Keep paddling project第10章

APP London/Korea report

Profile

荒木珠里（あらきしゅり）teamKANAKA所属
2006年5月7日沖縄生まれ、16歳。NHK高等学園 1年生

幼少の頃から沖縄の大自然に囲まれて育つ。漁師の祖父の影響で物心がつく前から海に飛び込み、アスリートの父の影響でSUPを始めた時期は記憶に無いほど、”海”は彼にとって欠かせないフィールド。将来はモロカイ世界チャンピオン、オリンピックで金メダルという夢を描きながら父の背中を追いかける。趣味は読書。得意な科目は図工と体育。小中一貫校、緑風学園時代には持久走大会では1年生から最終学年まで9連覇、小中最大の目標を達成し読書数は2000冊を越えた。今年春から高校進学。Shuri grew up surrounded by the great nature of Okinawa. He jumped into the ocean before he could remember because of his fisherman grandfather, and the time when he started SUP under the influence of his athlete father is an indispensable field for him. His future is Molokai World Champion, chasing his father's back as he paints his dream of a gold medal at the Olympics. His hobby is reading. His favorite subjects are arts and crafts and physical education. During his time at Ryokufu Gakuen, an integrated elementary and junior high school, he won nine straight victories in endurance races from the first year to the final year, achieving the biggest goal in elementary and middle school, and the number of books he had read exceeded 2,000. He will start high school this spring.

photo :APP world tour

荒木珠里メルマガvol.43（2022/9/27 APP London, Korea）から引用

皆さん、こんにちは。荒木珠里です。僕はお父さんと2人で9月9日から26日の間、APPワールドツアーの第2-3戦に出場するためイギリス・ロンドンと韓国・釜山に遠征し昨夜遅くに帰宅しました。イギリスは17-18日、韓国は24-25日と2週連続の週末で開催されました。ロンドンは総合9位、韓国は総合3位でした。今回は結果以上に価値がある学びの連続でした。イギリスは波の少ない川、韓国もレース当日は風が一切なくなり平水でした。短距離も長距離も風や波がなくなると体格や体力がパフォーマンスに直接影響します。周りの大人選手に比べて体格、特に肺や心臓がまだ小さい16歳の僕にとって最も不利な条件になりましたが16歳でもバランス良い漕ぎさえできれば平水でも十分に世界で勝負できるということを確信できました。その一方で大人と比較して僕はまだまだパワー不足だということも明確に感じました。またまだ厳格なルールが確立されていないSUP競技で反則ギリギリの厳しいプロの世界も初めて経験し精神的にとても追い込まれましたが全てが良い収穫です。

Hello everyone. This is Shuri Araki. My father and I traveled to London, England and Busan, South Korea from September 9th to 26th to participate in the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the APP World Tour, and returned home late last night. It was held on the two consecutive weekends.

I was 9th in London, and 3rd in Korea. This time it was a lot of learning that is more valuable than just a result. In England, the river Thames had currents at the end, but it was almost whole flat water race, and in Korea, there was waves and chops before, but no wind on the race day, and the water was 95% flat condition. Both short and long distances, your physique and physical strength directly affect your performance if it’s flat. As a 16-year-old, my physique, especially my lungs and heart, was still small compared to the elite adult athletes around me, so it was the most unfavorable condition for me, but I am convinced that even a 16-year-old can compete in the world if I can paddle with good balanced and efficient movement that I have been working with my father for long time. On the other hand, I clearly felt that I still have such a less power compared to adults. Also, in the SUP competition, where strict rules have not yet been established, I experienced the tough&ruthless professional world for the first time, and I was mentally driven, but everything was a good lesson.

River Thames, London

昨夜日本へのフライトの途中でお父さんと話し合いましたが、パワーが足りないからと言っていきなり筋トレや鏡の前で無理に心肺を追い込む練習は一切考えていません。これからも引き続き地味な基礎練習と、恐怖と向き合う心の強さや、海の変化を読む眼力をつける鍛錬を続けていくつもりです。お父さんからは「追い込めば強くなるのは当たり前だけどパワーをつけること焦って、心や技術よりも体を先に大きくすることになっては絶対に駄目だ。」と言われています。今世界を見わたすと平水にだけに強い選手、逆に風波だけを得意とする選手と大きく偏りが分かれています。平水で世界に通用した日本人選手は過去にもいますが、一旦海が荒れると世界とは大きく差が開いている現状です。いつも口にしていることですが僕はどんなコンディションでも通用する、なるだけ弱点の無い選手を目指しています。「結果は努力の後に付いてくる。」これが僕とお父さんの合言葉です。だからこそ今は不利な条件下でも自分の良さを活かしながらどう戦えるか？ということがとても大事です。今回周りの選手たちと僕の動きや能力の差もよく理解できましたし、来年・再来年と17-18歳になり骨格が発達すれば今のようなパワー負けはしなくなります。ちょうどバランスが揃う二十歳にはオリンピックで世界の頂点を視野に入れたいと思います。

