Ashley senior drove Tom to gold

Reuters

MUM'S THE WORD: A holiday, his wedding and a legal degree are on the horizon for New Zealand's newest Olympic gold medallist as he admitted his boardsailing future was up in the air.

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John Ashley is a self-described "P-Daddy" - a parent who sometimes drove his son to despair but also drove him to Olympic gold.

After watching his son Tom win gold in the boardsailing class at the Beijing Games, Ashley senior recalled the afternoons he spent on Takapuna Beach in Auckland yelling advice to his son as he sailed P-class yachts (hence P-Daddy) and then optimists.

John had always been a sailor and had been a sailmaker for a time but said he was "not as successfully competitive as Tom".

Like many parents who want the best for the kids, he admits he sometimes overdid things.

"I look back at the optimist days and it's a little embarrassing to think back on my own performances on the beach," he said.

"We had some fairly intense times but we usually smoothed it over at the end of the day."

Tom: "It was never unfair, you never broke me."

After tiring of shouting from the beach, John bought a windsurfer so he could sail alongside Tom when he was racing and "yell my instructions from closer at hand".

It wasn't long before young Tom started jumping on his father's board and when John got frustrated that Tom "was on my board and I wasn't" he decided to buy Tom his own board for his 15th birthday.

After a regatta in Auckland a German sailor decided he didn't want to carry his gear back to Europe so looked for a quick sale and John picked up a $6000 board and rig for around $1500. It was a cheap start on the road to a gold medal.

Ashley, after 24 hours of celebrating, is looking forward to getting home next week and sharing the medal with his mother Julie and his friends at the Takapuna Boating Club, who inadvertently added to Ashley's stress ahead of the medal race.

Dave Robertson, who sometimes coaches Ashley, was organising a get together at the club and sent out a group email to all club members which said: "Come down to the club and watch Tom sail for gold."

The problem was that the email ended up in Ashley's inbox.

"There was one the night before the gold medal race and one the morning of the race," Ashley said, although he added that he was already so stressed the extra pressure hardly made a ripple.

When he gets home he's committed to showing off the gold medal as much he can by taking it down to the club and to schools.

"It's something a lot other people will be excited about seeing so I don't think I'll lock up. It's something I would have been pretty excited about seeing when I was a kid."

New Zealand sailing manager Russell Green has seen all aspects of sailing from America's Cup campaigns to Olympics and was unstinting in his praise of Ashley.

"It's been a privilege to work with such a talented, dedicated young man. I think what you'll see now is kids getting out on windsurfers wanting to be the next Tom Ashley - it's not an expensive sport to get into."

Ashley can testify to that as well as proving the rewards can be great.

- © Fairfax NZ News