As I speak to Rose Lores on a drizzly afternoon, she is remarkably upbeat and passionate about her sport. Talking from her office, where she works as a Database Manager for Honda, she is longing to be out on the water.
‘It gives you an enormous sense of freedom. When you’re on the water pushing as hard as you can with no speed limit you forget everything else even exists,’ she tells me.
‘Powerboat racing is all about challenge and achievement. That takes dedication, hard work, tenacity and quite a lot of sacrifice. You can’t expect this sort of thing to be easy – if it was, everybody would be doing it and it wouldn’t be a challenge. The thrill is in facing the challenge and gaining a real sense of achievement. That comes at every step along the way and not just from winning’.
It is not hard to understand why Rose, 49, is so proud of herself considering three years ago she was terrified of being submerged in water – even putting her face in a basin.
‘It’s something I tried, and failed, many times to overcome. Although I wanted to lose the fear, there had been no strong reason why I absolutely had to, and I realised it was a totally irrational fear and one I could not overcome by rational means. The determination was in getting on to a team at Honda and I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that,’ she told me.
After learning to snowboard when on holiday with her two children, Rose feels she opened her mind to a new adventurous attitude: ‘I was all set for going out there and facing more challenges, proving that you’re never too old to learn something new.’
So when in the summer of 2005 Rose, from Addlestone, Surrey, tagged along with some colleagues to watch the Honda Formula 4 Stroke power boat racing in Plymouth, she instantly wanted to give it a go.
‘I got to meet Shelley Jory and Libby Kier who were racing in the 225 class, and Stella Charman who navigated her husband to victory in the 150 class the year before. I figured if they could do it, then why couldn’t I – but as a driver rather than a navigator. I’ve always been a bit of a petrol head and once I decide to do something there’s no stopping me!’
Luckily, Honda announced a competition to select four employees to race a boat. She recalls: ‘There were twelve people and only one other girl. They were all really competitive and outgoing but I was so determined.’
‘Realising that my fear of water would be likely to hold me back in extreme situations such as racing gave me the final push to tackle it. I decided to try NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) to change my subconscious belief and I swam underwater at my local pool that evening!’
‘I don’t know what I would have done if it didn’t work. I needed to believe it would work otherwise I wouldn’t be able to race. That belief was probably a major factor in the success.’
Rose was in fact so determined that she not only overcame her fear of water and got onto the team, but went on to win three of the five races she drove in for the Honda Happiness team that year, becoming the first (and so far only) female driver ever to win a race in the 150hp class. Her race debut was in June 2006 at the age of 47 and she believes that: ‘Whatever you want to do, age should never be an issue. If you want it and are prepared to work at it – then go for it.’
‘I think I’ve done life backwards – I got a bit too sensible in my late teens and concentrated on my career and buying my own home which was then followed by having children. So now I’m catching up on fun things!’
She says proudly: ‘Although there are women in other classes, I think I’m actually the only female driver to race in the 150hp class’. Whilst she thinks no-one openly suggested to her that powerboat racing is a ‘man’s sport’, she says: ‘At first I suspected a sense of “What is she doing here? What does she know?” especially with technical conversations, but now I am accepted.’
‘They probably didn’t take me too seriously to start with, but they’ve seen my skills grow and seem to have a great deal of respect and admiration for me. They still laugh at me when I struggle with manoeuvring the trailer, or trying to fix something, but then I just turn on the charm and get them to help!’
‘My daughter is really proud. She really admires me for following my dreams. She, like me, feels that being female shouldn’t dictate what you do or don’t do – we’re both the kind of people to ignore the boundaries and just go for it.’
‘But my son is totally unimpressed and thinks I’m going through some kind of mid-life crisis. He thinks I’m off my trolley and complains I’m spending his inheritance. I don’t think he has a right, this is time for me now,’ she laughs.
Rose Lores’ top tips for taking on a new challenge
1. Believe in yourself – if you want to do something extreme, you’ve got to believe that you can. If you don’t truly believe that you can pull something off then it will never happen.
2. Don’t let obstacles get in your way – there are obvious ones like lack of time and money, but the biggest one of all can be when you let others dismiss your dreams.
3. Dedication is key – visualize your goal, imagine what it will feel like and put everything into it. Be prepared to bore your friends and family to death with your passion and to give up lots of other activities.
4. Grab every opportunity you can – find out more about the sport you want to get into, get involved in any way you can and start making contacts as well as finding out what it is really all about.
5. Get some serious professional training – if you’re going to do something spectacular, make sure you do it properly! I first learnt how to drive a powerboat with Neil Holmes at his Powerboat Race School in Southampton. Even now I still go back to refresh and hone my skills.
6. Don’t give up when the going gets tough – the fact that it’s hard is what makes it a challenge, and that’s what makes the achievement really mean something.
7. Be prepared to start at the bottom and work you way up – but also seek out opportunities to experience your chosen sport at a higher level – maybe through an experience day. For example with power boating, you can start by doing a two day course that teaches you the basics of boat handling and navigation, and then get involved in messing about in boats to help to build your confidence.
If at any point you feel as though you cannot do it, refer back to point one – believe in yourself, as you will never get anyone else to believe in you if you don’t!
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February 12th, 2010 at 11:16 amGeorgina says:
Well done for promoting this idea of following your dreams. Last year I finally tackled my fear of heights by going parasailing and this year I plan to get out on the water driving a powerboat (which is what I was searching for when I stumbled across this site). Not sure if I’ll ever get to the stage of bungee jumping but who knows! Good luck and sieze the day.