“A Dream Job: Being a Sailing Coach”
By Carolyn Steele
When Ryan Pentolfe; Sailing Coach and Manager at Zeekoevlei Sailing Centre was asked ‘What do you like about working for the Zeekoevlei Sailing Centre?’ His response was “It’s a dream job!” He went on further to say that combining sailing and now becoming a coach is doing something that he loves. He’s not sitting in an office; his office is the water, the boats are the equipment, fun is the children, and time flies at this water based office when the children arrive to learn how to sail and have fun. Ryan and his partner sailing coach; Morne Harding are responsible for the coaching at the Zeekoevlei Sailing Centre; and whilst waiting for the children they look after the centre and ensure all maintenance on the boats is carried out to keep them to the required safety standards and care needed.
Ryan and Morne are passionate about the coaching, sailing and children. They do not just build a professional coaching and mentor relationship; they form friendships as they get to know all the children and their unique personalities.
Both Ryan and Morne are former students of the Sailing Centre and when Ryan started; his friends at the centre were like a family. Being the youngest at the time the group he joined in with; all became firm friends and they still stick together and help each other out. They have grown up and built solid friendships that have lasted. To both of them they feel sailing and coaching is more ‘like a family vibe, rather than a professional vibe’ in the sense it feels like a lot of fun.
A typical day is when the children will arrive early to just hang out before going sailing; as they see the centre as a place they want to be at. The peaceful, calm waters of Zeekoevlei with birds tweeting are enough to relax anyone wanting to get out of the busy streets and noise of the local communities. Baring in mind some of these children are making a choice to not be part of street gangs, drugs, crime and violence; and are preferring the choice having an alternative lifestyle of sailing and everything that sailing offers. Both Ryan and Morne have chosen to not live a lifestyle that is often the choices of some of their old friends who they have had to leave behind for a happier and healthier alternative.
To them the sport of sailing has been about the relationships they have built to be able to grow up together, sail, have fun and go to braais together at times. Normal healthy fun!
Pentolfe’s passion is evident as he feels free and enjoys going to sailing events and competing himself, and he gets to teach kids everything that he learns. “I like the job, because I get to sail that’s why I am still here. Everything I learn I can teach to sailors. Yet, I have to ensure that I don’t let my sailors be better than me. I just can’t let that happen. They won’t respect me.” It is clear Ryan is very driven to ensure he is the best he can be, and to be a role model to others. ‘I don’t want to give them a reason to not respect me!” he says laughing. “Yet; really though we do all tease each other if they do beat me, then that’s okay and we laugh like friends do in this sport. On the water it’s competitive and it’s serious. After racing we may even protect each other, and then the fun side of sailing happens where we are friends off the water. There is lots of teasing about who won that race!”
The children are loved by the coaches as they are all keen to help out in anyway with boats that are often transported to regattas, and all hands are needed to help the coaches get boats on top of trailers and move boats around at the sailing centre. “It always makes life easier to have that extra pair of hands.” Ryan shares that the children are always keen to just come and hang out especially in the school holidays as it is somewhere to go; to get off the streets. Ryan was part of a group of ten other kids initially, and he shares there are only four of the initial group who are sailing. Others left to go boatbuilding, others are back living the life of drugs and gangsters again. He feels sad when he sees them as they are walking around high on drugs with no purpose, begging for one and two rand coins to buy cigarettes and drugs. “For me sailing is a better choice than hanging out on a street corner.”
Taking the children to regattas is fun, as everyone looks out for each other. “Even the older kids, look out for the youngsters; it’s a family. We have fun, the kids get to sail and they all go to bed when I say so! “Ryan jokes.
Being part of any group usually means there are some traditions that develop in the spirit of fun. Ryan and Morne enjoy sometimes just coming to sail with their friends and sailing, finding a spot on the water and ‘a sap in die Vlei’, and then go swimming off the jetty. ‘For some ‘new’ friends they have to swim to the buoy in life jackets!’ Both of them are laughing. They all bring five rand to buy Gatsby’s. What is a Gatsby? “It’s a coloured thing!” says Morne. “It’s a massive sandwich the locals eat with polony, Vienna’s, slap chips, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sauces, anything. You get fish Gatsby’s, masala steak curry, the full house!” Ryan is laughing and says “Gatsby’s they are like evil! Chips are falling out, not a knife and fork meal. It’s wet, you can’t close them!” He shares a tidbit about “…one Gatsby in Parkwood was so long that it had to sit across the brother’s in the back seat of the car!”
What is evident is these are street smart young adults who are enjoying their work and the community spirit that it has given them in another form. They are passionate about sailing, the competitiveness, the growth and opportunities that the sailing centre has given them.
Ryan’s thoughts about the sailing centre are that “The buzz at the sailing centre is cool. There are hundreds of good memories, and there are lots more to come.”
Zeekoevlei Sailing Centre 