Nelson’s Eagle family have lived a life for the past two years that many thalassophiles would envy.
The eldest son, Alex, 8, lives with his parents, two older sisters and younger brother on a 57ft vessel in the Marlborough Sounds, and the family also split their time between Nelson and Wellington.
Alex has become a masterstroke of swimming since living on the sea, and his father David says Alex wanted to take the plunge and follow in his sisters’ footsteps by competing at the upcoming Nelson Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon on 10 March.
“It has always been a focus of ours as parents to make sure our kids can swim well, and it’s gone a whole other level now that we’re living on a boat because it’s a necessary skill.
“Quite often we’re anchored maybe 100 metres offshore in quite deep water, and the kids have become comfortable with just swimming off the back of the boat… and swim to shore.
“Both of his sisters have done triathlons when they were little and Alex use to come and watch, and he always wanted to do it, and he’s finally big enough to do it himself,” he adds.
“In his first year at school we didn’t really have an appreciation of Alex’s competitiveness, and then at the school cross country he won the race, and he was so far ahead that it was quite surprising.
“By the third kid you’re quite busy and the third kid doesn’t get that much exposure to some of things the first and second kids get to, so it was quite an interesting realisation that Alex was a really good athlete.”
David says Alex was “really keen” for his first Weet-Bix TRYathlon to apply his enthusiasm for the disciplines, and it could present another stroke of luck on his sporting pathway.
