Olly’s out to find new Olympians

Winner of this year’s kitesurfing competition Olly Brunton didn’t return home to New Zealand when Manureva was done and dusted. Instead, he stayed in Aitutaki to enjoy the lagoon and teach some local kids how to ride.

Olly made some genealogical connections from his New Zealand Maori heritage to Mauke and says the Cook Islands feel like home.

Currently he is coaching some of Aitutaki’s best sailing youth in hopes of identifying local Olympic hopefuls to race at the 2016 Olympic games.

”The kids picked up the kite skills really quickly, their knowledge of the wind was a great asset to their progression,“ he said.

The sailors proved a dedicated bunch – they attended an evening clinic with Brunton in the middle of the Aitutaki sailing challenge, followed by a training session on Honeymoon.

Sailors who attended were Aquila Tatira, Rino George, Shardae Neil, Duanne George, Taua Elisa-Henry and Purotu Puna.

Brunton’s teenaged son Luka, an accomplished kiteboarder himself, was impressed with how quickly the group progressed. He was available to lend a hand with the sessions and in no time made new friends.

The initiative was a joint project arranged by Vane Henry, commodore of the Aitutaki Sailing Club, Lawton Story and Brunton, who has donated his time as well as kiteboarding equipment gifted from the brand Ozone to help establish Olympic kiteboard racers in Aitutaki.

”The current world champion of kitesurf racing, John Heineken, is a sailor whom has only learnt to ride a kiteboard in the last two years,“ Brunton pointed out. He hopes the next John Heineken is an undiscovered Aitutaki youth.

Kiteboarding has been a surprise inclusion to the 2016 games. The kitesurf racers will compete in a sailing type course, giving current sailors an advantage over the socially-orientated kiteboarder, who will have to learn how to sail.

”Now is a perfect time to develop young Olympic hopefuls,“ Brunton says.

A former Olympian himself, Olly attended the 1998 Nagano winter Olympic games for snowboarding, has three New Zealand national snowboard halfpipe titles, is the current masters kiteboard national freestyle champ of New Zealand and ranked fifth in the open kiteboard freestyle division.

Brunton is an athlete, coach, kiteboard magazine editor, and acupuncturist with Maori heritage, and keen to nurture and coach a future Cook Islands kitesurf team. With a world-class arena in the Aitutaki lagoon, the stage is set to have world-class athletes developed right here in the Cook Islands.