Competing at the World Championships in anything is a fairly monumental feat.
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But for Elka Connolly, travelling to the United States to compete in this year’s World Wake Association Wakeboard World Championships was just a trial.
Coming home with second place was a bonus.
With competition running from September 9 to 13, the Year 10 Deniliquin High School student made the trip with her dad, David.
They arrived on August 28, allowing time for Elka’s pre-World Championships training regime.
The training was mostly in Orlando, Florida, before World Championships at Callaway Gardens near Atlanta, Georgia.
The locations are some of the world’s best for wakeboarding, even with the added quirk of being home to alligators.
The training program was intense practice which included six straight days of training, one day off and one final training day.
Durign this time, Elka worked with renowned coaches like Australia’s Tony Iaconi and New Zealander Glen Fletcher, as well as professional Australian wakeboarder and Red Bull athlete Cory Teunissen.
All are now based in the US.
After the training camp, Elka has only three days left to get ready for the championships.
The focus for Elka leading up to the tournament was perfecting the ‘run’, and tricks that like board grabs, inverts (flips) and 360 (spins).
The aim is to get the most points, and impress the three judges in the boat.
Most runs consist of a run-up of four to five tricks and then a run-down of another four to five tricks. Each trick should be different.
Competing at such a high level for the first time, Elka said it got to her slightly.
“I was definitely nervous,” she said.
“I think I overthought it a bit; I didn’t have a very good run in the finals.
“I wasn’t happy with it at all, but it’s just the experience.
“I had two crashes. The second time I fell off, it wasn’t really my fault.
“The wake folded at the top, so when I went to go up it caught the front of my board, then my board just dove in.”
Despite the disappointment with her final run, Elka managed to finish runner-up in junior women’s (14 to 18 year olds).
Switzerland’s Sunny-Belle Huser finished first, and American Zayla Wagner finished third.
Overall, Elka said the trip was great for her wakeboarding development after finishing first in the junior women’s at the Wakeboard Australia Nationals in March this year.
“It was a really good experience.
“It was good to see the different levels of riding and, if I want to do that (professional wakeboarding), what I need to do to get there.
“A lot of people have been telling me I have to go into junior pro, including friends that ride in junior pro.
They tell me I’m good enough to do it.
“Normally the scoring system is two or three points between competitors, but when I did the Nationals earlier this year I was 20 points ahead within the same age.
“Junior pro is the same age category, but is sort of in between going pro and too good for just competing in your age category.
“If I went junior pro this season I could be selected for an Australian team, and then go to Moomba.
“So we’ll see.”
Elka’s US experience echoes the pathways of many Australian professional wakeboarders who regularly travel to the US for three to four months at a time to train and compete.
Elka is honing her focus on the sport more, and for the first time has a professional trainer.
Guiding her are ex-professional Chloe Mills from Yarrawonga, and her dad Tim Mills.
Elka’s attention now turns to the Wakeboard Victoria season, which begins at the end of this month.
She will try to get into the water around Deniliquin as much as possible, in addition to heading over to Yarrawonga once a month.
The Connollys say the community has been very supportive of Elk’a progressions, including Deniliquin High School during the time she’s had to take out of the classroom to prepare and compete.
Elka was also supported by Deniliquin Boat Club, Motiv8 Gym Deniliquin, Supra Boats, PV Engineering Solutions of Echuca, Next Gen Wake Clothing Apparel, and Yarrawonga Skin, Ski & Surf.