For a sport which prides itself on the diversity of the athletes who travel the world to take part, the story of Uganda’s Elikisawsi Osinde stands out.

In Columbus Georgia at the ICF’s Freestyle World Championships Osinde was Africa’s only representative. Uganda has a proud history in the freestyle world titles, and Osinde is the latest chapter.

His journey to get to the Chattahoochee River has been long and difficult, but in comparison to some of the other curve balls life has thrown his way, getting to compete at his first world titles was a stroll in the park.

Osinde was just two-years-old when his fisherman father drowned late one night on the river near his village.

“I grew up close to a river, and all my family were fishermen,” Osinde said.

“I didn’t get a chance to go to school, we couldn’t pay the fees and my mum didn’t have a job. When I was about eight years’ old I took over my dad’s job. So my life was just fishing and supporting my mum.”

Six years after the tragic loss of his father, Elikisawsi Osinde took his first tentative steps toward his own life on the water.

“The fishing company where I used to work was a rafting company, they used to have a lunch area close to our home, so when I was young I used to hide in the bush, seeing the white people eating, that was fun,” he said.

“Then one day I decided with my friend to paddle on that island. We went there, and the owner of the company wasn’t happy, because we were young, we were naked – when you are young you don’t care, we couldn’t speak English, so it was super different.

“The more I kept going, the more I was creating friends and people who taught me kayaking.”

Not surprisingly, his mother was none too happy. Having already lost a husband to the water, she didn’t want to also lose a son. But Osinde had fallen in love with the kayak, and was determined to keep paddling, even if it meant sneaking behind his mother’s back.

Even this week he didn’t tell his mother he was competing in Columbus, because he knew she would worry. And if she saw her son’s ride, she would panic even more!

Much to the delight of the crowd, 29-year-old Osinde threw his paddle away halfway through his final trick. Most thought the ferocity of the water had knocked the paddle out of his hands, but Osinde knew exactly what he was doing.

“This was my first time paddling on this river, I am so happy,” he said.

“I really enjoyed paddling for the first time here. I actually decided to throw my paddle away, I was in a comfortable place, and I know how to use the hand boards and I normally paddle with just my hands, so I was just having fun.”

His father loved the water, and even though his son was only two at the time of his death, he played a major part in shaping the direction Osinde’s life would take.

“My father was the first person in Uganda to get a kayak,” Osinde said.

“My mum kept that boat until now, but its old and you can’t use it, but it’s just for memories.”

Freestyle paddling, and canoe and kayak sports generally, are very popular in Uganda. Osinde estimates that in his village of Kibibi alone there are several people who almost daily take to the water to paddle.

And every year freestyle paddlers from around the world gather to try their hand on the White Nile.

Osinde knows his friends were watching his Columbus performance online. Not his mother, because no-one was allowed to tell her what he was doing, but his friends were definitely cheering him on. And while he didn’t progress past the qualifying round on Wednesday, he hopes his experience has encouraged more African athletes, and especially paddlers from Uganda, to take on the best in the world.

Pics by Peter Holcombe