Sailing with Nico Martin
Nico Martin is a sophomore at OHS, and lives in Houston, Texas. This is Nico’s second year at OHS, and he is a competitive sailboat racer. Co-editor Olivia Woodson finds out more about Nico and his life as a competitive athlete.
Pixel Journal: Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into sailing.
Nico Martin: I started sailing when I was about 6 years old, in community learn-to-sail programs on Lake Washington in Seattle, WA. My dad has sailed since he was little, and I’ve been on boats since I was just a few weeks old. I started racing when I was around 8, and by 10 I was competing internationally with the US National team in the Optimist class (a type of boat that ranges from about 8-15 year olds). In 2013, I went to Hayama, Japan to compete in the Asian Championships, and then competed in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico and English Harbour, Antigua, in 2014 and 2015 respectively, for the North American Championships. I also go to International Yachting Week in Argentina annually (since my grandparents live there), as well as Palamos International Trophy in Palamos, Spain. Since leaving Optimists in 2015, I’ve been sailing high performance, sub-Olympic class boats, like the International 420 and 29er, with the US Olympic Development Program and Project Pipeline (a project designed to bridge the gap between youth and Olympic sailing). Right now I sail mostly 29ers, as a skipper (driver). The 29er is the youth version of the Olympic 49er, both being very fast and unstable boats labeled as “skiffs.”
PJ: Why are you passionate about sailing?
NM: Sailing has always been super fun for me [because] I love being on the water and being with friends/family. Adding the thrill of flying across the water (both figuratively and sometimes literally) in fast boats just makes it that much more fun. What I love about sailboat racing in particular is the combination of mental, strategic, and physical components, which you don’t get in a lot of sports. Especially in high-performance boats, you need to be able to make split second decisions evaluating all the factors on the race course, while also making sure you’re going as fast as possible. You have to try to predict what the wind is going to do next while analyzing the risk of every decision in regard to other boats (how many boats could you pass versus how many could you lose) and at the same time, working really hard physically to keep the boat flat (with your body acting as a lever against the wind on the sails), the sails trimmed properly, and steering so you can maximize your speed and angle to the wind at all times. It’s super interesting to me how each race is pretty simple in principle, but very complicated in practice. Aside from this though, and as a sort of byproduct of sailing, is the fact that I get to travel all over the country and world, experiencing new places and cultures, while making friends all around the world.
PJ: What does your training regimen like?
NM: Since I sail with a crew from Florida currently, and a lot of the 29er fleet is based in California or other areas of the country, I travel a lot, and OHS gives me the flexibility to do that. However, when I’m not traveling, I run my local brick and mortar school’s high school sailing program and have practices every Tuesday and Thursday after school, with regattas on some weekends. Usually I travel anywhere from 1 to 3 weekends a month, sometimes going away for a week or more. Weekend practices generally start around 9am, with a 30-minute to hour-long workout, followed by around 5 hours on the water (depending on the weather). For regattas, we usually arrive at the venue around 8 or 9am, launch around 10 or 11, sail until 4 or 5 (depending on how steady the wind is), and leave the venue around 6. On windy days, a race can leave you out of breath, and on light wind days, you’re constantly balancing and shifting your weight, so it’s more work than a lot of people think. After 5 or 6 hours on the water, you often end up virtually dead, and you still have to do homework and recover before the next day. Because of this, it takes a lot more fitness than people think, and when I can, I try to run or exercise by kite surfing, or sailing, even if it’s just by myself in Houston, and in a different kind of boat.
PJ: Where is your favorite place you have traveled for a competition and why?
NM: I’ve been to a lot of places and it’s hard to choose a favorite, but if I had to I’d say Antigua or Palamos. Both places were beautiful, with blue water, massive waves (30 foot waves in Palamos), and big wind (25 mph in Antigua, and consistent 35-40 mph in Palamos). I had a lot of fun in both places, both sailing and just exploring the areas. Though Palamos had crazy sailing conditions, Antigua is probably my favorite of the two, since all of my friends from different parts of the world were there, and we got to explore the island, as well as learn about the rich history of the island. We actually got to sail and launch out of the historic Nelson’s Dockyard—a fort built by early settlers of the island to defend from naval attacks—which I found fascinating to explore. My favorite part was exploring the island with my local friends and those from around the world, especially jumping off the rocky, 60-foot cliffs (covered in goats which climbed the rocks, craving the minerals in the salt water) into warm, aquamarine ocean waves. It was definitely a memorable event!
PJ: In your opinion what is the hardest part of your sport?
NM: I think the most challenging part of sailboat racing is, like I mentioned, making good tactical decisions without taking your mind off of your own boat. This is complicated because once you start thinking about what to do next and about other boats, you tend to lose focus on your own. This difficulty is only increased the trickier the conditions are (which is usually at the low or high wind extremes). Communicating with your partner(s) is also crucial for this, in order to make sure the team is being as efficient as possible in gathering, processing, and acting upon information. I think a lot of people underestimate the necessary levels of focus, mental and physical agility, analytical and interpersonal skills, and physical work it takes to effectively race a sailboat, and these are some of the most challenging but most exciting aspects of the sport.
PJ: What is it like trying to balance sailing and the OHS?
NM: It’s definitely hard to do work worthy of the OHS’ standards after 5 hours of hard work on the water. When I plan poorly, it can be tedious sometimes to stay up late after a long day of racing. I think the need to balance these things has taught me valuable time-management skills, though, and without the flexibility that the OHS gives me, I definitely would not be where I am in my sailing today. It’s also super helpful to be able to temporarily switch sections [of classes] if there’s a regatta during the week, or if I’m traveling to a different time zone. For example, when I was in Argentina in February this year, I was able to switch almost all of my classes to fit around my schedule for the three weeks I was there training and racing. Even though it was tough to be in school while all my [local] friends were on summer vacation, I was able to really enjoy being there, without putting my academic performance at risk (disregarding the fact I was probably brain dead for 2 out of those 3 weeks). So to answer your question, I have to make an effort to plan ahead to help myself out later, and often make arrangements with teachers to accommodate my often-unconventional schedule. Sometimes I even take classes from the plane, and I think it’s incredible that the OHS allows a real-time class discussion environment while you’re going hundreds of miles an hour, 30,000 feet in the air.
PJ: What are your plans both academically and with sailing after you graduate high school?
NM: I’m not sure what college(s) I want to go to yet, but I want to go into marine biology or conservation, and I think sailing has played a huge part in giving me a respect for the ocean and the natural world in general. I hope to go to a college where I can either sail on their college team, and/or actively sail independently. I also want to sail through my adult life, whether I end up ocean racing, on an Olympic campaign, or in the acclaimed America’s Cup. These passions are things I want to pursue throughout my life, and I’m really glad OHS has given the opportunity to expand my horizons in all of them.
Edited for clarity and length.