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No Grae areas as windsurfer aims to rock the boat

Murray WenzelAAP
Grae Morris wants to put windsurfing on the Australian Olympic sporting map. (HANDOUT/AUSTRALIAN SAILING)
Camera IconGrae Morris wants to put windsurfing on the Australian Olympic sporting map. (HANDOUT/AUSTRALIAN SAILING) Credit: AAP

There were no wrong choices when Grae Morris was pondering his sporting future.

"I always knew whichever one I was going to pick I'd end up being very good at it," the Australian windsurfer said.

He could have played rugby, with the 20-year-old a highly-rated flanker in Sydney's Cranbrook College first XV.

Born to New Zealand parents he, grew up idolising Richie McCaw and Dan Carter.

But he also loved watching the world windsurfing tour, and while his dad Brett was a national champion his heroes mostly hailed from Europe.

So Morris decided to carve his own path, the No.4 cheekily declaring he'd outdone his own expectations to qualify for Paris.

The Game AFL 2024

"It was a full, written-down campaign for 2028 (Olympics) and I think we made a few mistakes in our lead-up and I got a bit too good and ended up qualifying for 2024, so we had to change a few things," he said.

Australia's sailors have won 11 Olympic titles in dinghies and skiffs and will eye more when racing begins in Marseille on Sunday.

Morris is intent on inserting windsurfing into the conversation, too.

"I thought, if I was to do it, I'd be able to put it back on the clock (in Australia)," he said of boosting the sport's profile in the country.

"For me it was always about watching the best people and now hopefully people will be able to watch the best person and it'll be an Australian."

For the first time the discipline will be raced on foiling boards, rather than a fin, the board lifting out of the water and hitting speeds of 60km/h.

"It's very, very fun and I'd recommend it to anyone," Morris said.

"If there's more waves it'll make it harder to hit those top speeds but it makes it easier to crash ... and when you crash you go down like a bag of rocks."

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