PNG siblings keep the family tradition running

Papua New Guinea laser pair, Teariki and Rose-Lee Numa, are looking to bring their Emerging Nation Program (ENP) skills to the big stage of the Youth Worlds in Langkawi, Malaysia in just a matter of days.

The brother and sister aim to transfer the coaching tips they picked up during the ENP clinic in Suva, Fiji in April this year and apply them to Laser Radial competition with the hope of building toward the future and putting their country on the sailing world map.

It’s not uncommon that siblings will often take up the same sport, especially when they have a family history to fall back, and the Numa’s are no different as Teariki explains, “It’s sort of a family thing for me. It started from my grandfather and my dad, from traditional canoes to the modern type.”

He continues, “We live on the coastline, so my family goes sailing, when they don’t have motors they put up a boat sail, they take a boat out and go for fishing or something. My dad got into these sort of canoes, traditional canoes then he started windsurfing.”

So can the Numa’s go from the traditional island sailing to one of the ‘newer’ classes to them? Well the ENP clinics and coaches like Tim Cross (GBR) and Andrew Clouston (NZL), the nominated experts at the clinic, certainly aim to do this for emerging countries like Papua New Guinea. Teariki and Rose-Lee took onboard the tips on offer from the friendly and helpful coaches and have applied them to the Laser class in the hope they can break from tradition.

Teariki shares his thoughts on the coaches saying, “They’ve been very helpful. Like Tim, he’s been talking to me a lot about my hiking. I should do this, I should do that and it’s helped me a lot. And Andrew, he has been helping me with his experience of sailing boats and he was telling me what to do.”

Tim was also well thought of by Rose-Lee commenting, “Yeah, I like him. I’ve been at one of his coaching clinics before, so I know how he coaches and I’m very aware of the things that he will come up with and then he goes really specific into the things that we’re supposed to learn, so he’s really good, yeah.

The clinics don’t just offer coaching tips for the sailors, it also gives them an opportunity to race against others with regattas staged as part of the clinics, something that Rose-Lee appreciates, “We don’t have much competition and to be good, you have to go out and sail with people you haven’t sailed with, with different levels and different skills to learn.”

“Whereas back at home in PNG we only have 10 boats, where we can only rig up to six boats, and sailing is not that big. And we don’t go out with coaches, we sail on our own – just sailors.”

Rose-Lee welcomes the help that has come from the ENP clinic and knows that she can take what she has learned on to the bigger stage. When a future Olympic appearance is mentioned, Rose-Lee keeps both feet on the ground and says matter-of-factly, “I don’t see it as an impossible goal. It is real that if we have limited resources I can always go out, I can find my way around, I will have to make do with what I have and go out more as much as I can and make use of every opportunity I get, like this one.”

Brother Teariki finishes by keeping it simple about his chances of winning a medal at the upcoming Youth World Championships in Langkawi saying, “I 100% love my country. It’s where I was born and I was raised over there, so if I would win a medal for my country, there’s nothing to lose but something to gain.”

ISAF Youth Worlds

Langkawi, Malaysia is hosting the 45th edition of the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships from 27 December to 3 January 2016. More than 380 sailors from 80 sailing in more than 300 boats across nine disciplines will compete in Malaysia.

Website – www.isafyouthworlds.com/home.php