Men’s RSX- Canada’s Multi-talented Good Fortune
by Shauna McGee Kinney on 24 Nov 2010
Men’s RS:X start with both Canadians in a good position Photo: Vincenzo Baglione - 2010 Perth International Regatta Vincenzo Baglione
http://www.albaria.com/
Canadian RSX: Vancouver Canada native, Zac Plavsic started sailing Optimist at the age of eight and moved into teaching sailing. While teaching he raced the Laser for 5 years and he crossed the Atlantic on a 47 foot catamaran with his dad before the age of 18. He’s one of those guys with endless energy, including a stints playing ice hockey, martial arts and competing in triathlons.
Zac happened into windsurfing when was 16 years old while on a family vacation in Antigua. He made the commitment to competitive windsurfing after his Laser 2 crew got a job at Starbucks and backed out of a major regatta. The quick switch to racing in the windsurfing was good fortune for Zac.
Zac placed third (out of three) youth windsurfing and he became the alternate to race Youth Worlds. Luck was again on Zac’s side, the number two qualifier for the Youth Worlds would be too old to compete when the youth event was held. Zac got the youth windsurfing slot and had a year to improve his racing. He finished high school that same year and started full-time training. Luck turned on Zac when he broke his foot while teaching sailing. He was unable to compete in Youth Worlds that year.
Zac was in the top of the windsurfing fleet at the Canadian Olympic Regatta Kingston (CORK) from 2001 through 2003. By the time he was in Perth, he was sporting a moustache in honor of 'Movember' the annual prostate cancer awareness program ( http://au.movember.com/ ).
His attention will be divided following Perth. Zac will spend some of his time near Auckland New Zealand training and some of his time back in Vancouver Canada. He and business school classmates are partners in a mattress recycling business (http://mattressrecycling.ca/ ) in Western Canada. The Canadians are banning mattresses from landfills in 2011 and Zac’s business is in a position to expand from 6,000 mattresses annually to 10,000 mattresses annually.
The international events are Zac’s holiday. During winters in Canada, he keeps fit with cross country skiing and his many sports. He’s spent 10 years living out of suit cases and is thankful for support from Canada and from sports centers.
Zac would like to see yacht clubs move to offering young Optimist sailors the chance to not only move into another sailboat, but a chance to move into windsurfing. He believes that the younger generations of kids are looking for more extreme sports and that windsurfing fits that desire. Zac pointed out that the youth Bic Techno class had bullet-proof equipment and kids don’t need to be big to sail the board.
In Toronto and Québec (well east of Vancouver British Colombia) there are great windsurfing venues on lakes around Québec. And if a competitor wants to travel, the windsurfing equipment is easier to transport than sailboats, because airlines can take the boards in oversized luggage instead of a shipping container or flat-bed cargo.
Zac is looking forward to being in the top of the fleet again at the Perth 2011 regatta.
David Hayes (CAN 11) started windsurfing recently in 2003. He was a sportsman involved in hockey, la crosse and skateboarding. His mom got him into the sport and he’s following in the steps of his older brother Mike Hayes, a Canadian windsurfing champion.
David has deferred some of his university studies in Mechanical Engineering to pursue international windsurfing competition. He’s found it hard to split his time between studies and overseas competitions.
David was satisfied that Canada covered his university tuition as a national athlete. He noted that Canada started the 'Own the Podium' program in 2005, with allowances and support to develop Canadian athletes in a variety of sports. Coming full-circle, David, like Canadian athletes before him, gives his time coaching and mentoring younger windsurfers at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club and Toronto Windsurfing Club.
His next stop is to join his training partners in Argentina. David will prepare for the Rolex Miami OCR in January 2011, part of ISAF’s 2011 circuit and needed for David to qualify for the next Pan Am Games to be held in Guadalajara Mexico in October 2011. The Pan Am games are held shortly before the December Perth 2011 regatta.
There were 18 athletes in the 2010 Perth International Regatta test event. David, Zac and the past week’s RS:X sailors expect 30 sailors at the Perth 2011 regatta.
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