Monday, 3 April: With the start of the season drawing ever-closer, Norwegian ace Stian Scjhjetlein is intent on maintaining a busy pre-season training regime.
With an arduous 6 day - 26 session boot camp in Spain in January, with members of the Norwegian National Team which was formed by the NMF last year and consisting of jet ski racers and offshore and circuit powerboat racers, already banked then followed by SAS Racing’s annual pre-season training on Lake Havesu in February, Schjetlein is not letting up when it comes to his high fitness levels. “For my off season and pre-season training I have been doing all kinds of stuff. I have been doing a lot of downhill alpine and telemark skiing, rock climbing, playing squash, basketball and tennis, as well as doing several other sports,” he said. “In addition to the huge variety of sports and activities I have been following a strict program from Olympiatoppen including strength, mobility and motor skills training.”
Schjetlein’s involvement with Olympiatoppen, part of the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports with responsibility for training Norwegian elite sport,is something that the 25-year-old from Bergen is rightly proud. “I have been awarded a scholarship with Olympiatoppen which is a Norwegian sports organisation in charge of top athletes. Their mandate is to help the best of the best become just a little bit better,” he said. “Olympiatoppen possesses the best of the best within all fields of coaching, training, nutrition and testing. They work with the best athletes in Norway including lots of Olympic and world champions from all kinds of different sports.
“It is a huge honour to be granted this scholarship as they very rarely work with motorsports athletes as Olympic and traditional Norwegian sports are prioritized. In fact I am only the fifth motorsports athlete ever to have worked with them. These include formidable athletes such as FMX world champion Ailo Gaup and Dakar rally legend Pål Anders Ullevålseter.”
Schjetlein faces a busy year ahead; in addition to his UIM-ABP six Grand Prix World Championship schedule he plans to compete in the UIM-ABP European Continental Championship and the Norwegian and Nordic Championship. And in addition, he is Head coach of Team Norway Junior Aquabike, a talent development team for young aquabike riders in Norway. “The team currently consists of 10 young riders, most between 13-14 years old. I spend a lot of time training these young athletes every week. In addition, we have training camps throughout the season including off season skiing camp, technical riding training camps during the summer and physical training camps during pre-season.”
And whilst he has revealed that he will unveil a new livery on his bike and will be sporting a rather colourful new Jettribe wetsuit, one factor that remains the same in 2017 is his ProFrorce Kawasaki ZXI 1100. “My equipment for the 2017 season will be the exact same as in 2016. However, we do have a new mechanic on the team and we will be trying to upgrade and update the setup with some brand new parts from Blowsion in order to be more competitive in 2017. Christophe Girello from Go Fast in the USA, who is the original engine builder we used when my engines first got built, is now joining us on tour and will be coming with us to some of the world championship races as well as some pre-season prep work and testing.
“The new Pro Force hull from Pro Watercraft Racing treated me and Emma-Nellie [Ortendahl] very well in 2016 and we trust it to continue doing so in 2017. We have zero doubt that we have the best hull out there and it seems like the competition agrees as we will surely see more Pro Force hulls in the World Championship in 2017.”