Where the Water Takes You

Pulled Out At Sea

One memory that has definitely stuck with me, was when we lived in Durban, my brother and I got stuck in a rip while swimming out at Warner beach. I must have been ten and he was eleven. Before we realised we had been pulled out quite far by a rip, I started to panic, but my brother Franco remained calm and kept me calm. We managed to make our way safely back to the beach.

Before the Rip

The first time we went on holiday, we swam in the sea and tried boogie boarding. I must have been five years old, boogie boarding in the tiny waves, and the beach was probably my first memory of swimming in the sea. When I first started swimming, I fell in love with it really quickly, and I think my brother did as well. My parents often tell this story about my brother, after his first swimming lesson he said, “Mom, all I want to do for the rest of my life is swim,” and I remember I was pretty much feeling the same.

When I was younger, before we moved to the Western Cape, my parents were very big into mountain biking. My dad, Ross, actually did JoBerg2c on a single speed with a rigid front fork, which is crazy, and that is the reason I am so into mountain biking and why I enjoy it so much now. My mom, Grace, used to do a lot of mountain biking back then as well, not so much anymore, because when we moved here my parents started a big business and it took up all their time. I have a lot of great memories of family mountain biking rides in the game reserve.

I'm trying my best to get them back on the bike, and hopefully we'll get them going again. I have a younger sister, Sienna, who is seven years old, and we just built her first real mountain bike, a little hard tail bike, and I'm super excited about getting her going as well.

Franco is my older brother, who is a full-time swimmer, a two hundred breaststroker and a national champion in his age group, and he is about a year and eight months older than me. We used to ride together every weekend with my parents on the mountain bikes, and we also started competitively swimming together from about the age of seven.

Home and the Hills

My hometown now is in Stellenbosch and training feels really good here, especially in summer. It gets a bit cold in winter, but we have some of the best facilities. I was born and raised in Limpopo, then I moved to Durban when I was nine and then moved here when I was about eleven.

On a normal day in Stellenbosch there are a lot of students at the university, and it's just the everyday Stellenbosch vibes with a lot of people walking around.

"When I'm on the road and think about home, I picture the views with the mountains just outside my bedroom window."

It's definitely made me feel close to nature, especially riding out on these trails in Stellenbosch because we have some of the best trails in the world, all free and anyone can go and ride there. People come from Europe in the summer just to ride the trails, and I'm very grateful that I get to do that every day throughout the whole year whenever I want. I feel for people who haven't found riding or trail running or don't get to experience being out in nature.

Friends in the Flow

I think over the years I've chosen friends who have always aligned with my goals, and I almost never go out and I don't drink or smoke, so I've chosen friends who have the same interests as me.

Some friends and I recently went hiking up the Devil's Peak side of Table Mountain and we slept on top for a night, which was really cool, and then hiked down the next day. Sometimes we go to the beach at Strand or go to the dam where we basically just mess around for a couple of hours on jet skis.

One of my friends got a foil, so I've tried learning how to use it and it's quite fun. At night I generally don't stay out long and will probably leave before 8, but we just hang out and have some fun.

The Shape of Water

Warner Beach in Durban, where I did all my nippers, really stands out for me. Nippers is like lifesaving, but before you get old enough to do lifesaving you do nippers, basically for the younger kids.

If I went back there right now it would bring back so many memories. I remember my first time doing flags, where you lie on the beach in a row of ten people and stand up and run to try and get a flag. I was always terrible at it with bad reaction time, but there were a couple of times where I actually got the flag even though I was terrible.

My first time surfing was there too, learning to surf, boogie boarding, and learning how to use the Malibu board, and all of that was at that beach. Those are definitely some good memories.

"When you swim your body almost feels weightless. You are floating in the water, and you almost feel like you are in a flow state when you are swimming fast and just focusing on the technique."

Growing the Base

So I was mostly a swimmer who did a little bit of running every now and again, but when I was younger I also rode a mountain bike. I knew I had the base, but I never really committed to triathlon.

There was one time in the Limpopo game reserves when I got stuck and I must have been about nine years old. I got a big sidewall cut in my rear tire, and I was at the back of our group and thought everyone had gone. My dad came up behind me and my bike was unfixable, so we chucked it in a bush and I sat on his handlebars all the way back to the car.

When we drove the car back to fetch the bike, we actually saw a whole bunch of rhinos, so it was quite eventful.

Choosing to Commit

I was basically homeschooled for most of high school and that allowed me a lot of freedom with training times, especially with all three sports in triathlon.

I was quite stressed a few times when I was at the point where I just needed to take a break. I got through it, but it was very stressful trying to pass exams while competing.

About six months before the 2024 XTERRA World Championship, I fully switched over and committed to triathlon. That being my first proper international race and getting that result was definitely by far the most meaningful moment of my career.

Working Through Seasons

My plans are to focus on triathlon for now, then maybe try starting a business or going into a trade. I do help out with the family business a lot; it's a water park called Wiesenhof Adventure Park, and I've worked there a lot over the years.

The water park closes for winter for two or three months, and most of the time my parents are free then. Sometimes we go on a family holiday in winter because we never get to go during summer in South Africa anyway.

My dad still works all the way through winter with the maintenance side of the water park and my mom with the accounting side.

I like spending time with my family often at the water park because my parents are always working, especially now after moving to Stellenbosch. They're extremely busy and we don't always get time to spend with them, especially over December during the busy time. My parents actually sleep at the water park in a little flat they have there just so they can work more.

Because Franco and I are so dedicated to training, we were sleeping at home and almost doing our own thing the whole holiday, but also going into work for two to three hours a day.

Patience Before Pressure

I'd really like to tell younger people not to take training too seriously or go hard too early because burnout is a big thing in all sports. When you get low it's hard to continue.

I think that's what happened to me in swimming, since taking it so seriously so young made me lose a lot of motivation. As soon as I switched over to triathlon I found that motivation and the will to push again.

I've been trying to teach Sienna how to ride a bike properly for the last three years, and I tell my parents not to push her too much, to let her find sports by herself. The main thing is to have fun until at least fifteen years old before you take things too seriously.

Fish and Bones

When I was younger I used to be called Bones because I was always extremely skinny, and my whole family and all my friends used to call me Bones.

My brother's name was Fish because of his swimming, so we were Fish and Bones. Mainly my grandparents still call me Bones and sometimes my parents, but most of the time my nickname now is Tony or Ant.

My grandpa's name is Clay (well his name is Peter Clayton), but everyone who knows him only calls him Clay.

Franco doesn't get called Fish anymore because he didn't like it, but on his old bike we still have the frame with a sticker that says Fish, and I still have a sticker that says Bones.