Driving success

In tournament water skiing it is the skiers themselves who get the glory. They have the record, the achievements, it is their photos usually appearing in the media. But without a good driver ahead of them, it can count for nothing. Mildura Ski Club stalwart Nigel Sparrow is a good driver. In fact he’s in good company among the best in the world, although he wouldn’t say that himself. Nigel sat down with Angus Dearlove to chat about his life in the driver’s seat, and what is next in his long career.

NIGEL Sparrow is once again bound for a tournament water skiing world championships.

The accomplished Mildura Ski Club life member will drive at the Under 21 World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, on the first weekend of July, towing young skiers to potential record and world championship glory.

“There’s three of us driving, myself, a Canadian and a guy from England who actually towed me at the 2014 worlds when I competed,” Nigel says.

One of the true gentlemen of Sunraysia sport, the 47-year-old has been a fixture in the local skiing scene since the early 1990s and has driven at world championships before – so this won’t be a new experience.

To reach that level you need to be a level three driver and go through the nomination process through the national, then regional and international body.

Nigel began driving almost as soon as he began skiing at the Mildura Ski Club.

“At that point John Palframan was president, and John was a very inclusive president,” he says.

“He just wanted people involved, he didn’t care what they did.
“He was just a very good club member basically, a good president.”

Nigel started off driving at local tournaments, where he befriended skiers Pete Cornale and Gavin McMillan – and following them enabled him to develop his skills at a rapid rate to match the elite skiers.

“I’ve towed Gavin to an over 35 men Australian jump record, that was about 56 or 57 metres,” Nigel says.

“I’ve never quite got Pete (a slalom skier) to an Australian record but I’ve been within a buoy of it a couple of times.”

Nigel says a good driver is built on consistency, and a good feel for where the skier is.

“You can sort of feel when the skier puts load onto the line and onto the boat,” he says.

“You are working in conjunction with them within tight tolerances.

“For instance in slalom you’ve got a tolerance of 200mm off centre, and that’s checked through video and computer programs, you are sort of manipulating the boat to be as close to the centre as possible and as friendly as possible to the skier.”

The wide variety of competitors across the three disciplines: jump, trick and slalom, can make things difficult.

“If you go to nationals you could tow under 10 girls to over 70 men and everything in between, you’ve got all different abilities, weights, heights,” Nigel says.

“And that all makes a difference as well.”

A real highlight for Nigel is being front and centre for a host of national records, towing skiers to top marks.

“I’ve actually lost track a littler bit, I think I’m at about 12 Australian records,” he says.

“At junior worlds in Spain last year in the space of about an hour I towed I think four national records.

“That was pretty amazing, because at the time I only knew one of them was a record but when I got out of the boat I found out there was four.”

But personally working with the juniors through Mildura Ski Club is something Nigel is really passionate about.

Two of these skiers will be at the world championships with him next month.

“Probably working through with the juniors, Jack and Bailey Christie who are club members based in Melbourne will both compete at under 21 worlds,” Nigel says.

“I actually drove at the first ever ski school they did out at Cowra Station, I’ve seen their progression – Bailey at the time would have been six or seven.”