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Sasha Small
Starting his fifth season at Swanny is Sasha Small, 10 years old and one of our Nippers. Swanny Shorebreak saw Sasha walking a board through the Swanny courtyard whilst we were doing Proficiency, so we suspected he was good at board paddling and maybe even doing some pre-season secret training! Swanny Shorebreak caught up with Sasha to find out more:
Sasha’s favourite surf lifesaving activity is boards because he really likes being in the water and catching waves on the boards. Sasha reckons his body is built for paddling fast and hard. When Sasha grows up he would like to go to Country Carnival every year until he is too old and maybe the Aussies. He also wants to try to get into the Ironman series for a while!
We asked Sasha who is his favourite ironman/ironwoman? “I don’t know many Ironmen but my favourite is probably Gary Couanis because he is a person that doesn’t give up easily, he is an inspiration for me and he is my board paddling coach”, said Sasha.
A good answer given Gary is the current joint holder of the Patron’s Award for invigorating junior competition although we suspect Annie, our Swanny Ironman Series organiser, needs to tell to Sasha all about the Nutri-Grain Ironman/Ironwoman Series and that the correct answer to the question was Shannon Eckstein and Courtney Hancock.
Sasha’s plans for this season include participating in the nipper carnivals, State Qualifiers, hopefully States and the Junior Country Carnival and of course progressing in all areas of surf lifesaving.
To achieve all this requires energy so we asked Sasha what is his favourite food? “I absolutely love food so it is really hard to choose but it would have to be chilli con carne or chocolate” (Note ‘or’ not ‘with’!). As to whether there was any sibling rivalry with his younger brother Greg, Sasha replied: “There is definitely between my brother and I in all areas of sport even though he is 6 years old.”
Sasha has been a member of Swanbourne Nedlands SLSC since 2014 when his family moved to Australia from England. Before he came to Australia Sasha had only been in the ocean twice in his life. The first time was in San Francisco and Sasha was only one year old so he had almost no experience of the beach before he came to Australia at the age of 4.
Sasha said “Swanny has changed me from a person that had no experience of the beach to what I am now; a child that loves the water. Swanny is so amazing because it is a small and strong community, we are very competitive and all the coaches and staff are so encouraging.”
That first time Sasha went to the beach in San Francisco at age one, he didn’t want to go in the water. Then his Dad (Mick, holder of a Nipper Rescue Certificate and always at Nippers helping out) started walking to the water and Sasha started crying because he thought his Dad would get smashed by the waves. We can only imagine the first time Mick took Sasha down to Swanny and he saw the shorebreak!
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