Aiden Carberry - Kayaking

My name is Aiden Carberry and I’m a 19-year-old sprint kayak athlete. I grew up playing a range of sports, but surf life saving was where I first fell in love with competition. As I got older and wanted to improve my surf ski paddling, I started sprint kayaking in 2021 and I was instantly hooked by the feeling of being on the water.

At the time, I planned to focus mainly on surf racing, but I was encouraged to race the 2022 National Championships in Adelaide. That decision changed everything. I made my first Australian team at that regatta and soon after had the opportunity to represent Australia in Japan. From there I progressed through the talent pathway, earned a SASI Scholarship in late 2023, and began training and competing at a full-time level.

Since then, I’ve represented Australia four times internationally and raced at numerous national events. Alongside kayaking, I’ve continued competing in surf life saving, where I’ve been fortunate to win multiple Australian titles and a Coolangatta Gold in recent years.

What I love most about sport is the opportunity it gives me to travel, meet new people, and keep learning through every race and training block. I genuinely enjoy the process of chasing improvement, and I find high-performance training both challenging and incredibly rewarding.

Questions

The best thing about being a SASI Athlete:

The amazing support and opportunities.

My favourite food to fuel me as an Athlete:

Cereal.

My favourite movie:

Cars.

My favourite colour:

Blue.

My sporting hero and why:

Ali Day: I admire his professionalism, maturity and grit.

My favourite possession:

Paddle.

The sporting activity I most like performing:

Racing.

If I wasn’t doing my current sport I would like to be:

Professional surf ironman, swimmer or rower. Outside of sport, engineer.

The most important things in life:

Enjoying what you do.

My ambassador activity tip:

Participate in sport or activity that you enjoy, form friendships and always give everything a go. There is no such thing as failure, just learning.

My favourite way to keep active:

Surfing/ downwind paddling.

The sport I like watching the most:

Surf Life Saving, F1 and AFL.

What sporting success looks like:

Knowing you gave it your all. Always improving and learning something every day, no matter what it is and trying to be the best version of you day in, day out. You either win or you learn.