I had a discussion with my father on the flight to Japan last night, but I'm not thinking about doing muscle training or doing cardio and lung exercises in front of the mirror all of a sudden because I don't have enough power. From now on, I will continue to do simple basic training and training to develop the mental strength to face fear and the ability to read the water; currents and wind that we can hardly see by our eye. My father told me, "It's easy to understand that you'll become stronger if you push yourself harder, but you shouldn't be in a hurry to build up your power and make your body bigger than your mind and skills." Looking at the world today, there is a big difference between paddlers who are strong only in flat water and players who are good only in wind waves. There have been Japanese sup athletes who were world-class in flat water in the past, but once the sea gets rough, there is a big gap between Japanese paddlers and the rest of the world top class. As I always say, I aim to be a player who has as few weaknesses as possible, who can be dynamic in any condition."Results come after hard work." This is my father's motto. That's why now how can I race while making use of my skills even under unfavorable conditions? This is very important for me now.

This time, I could understand the differences in movement and technique between the APP paddlers around me and myself. Next year and the year after that, when I'm 17-18 years old and my bone structure develops, there won't be any situations where I lose because I don't have enough power like I do now. By the time I reach the age of 20, when my muscular strength and bone structure are in balance, I would like to set my sights on the top of the world at the Olympics(hopefully).

APPワールドツアーは単体で運営される世界大会とは大きく違います。それぞれの国や地域で水面の状況が変わりますし、季節によって様々な気象条件に対応する能力が問われます。そしてシーズンが長いので体調管理や遠征費調達もとても困難です。これが大会毎に選手の顔ぶれや順位が大きく変動する理由です。今回で前半３戦が終わり世界ランキング4位に付けています。後半戦はフランス、スペイン、そしてサウジアラビアの3連戦です。今回第3戦の韓国大会にはヨーロッパとアメリカ大陸から世界で活躍しているトップ選手約10人以上が参加せず比較的上位を狙えましたが後半は僕が目標としている世界のトップ選手たちが参加します。そして季節も冬へと変わり水面が激しく荒れることが予想されています。沖縄の外洋で育った僕は激しくなればなるほど得意ですしパワーの差を跳ね返せると思います。（勿論荒れても体格や骨格が不利なことには変わりがありませんが、）後半戦も最後まで諦めずポイントを重ね年間総合ランキングでどこまでワールドチャンピオンに近づけるか？難しいからこそ価値がある挑戦に向け今日からまた改めて気を引き締めなおします。

The APP World Tour is very different from the world tournaments that are run independently. The water surface conditions vary in each country and region, and we have to deal with various weather conditions depending on the season. And the season is very long, so it is very difficult to manage physical condition and secure travel expenses.. This is the reason why the lineup and ranking of the players change so quickly every race.

This is the end of the first three rounds. I am currently ranked 4th in the world. The second half will be a three-game series between France, Spain, and Saudi Arabia. This time, the 3rd round in Korea was not attended by more than 10 top players from Europe and the Americas who are active in the world, so we were able to aim for a relatively high place. In the second half, the top players in the world, which I am aiming for, will participate. And it is expected that the season will change to winter and the surface of the water will become really rough.

最後に、日本から2日かけてロンドンに到着した翌日、ボードを借りるため初めて訪れたイギリスでお父さんがレンタカーを12時間運転してくれました。レース直後は30時間かけてイギリスから韓国へ移動したのですが、エリザベス女王の葬儀の関係で選手全員のボードを載せたコンテナが届かず、韓国到着後も休みなくレンタルボードを探すために駆け回っていました。この2週間お父さんが僕の何倍ものストレスや睡眠不足と戦いながらサポートしてくれたお陰で、僕は疲労回復に集中できました。本当に感謝しています。

Finally, the day after I arrived in London from Japan in two days, my father drove me a rental car for 12 hours in England, which was our first visit, to pick up my race board.(thank you Willy for letting me use your lovely board!!)Immediately after the race, it took 30 hours to travel from England to South Korea, but due to Queen Elizabeth's funeral, the container with all the players' boards did not arrive, so even after arriving in South Korea, he ran around looking for rental boards without rest.Huge thanks to my dad's support over the past more than two weeks, battling rental board stress and jet lag that are unimaginable, I was able to focus on recovering from jet lag. Thank you so much.

