|  Luukajones.com | Media | Articles | NZOC First Canoe/Kayak-Slalom Woman SelectedAt just 19 years of age, Luuka Jones has become New Zealand’s first woman to represent New Zealand at the Olympic Games in Canoe/Kayak- Slalom.
Jones’ nomination was accepted by the New Zealand Olympic Committee after she qualified for the Games at a World Cup meet at Tacen in Slovenia on 29 June 2008. She has previously secured the International Canoe Federation’s Olympic spot for New Zealand at the Oceania Championships in Australia in March this year.
Originally from Tauranga, Jones is now based in Nottingham (UK), the home of the United Kingdom’s slalom team where she is able to train and compete with some of the world’s most experienced slalom racers.
New Zealand Olympic selector, Barry Maister, is delighted at Jones’ selection. “Luuca’s selection is exciting – Canoe/Kayak-Slalom is a thrilling sport and she’s a trailblazer for us. She’s a strong long-term prospect.”
Jones also has her sights set on the future. “For me, the sky is the limit,” she said. “I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quite trying. I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.” |  |  Stoked to Be First Luuka Jones is New Zealand’s first female to qualify for the Olympics in slalom kayak. The 20 year old from Tauranga talks about her road to realising a dream.
Q: How did you get into kayaking?
LJ: I lived down the road from a kayak adventure park in Tauranga at Waimarino. They asked me if I wanted to work in return for kayak lessons – so I took up the opportunity and got into it that way. It was more like go and hang out down there because I was quite young. I was 12 then.
Q: So you lived quite close?
LJ: We lived about 200m away and after a while I would sometimes paddle to work.
Q: How did it develop from there?
LJ: Barry (Anderson), who owned Waimarino, taught me to Eskimo roll and they took me on river trips and a bit of white water and that’s how I got into it – basically from recreational kayaking. One year I decided that I wanted to go to slalom nationals. So my grandfather took myself and two others from my school down to Colliers Bridge, which is in the middle of nowhere (actually in the back blocks near Wanganui).
Q: How old where you then and at what school?
LJ: I was 14 years old then at Otumoetai College. They came third which qualified me for the national development squad at my very first time. I had never been on a slalom course before in my life. I knew that I had to go down the green gates and up the red ones in number order – but I already had white water skills which really helped. Essentially that’s what pulled me through.
Q: How did you react to that first taste of the sport?
LJ: I was pretty stoked to make the development squad and go to Australia to compete and I did that for a couple of years although I wasn’t in to it enough to be training fulltime. I was still doing it pretty much recreationally – and playing canoe polo as well. But then I qualified for the New Zealand junior team that went to Europe and we travelled around a bit and competed in the Junior Worlds in Slovenia – and that’s when I decided I wanted to take it further.
Q: When was that and how did you go?
LJ: That was 2006 and I came 27th – so I didn’t go too well but it was my first major international competition and I was a bit overwhelmed with how many other paddlers there were from around the world and how good that where. On the plane ride home I just decided that maybe I should move to Nottingham the next year and train there – and make something of it – because I knew I couldn’t make it in New Zealand.
Q: That was a big step for you?
LJ: Yes it was a pretty big step. It was kind of more of a dream. I thought, yeah it would be cool to go to Nottingham and I told my parents about it but I think they were thinking this is just another of my plans that I never went through with.
But near Christmas my mother said that if I wanted to go I had better start saving. So I worked three jobs and had to sacrifice my training a bit but it worked out in the end.
Q: Why Nottingham and how did you get in there?
LJ: It is the English base for slalom kayak. I was quite fortunate. The only person I knew was the coach we had at junior worlds who was British and came from Nottingham so I stayed with him initially. And he introduced to a few people who introduced me to a few more people and before I knew it, I got to know a lot of people there who made me welcome and it was pretty cool.
Q: Why did they take you into the fold?
LJ: Probably because I was from New Zealand and there’s a massive slalom kayak community there and as it is the national training facility, everyone trains there.
Q: What difference has it made to you?
LJ: It was the best decision of my life so far. I’ve been able to train with so many good paddlers and I have learned so much. Staying in New Zealand would have been a lot more difficult because I would have had to train by myself and I would not have been able to learn anything.
Q: When did you think that you had a chance to make the team to Beijing?
LJ: At the end of last year I knew there was a chance but I was not considering it seriously. As it came up to Oceanias which was the event to qualify a spot for New Zealand, I was a bit more serious and realised that I genuinely wanted to be the one to qualify the spot and have a chance for Beijing. It was at Penrith on the Olympic course and I managed to qualify the spot there. That was half of the hurdle. Then i started training really hard to make the New Zealand Olympic Committee standards which i eventually did at the World Cup in Slovenia.
Q: How does it feel to be the first female to qualify for the Olympics in your sport?
LJ: It feels pretty good. I think I am pretty stoked to do it for Slalom New Zealand and try to get a few more people into our sport. Not that many people really know what the sport is about and it such a cool, exciting sport which is why I do it. But it is cool to be here and to be the first female canoe slalom paddler.
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