Feeding the need for speed

Fire and Emergency Sportsperson of the Year Ryan Thomson used to be a competitive sailor and kayaker, but yachts and paddling didn’t quite satisfy this champion’s hunger for speed and excitement.

Ryan is the Fire and Emergency Sportsperson of the Year, in recognition of his national and international achievements in jetski racing. He received his trophy from Board Chair Paul Swain last weekend.

“I’ve always had a passion for speed and adrenalin – always been competitive” the Spreydon firefighter says. He found an outlet for that adrenalin rush when he took up jetski racing about four years ago.

Ryan races a deceptively compact 450HP machine that he reckons is the fastest power to weight jetski in New Zealand, and he’s claimed regional and national honours in the unrestricted elite class.

On the back of his national successes, Ryan headed to the 2019 Jet Ski World Championships in Arizona. Thanks to funding assistance from the Fire and Emergency Sports Council he was able to compete but due to shipping costs, Ryan was unable to take his own craft to the US. Undaunted, he hired a jetski locally and fought through to fifth place overall – the only competitor in the top ten to be riding a hired machine. To put that in perspective, Te Ihu’s representative on the Sports Council, Hamiora Taite, likens Ryan’s achievement to Novak Djokovic having to borrow a tennis racquet to compete at Wimbledon!

Ryan has had to sit out this summer racing season due to injury. Instead he has helped the Canterbury Jet Sports Club and the NZ Jet Sports Association to run local and national events. While he said it was frustrating to watch from the sidelines instead of defending his title, he’s aiming to be back on the water next summer and said he’s been happy to give something back to the sport as an administrator and help the sport grow.

Ryan acknowledges the support he’s had from Fire and Emergency, both in funding and encouragement. “It’s great to be able to do this job and also train and compete.”