In our autumn magazine Royal Air Force Sergeant Sarah Partridge, a member of the GB Boat Wakeboard Team, explains how she combines life in the military with competing at a high level. Sgt Rich Phillips has also shared his experience with us.

The RAF has allowed me to explore many opportunities which I would not necessarily have the exposure to, one of which was wakeboarding.

After first strapping on a board at one of our regional clubs near Lincoln at the age of 26, I had no idea as to where it would subsequently lead and how much it would shape my career.

The RAF Waterski and Wakeboard Club allowed me to develop while developing others. Being rider-driven clubs allows us to not only focus on personnel development, it allows us to develop as coaches too. This facilitates us to push the sport to the wider RAF by offering in-house grass roots training, championships and inter-service competitions.

Being selected to represent GB is arguably the biggest honour for any sports participant; for me personally it was like a door was opening to bigger things. Recognising the importance in sport and the massive part this plays in the modern military, the RAF will embrace those performing at this level and offer further support in the form of High Performing Athlete and Elite Athlete status.

Both allow us to take time out of work, and in our (me, Ross Phillips and Sarah Partridge’s) case the latter - Elite Athlete status - allowed us to pursue this as a day job meaning we could work towards individual goals and perform at the highest level possible. This allowed us to focus purely on training, competing and, just as importantly, recovery.

Balancing this with the day-to-day job can be a struggle at times due to the nature of our roles. Mine personally sees me travel worldwide, often at short notice with unknown return dates. This alone is a struggle to plan in events, training and coaching sessions, not to mention family life.

Rich Phillips - photo Mark Osmond

It’s a lifestyle I have chosen and I’m grateful for all the support I have had along the way. Following on from a pretty tough COVID-19 period, it’s nice to finally get things back on track. I had to drop out of the World Championships this year due to a short notice deployment but that’s the nature of the job. It’s not all wakeboarding and lake life.