Stand outside on a really windy day and the noise enveloping your ears can be so overpowering you can barely hear anything else. It’s a similar experience Mani Bisschops has while zooming along the waters off Cottesloe Beach in Perth training to become one of the world’s best young kiteboarders.

“The wind in your ears can get pretty loud,” says Bisschops, one of Australian Sailing’s five representatives in the 88-strong Australian Team for next month’s Youth Olympic Games in Argentina.

“It’s a lot of adrenalin. It’s really exhilarating. You could say it’s a bit out of control when you’re really going for it. You’re bouncing along the waves, just leaning back, trying to go faster and faster. The quicker you get, the more out of control you get, just trying to hold it all down. You kind of skid over every wave, hit all the little bumps.

“The noise gets pretty intense unless you’re on your foils, when you hear almost nothing, just a vague whistle of the foil on the water. It’s really peaceful. Everything can change so quickly, from being really gnarly jumping up and down and stuff, to just nothing.”

There’s a good chance the noise around kiteboarding will increase in coming years after the decision to include the sport on the program for the 2024 Olympic Games. Bisschops, our first kiteboarder to compete at a Youth Olympics, is in pole position at this early stage. But he knows there is hard work ahead if he’s going to wear the green and gold in Paris in six years’ time.

“The announcement about Paris 2024 is pretty good timing. I was born in 2000, so I’ll be 24 then, which is a good age, so you could say it’s kind of perfect for me,” he said.

If Bisschops does fulfill his dream, it will have been nearly a lifetime in the making. Sailing was not a big sport in his family, but Bisschops was a keen surfer and his father a dedicated ocean swimmer, who dabbled in kite-surfing.

“Dad kitesurfed with his brother, they both just loved that kind of stuff, and then I learnt from both of them, along with my brother and about four other cousins - they taught us all at once,” he said.

“I was the youngest. Most of them gave it up or had to stop because of uni or just didn’t have time. I was the only one that kept with it.”

Learning the art was a test of patience back then, as there was only one kite among the group and they would often each wait hours at the beach for their turn. It’s a different story now with Bisschops training on the water at least two hours a day five or six days a week. On top of that, there are plenty of hours in the gym, working predominantly on the core and leg muscles needed to maintain stability and produce drive.

“You need strength but you also need skill,” he said.

“If you don’t have much strength, skill can get you through though. If you can control the kite properly, you won’t need as much strength. But if you’re stronger, you can kind of be a bit more radical and you won’t get pulled as quick or anything like that.”

Speed is sometimes the aim of the game with courses generally mirroring a sailing course with legs heading up and down wind and featuring top and bottom marks. Top speeds can hit 30 knots. However, the Youth Olympics competition will be a slalom course, requiring more finesse than raw speed.

“It’s a bit different, not as quick and it’s a bit closer and better for spectators,” the slalom world No.16 said.

“It’s mark-to-mark about 400 or 500 metres apart, with jumps and all that, so you’ll be able to see who’s ahead of who.

“It’s a small fleet in Argentina and I haven’t raced against those guys since the Worlds in China in May. We all went home to our own countries to train after that, so it’s hard to know how everyone’s going to be and what I’ve done compared to the others. I’m just going to turn up and see how it all goes.”

The Youth Olympic Games begin on October 6

AUSTRALIA'S REPRESENTATIVES

Hailey Lea - windsurfing

Alex Halank - windsurfing

Mani Bisschops - kiteboarding

Will Cooley - Nacra 15

Evie Haseldine - Nacra 15

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