I got enough euros to make money off France and book a trip to Hong Kong. That was really significant."
That was the catalyst for a productive streak, where McKenzie won races in Hong Kong (The Dragon, 22km), Perth (The Doctor, 27km) and Sydney (20 Beaches).
She banked A$10,000 each time, a welcome bonus — "the prize money is much more significant in ocean racing than surf lifesaving" — given it's not always easy to make ends meet.
McKenzie, from Mairangi Bay but based on the Gold Coast since 2017, trains three times a day, 20-30 hours a week, with only Sundays off ("unless we're racing").
Most mornings start at 5am, with a swimming session of between 90 minutes and two hours.
Later in the day, there is running or gym work, with afternoon sessions board paddling or on the surf ski.
Around that, she does hospitality work at a bowls club and is also employed as a lifeguard over summer, patrolling the Gold Coast beaches. On top of all that, McKenzie is training to be a teacher.
"Working, training full-time, a teaching degree," said McKenzie, who finished fifth in the 2019-20 Ironwoman series, which concluded this month. "It's important to have a balanced life ... if you focus too much on one thing, you put too much pressure on yourself."
