Privileged Perspectives

The last two weeks have been very hectic from my point of view. I had got back into KL at 3am, Monday morning from Shanghai after competing in the Audi R8 LMS Cup. Then I was up at 9am for water-ski training in Putrajaya as we have the Asian Waterski Championships in Bangkok this weekend.

So needless to say, with racing cars the previous weekend, I was pretty tired. We trained Monday to Wednesday before flying into Bangkok last night. I missed familiarisation but I thought it better to ski at home and recover from all the travelling.

Also, it’s quite a mindset switch going from racing cars to competing in water-skiing. They are so different. One is a team sport where you bang doors with other competitors to win. The other is very individualistic, where you compete against yourself. One super aggressive, the other very Zen (Of the two, Zen suits me less I think).

Water-skiing is also a lot harder on your body and it’s very easy to injure yourself, especially when you’re tired. Anyway, I’m here now in Bangkok feeling sorry for myself. I’m tired, it’s too sunny, my body aches, I haven’t done enough training, etc., etc.

Wait a minute, did I say too hot? Too sunny? What on earth am I going on about! 

Wait a minute, did I say too hot? Too sunny? What on earth am I going on about! Alex, there are bikinis, no haze, friends you haven’t seen in ages and we even got a DJ spinning some good old school tunes. If this is tough, sign me up for some more.

It’s amazing how easy it is to complain sometimes when you get so wrapped up in your own head; it’s great that I can still race cars, it’s great that I can still represent in water-skiing, I’ve got nothing to complain about. It’s really a privileged position to be in and that’s the perspective I need to keep in mind.

Anyway, Malaysia has had a great tournament so far with two of our juniors snatching gold in girls and boys tricks. A huge congratulations to Arianna Chow and my little Bro, Aiden Hanifah Yoong, I see big things in both your futures.

It was a tough day for my other super Sibling, Aaliyah Hanifah Yoong, as she didn’t quite have the day she expected. She won Silver in Women’s Open Tricks and I guess it’s a measure of how much she has improved that we are disappointed with a Silver. She’s really turning out to be world class and we are all super proud of her.

As for me, it’s been a fun tournament where I haven’t skied too badly. Unfortunately, my competitors have taken it up another notch so I will have to raise my game too before the next Asians if I want to try and snatch a medal.

Men’s jumps in the preliminaries yesterday were especially exciting. We had a massive tail wind and it was really hard to cut into the ramp due to the waves. Suffice to say I was shitting myself. I managed a 36.2m jump, which is way down on my personal best of 43. something meters, but considering the conditions I was just happy to get through it without hurting myself.

Anyway, it’s not an easy sport and maybe that’s why it’s so fun. Anything worth doing is rarely easy from my (Privileged) Perspective.