Canberra’s Joseph Hogbin-Bourne is representing Australia in the Kayak Freestyle World Championships in Nottingham, England from 27 June to 2 July.

The 17-year-old Lake Ginninderra College student was selected to represent Australia in the men’s youth kayak category despite only recently taking up kayak Freestyle. 

Hogbin-Bourne said he started kayaking when he was thirteen after watching a YouTube video.

“I saw this really cool Red Bull vid on YouTube of kayakers paddling off insane waterfalls and I thought I want to do that,” he said.

“I wasn’t really enjoying school and just really wanted some excitement, so kayaking just made sense” he said.

Jo’s favourite place to paddle is the Goodradigbee river, southwest of Canberra.  

He started paddling freestyle in January as there was not enough water for creeking at the time. Jo and and his twin sister Emily both went to the Paddle Australia national competition and entered in Extreme Slalom but weren’t fast enough to make the team. They entered freestyle at the same time and Jo was successful.

In preparation for the world championships, he has been getting tips from Jack Newland, Australia’s first youth gold medallist and training on flat water. 

“Learning new things is fun,” he said. “Seeing all the linked moves here at the Worlds is insane and it really makes you want to try new tricks”.

Hogbin-Bourne is in the middle of year 12 at Lake Ginninderra College and has had to complete all his assignments ahead of training.

“Luckily my outdoor education teacher, Ellen Smith has been really supportive and is just cool,” he said. 

Jo will return to exams but now is only thinking about the competition and learning some Spanish from the Argentinian paddlers as he wants to kayak around South America. “Freestyle skills translate really well to white water paddling,” he said.