Zac Littlewood
LASER TRAINING ON THE EAST COAST
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URING THE PAST FEW MONTHS I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in various training camps with the Australian Laser team over here on the East Coast. We have trained in locations such as Coffs Harbour, Brisbane, Mooloolaba and Noosa.
Coffs Harbour provided very open water conditions with big swell and lots of wildlife. The amount of wildlife that I saw in the 4 weeks out of Coffs, is the most I’ve ever seen. Sharks, turtles, dolphins and whales were a daily appearance when training just out of the yacht club. After the camp in Coffs Harbour, the borders to Queensland opened so I was allowed to travel up to Noosa for the week off, before heading to Brisbane for a week on water. The Laser Team works on a two week on water, two weeks off water schedule, so in the ‘time off’ I’ve been lucky enough to keep training under my regular laser coach, Ryan Palk who lives in Noosa. The next camp was with the team in Mooloolaba, which
www.rfbyc.asn.au
was one of the best places I’ve ever sailed. Open water, big waves, sunshine and sometimes sea breezes (even in winter). I sailed quite well here in this camp and was fortunate enough to have nine other laser sailors to race against. The following week, I had a few days of sailing out of Noosa which again was such a beautiful place to sail and provided a few challenges with waves breaking on the entrance to the ocean as you leave the ‘Noosa bar’. The third camp was planned for Yeppoon, but due to Queensland borders closing, it was held in Coffs Harbour, NSW. I’m currently mid-way through this camp and enjoying the last few on water sessions before coming home and self-isolating for two weeks.
With no competitions planned until September 2021, the next few months will be interesting as to how much laser sailing I do, especially as I won’t be going back to the east coast while borders remain closed. I’m looking forward to the challenge of keeping training at home at an intense level while also creating a fun training environment to sail in. It’s definitely the time to develop other aspects of my sailing and I look forward to doing more offshore sailing and kitesurfing/foiling in my down time at home. I really appreciate the support from RFBYC, especially during my 3 month training block over here in NSW/QLD.
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