{"id":41247,"date":"2025-09-24T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/41247\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T19:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:32:08","slug":"on-the-up-tauranga-teen-ellison-hollands-crowned-world-junior-girls-waterski-racing-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/41247\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: Tauranga teen Ellison Hollands crowned world junior girls\u2019 waterski racing champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ellison\u2019s driver is her dad, Gene Hollands, and they race at up to about 130km\/h, with Ellison on a single ski. <\/p>\n

Brad Dutton, captain of the New Zealand team for the worlds, said Ellison\u2019s event involved teams racing around a 4-5km circuit for 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

A bigger, heavier ski is used, given the high speeds – for Ellison\u2019s height it would be about 218cms.<\/p>\n

Once the 30 minutes is up, competitors race a final lap of the course, with the first across the line crowned winner.<\/p>\n

Ellison won three of her heats and placed second in the other. She earned the maximum 3000 points and delivered a flawless victory in the final.<\/p>\n

The series took place in Bornem and Cheratte in Belgium from August 24 to August 31, attracting competitors from NZ, Australia, Belgium, Austria, the United Kingdom, and France.<\/p>\n

\"EllisonEllison Hollands, 14, at the International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) World Waterski Racing Championships in Belgium. Photo \/ Marc Vermeiren<\/p>\n

From Tauranga, Ellison attends Tauranga Girls\u2019 College and trains over the Kaimai Range at Lake Kar\u0101piro with the Piarere Water Ski Club.<\/p>\n

Ellison said she had been up on double skis since she was about 4 years old – a water baby through and through.<\/p>\n

She advanced to single skiing before she turned 5, and began ski racing at 8.<\/p>\n

She had also dabbled in barefoot waterskiing, which she said has added to her broader skillset. <\/p>\n

Waterskiing was not the only sport in her repertoire.<\/p>\n

She also rode dirt bikes in the winter to keep fit and played hockey for her school team.<\/p>\n

\"EllisonEllison Hollands, 14, has been waterskiing since age 4. Photo \/ Marc Vermeiren<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need guts\u201d for water ski racing, said Ellison. There have been deaths in the sport internationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get scared, but I\u2019m definitely nervous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great way to connect with like-minded people. I enjoy waterskiing because of the friends I\u2019ve made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, waterskiing isn\u2019t an Olympic sport. <\/p>\n

But Ellison has set herself lofty goals.<\/p>\n

Seven years ago, the Bay of Plenty Times<\/a> profiled Ellison for a Young Achiever of the Week series, when she won her first race in the tadpole division at the Bridge to Bridge Water Ski Classic in Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\"EllisonEllison Hollands at age 7. Photo \/ Andrew Warner<\/p>\n

Asked this week where she saw herself in another seven years, Ellison said she \u201chopes to be the women\u2019s world water ski racing champion, and studying toward a physiotherapy qualification\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dad Gene joked that in seven years, he saw Ellison \u201cpaying her own bills\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m obviously very proud of her achievement, but it\u2019s her dedication and commitment to her training I\u2019m also proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellison\u2019s family all waterski \u201cto varying degrees,\u201d said Gene – who also came home with a medal from their success at worlds.<\/p>\n

He said both the New Zealand Water Ski Racing Association and the Piarere Water Ski Club had been supportive of Ellison\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n

Waterskiing has \u201ctaught her about many facets of life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cResilience, commitment, and she has made some lifelong friendships.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, she also came in first for Junior Girls and third for the Women\u2019s category at the IWWF Oceania Championships in Taup\u014d, held in March. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer future is very bright, given her dedication and commitment to anything she puts her mind to,\u201d said Gene.<\/p>\n

Bijou Johnson is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. A passionate writer and reader, she grew up in Tauranga and developed a love for journalism while exploring various disciplines at university. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Massey University. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ellison\u2019s driver is her dad, Gene Hollands, and they race at up to about 130km\/h, with Ellison on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6028,13114,17447,13838,37098,26588,111,139,69,90,3512,213,1227,5163,223,810,37099,377],"class_list":["post-41247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-champion","tag-crowned","tag-ellison","tag-girls","tag-hollands","tag-junior","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-tauranga","tag-teen","tag-the","tag-up","tag-waterski","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}