Engineering student and world champion keeping busy

University of Canterbury engineering student and world champion juggling a busy schedule

April 22, 2014

University of Canterbury’s engineering student and world barefoot waterski champion Georgia Groen is juggling a busy schedule.

Groen, 17, has just defended her world barefoot waterski tricks title in Mulwala, Australia, and is now preparing for the New Zealand championships on Lake Karapiro and the Australian championships in Perth.

She became the world tricks champion at the 2012 world barefoot waterski championships in Waco, Texas, when she was just 16. Groen is ranked No.2 in world barefoot water skiing overall, including tricks, jump and slalom.

She has been balancing her preparation for two major competitions as well as catching up on her engineering studies and lectures she has missed so far.

``I missed three weeks of study during the world championships, but I am only missing a few days during the start of next term with the coming championships before the second semester starts on May 7.

``There are no more competitions after the Australian nationals, which are the first week of May, until November so I will have plenty of time to study for the rest of the year as barefooting is a summer sport.

``Because I am taking engineering it makes it quite difficult to study away from campus as quite a lot of the lectures are important. However I do what I can due to LEARN, Canterbury’s learning management system, which has all the lecture notes on it.

``This is my first year of engineering so but I am looking to concentrate on civil and natural resources engineering as I progress my studies.

``Once I finish my degree, I would like to do some travelling around the world, barefooting and coaching people to barefoot ski, and then I hope to become an engineer in the workforce.

``I came to Canterbury this year because I believed it was the best place for me to study engineering. I like how it’s all on one campus so everything is close together.

``The campus is great. I love walking through the trees and the water features are so nice to look at. It makes me feel at home. Also, I really enjoy University Hall. It’s such an awesome hall of residence and I have made life-long friends.

``Canterbury is the place for me as I knew it had a really good reputation for engineering.’’

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