Ask Gavin Key what he does with his time, and his answer will include, in no particular order, mountain bike coaching, graphic design, landscaping, track building, riding and parenting.

It’s a very Wanaka response: the town is full of polymaths who combine pursuing their passions with the business of earning a living and raising their children.

Originally from Gisborne, Gavin surfed competitively for years, before a visit south in 1992 saw him head back home, sell all his stuff to pay for a ferry ticket and petrol, and move to Queenstown. He took up snowboarding seriously, spending 21 winters in a row going back and forth between New Zealand and Canada, the United States, Japan and Switzerland, working both as a freestyle snowboard coach, and designing and building parks when pipe and park was in its infancy.

"It saved me having to find a summer job,” he told the Wanaka App with a laugh. He added his favourite of all the places he worked was Bear Valley, California, both for the snow and for the people he met there. "People make places,” he said.

Similar reasoning saw him end up in Wanaka for good in 2009, where he started to apply what he learned from working in snowboarding to mountain biking. "I was snowboard coaching before there was a formal certification, and when that did all start to come through I never bothered to get my tickets, so I ended way out of that loop,” he explained. "When the opportunity came up to do a coaching certification in biking, I took it.”

Gavin is now certified as a mountain bike coach through Cycling NZ, and is pursuing an advanced Performance Advance Coaching programme with Sports New Zealand, a programme he had to get nominated for by Cycling NZ, as a restricted number of places are awarded in the programme each year.

"It’s non-sports specific. You go and learn fundamental coaching skills and implement them into for your chosen sport,” he said. He has also studied Physiology and Anatomy through the New Zealand College of Massage, and Sports Psychology through the Stotts Correspondence Education school.

It has all paid off, with Gavin now well-known locally as a private bike coach as well as a contract coach with Mission WOW (Women of Winter/Water/Wheels), which brings together groups of women who want to share their love of, and progress themselves in, adventure sports.

Outside of elite racing, Gavin said, the bulk of bike lessons are taken by women, not men. "It’s the Kiwi psyche, it’s hard for men to ask for help,” he said. This, however, is changing, as mountain biking grows, especially with the advent of lift-assisted bike parks like the one at Cardrona, where riders are looking to progress downhill-specific bike handling skills beyond those needed for everyday cycling. 

Gavin said it’s an area of sports coaching that is growing more and more. "I don’t think people realise what’s happening yet. It’s going to explode,” he said.

He is also coaching two elite Downhill mountain bikers, Finn Parsons and Nikki Clarke. Both are 14-years-old but have been racing above their age grade, in the Under 17 instead of Under 15. Despite this, Finn took second in U17 downhill at the Mountain Bike National Championships at Cardrona in February, while Nikki came first in the U17 women’s event.

"They’ve both chosen to race the category above where they could be. I’ve got to keep checking myself they’re only 14,” Gavin said. He said working with athletes that age involves mentoring as well as coaching, and he has learned almost as much as them through working together.

He said one thing he’s come to understand is the need to work on the same basic skills whether he’s training beginners or experts. "I start with a lot of the same basic fundamentals, and I’ll repeat them all the way through to the elite athletes.”

Gavin’s success has been recognised recently with a nomination as one of five finalists for the Coach of the Year award in this year’s Central Otago Sports Awards, the winners of which will be named at an awards dinner in Queenstown on April 28.

As for combining making a living and growing his coaching career with finding time to ride his bike for fun as well as to help out with the building and maintenance of local tracks, Gavin said none of it would be possible without the support of his partner, Chloe, especially since the arrival of their young daughter, Ella.

Coaching full-time is in the life plan, Gavin said, but for now he’s basking in the enjoyment of watching his daughter hit the trails on her balance bike. "Maybe that’s why I gave it all those hours, and gave it the love I did,” he said.

PHOTO: Supplied