But when you’re Ben Sorraghan, a 17-year-old from Shepparton, who’s just found out an international title is yours; the time hardly matters.
Recently Sorraghan soared above the competition at the Junior Barefoot Waterski Jump Internationals, taking out gold with a whopping 20.7m finals effort.
His monstrous jump would prove more than enough to seal the deal, a metre ahead of second place in fact — but Sorraghan had no idea at the time.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, entrants were forced to compete on an isolated plane, with Sorraghan completing his own jumps at Lake Mulwala.
He posted a strong 20.3m score in the preliminaries before blowing everyone out of the water in the final — the jump which would crown him best in the world.
And because of the format, the 17-year-old champion-to-be was forced to find out the news via phone call.
“It was really exciting, I was with my family and had just woken up as Dad hung up the phone from one of the men who was involved in the scoring,” Sorraghan said.
“Dad had just been told the news, so we all celebrated.”
The modified nature of the event may have scrubbed an inch of lacquer off the occasion.
But to Sorraghan, being able to throw on the green and gold and get vertical was surreal in its own right.
“It wasn’t the world championships that I had been hoping for where we would get to meet skiers from all over the world,” he said.
“It was still good though as we were able to wear our Australian wetsuits and shirts.
“From the moment we got in the boat to the moment we left the boat, we were on film the whole time, which is quite different, because normally it is only filmed as we are barefoot skiing.”
However, Sorraghan won’t be the big fish in the small pond for much longer.
The next challenge awaiting him is the ascent from the junior to senior category, where he will jump both feet in the water against fully grown men.
“Heading into men’s I am going to continue to try hard and just make sure it stays fun — the main goal is to have fun.”
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