FROM DREAM TO DESTINY

Water has always been in Gemma Cornish’s blood. It may have started in the pool as a promising swimmer in Wellington, New Zealand, but the allure of the ocean had always been present with annual summer holidays spent down at the beach, for as long as she can remember.

She competed, as a swimmer, up to national level from the ages of six to nineteen until an injury cut her competitive trajectory short. Prior to that though she practically lived in the water, sometimes training all day across the disciplines of swimming, synchronised swimming and surf lifesaving.

Now the 22-year-old