Men's sprint final, Busan

次は10月15-16に全日本選手権が熊本県で開催されます。今から3週間後、久しぶりの国内レースです。今回平水で負けてしまった同じ日本の田口選手（19才）を倒せるよう頑張ります。そして11月はプエルトリコで、世界サーフィン連盟主催の「ISA世界選手権」があります。ISAはIOC（国際オリンピック委員会）に繋がる将来の僕にとってとても大事なレースです。昨6月に静岡県の南伊豆で行われた日本代表選考会を経て日の丸を背負って出場します。ISAのコースは4月に出場したUSAノースカロライナ州の「カロライナカップ」と似ていて荒れた外海と内海が繋がるコンディションになるので実力を最大限に発揮したいです。僕は16歳なので周りからISAジュニア部門（17歳以下）でタイトルを目指したらどうか？と言われるのですが、ずっと幼い頃から年齢が上の選手の胸を借りて挑戦してきましたし今はジュニアタイトルよりも挑戦することに価値を感じています。APPと同じように全力で世界トップ選手へ挑みます。そして来夏はいよいよ世界最高峰の外洋レース“M2O(モロカイーオアフ海峡横断レース)“が4年ぶりに復活します。小2の頃からずっと沖縄の荒れた海で身につけてきた外洋の能力を発揮できれば史上最年少でM2O世界チャンピオンを狙えると思います。

最後に、今回も今まで沖縄の荒れた海で練習してきた中で磨き上げてきたバランス感覚や、体全体を使ってでの漕ぎを生かして体格の差を乗り越えて表彰台に上ることがができました。ロンドンも韓国もレース展開はとても苦しい場面が多かったですが、それでも最後まで強い気持ちで挑めたので、この結果が付いてきたのだと思います。これからはもっと世界の選手たちを追い越せるように練習を頑張ります。今回も飛行機代やホテル代など遠征費が沢山かかりました。後援会の皆さん一人一人のお気持ちのお陰で僕たちは活動ができています。一人一人に心から感謝しています。そしてAPPワールドツアー後半戦も最後まで絶対に諦めません。どうぞ応援よろしくお願いします！！keep paddling. 荒木珠里

I was able to make it to the podium again this time, taking advantage of my sense of balance, which I have honed through training in the rough seas of Okinawa, and my ability to use my whole body to paddle. There were many tough moments in the races in both London and Korea, but I think I was able to come up with this result because I didn't give up my challenge with a strong will until the very end, overcoming the difference in physique. From now on, I will do my best in practice so that I can race more strong and challenge to world class top paddlers around the world. Lastly, We had to pay a lot for the trip. We are able to travel because of my supporters. Thank you so much for each and every one of our supporters.

Next, the All Japan Championship will be held in Kumamoto Prefecture on October 15-16. Three weeks from now, it will be my first domestic race in a long time. I will do my best to beat the same Japanese player Taguchi (19 years old) who lost in flatware condition this time. And in November, Puerto Rico hosts the ISA World Championships hosted by the World Surfing Federation. ISA is a very important race for me in the future, which will lead to the IOC (International Olympic Committee).The course of ISA is similar to the "Carolina Cup" in North Carolina, USA, which I participated in in April, and the rough sea and inland sea will be connected, so I want to show my ability.I'm 16 years old, so why not aim for the title in the ISA Junior Division (under 17 years old)? I've been challenged by older players since I was young, and now I feel more value in taking on challenges than junior titles. Just like APP, I will do my best to challenge the world's top players.

Next summer, the world's top ocean race, the M2O (Molokai-Oahu paddleboard world championship), will finally return for the first time in four years. With my ability of the very rough open ocean that I have trained since I was in 9years old in Okinawa-island, I would like to aim for the youngest M2O world champion in history book.

This time, I was able to overcome the difference in physique and climb to the podium by using my balance and ability to use my whole body to paddle. There were many tough moments in the races in both London and Korea, but I think I was able to come up with this result because I was able to challenge myself with a strong will until the very end. Thank you so much to all the supporters. I am deeply grateful to each and every one of you. In addition to the APP world tour, I will continue to challenge the world. I'll never give up in the second half of APP world tour!!

keep paddling. ‘Shrimpy’ Shuri Araki