After raising children and waging war on cancer, Margaret River windsurfer Jane Seman is within striking distance of a world title in a sport she almost gave up for good — twice.
The 52-year-old had only returned to the sport two years ago after a 20-year hiatus but now leads the women's International Windsurfing Tour and could put a maiden world title beyond doubt with a win at the upcoming stop in Fiji.
Though a final event will be held in Hawaii mid October, a win could give Seman an insurmountable ratings lead.
"I'm trying to stay away from thinking about the title and just focusing on performing well," Seman said.
"I'm just going to go and try sail the best I can on the wave and whatever result I get, as long as I'm happy with how I've sailed, I'm sort of all right with that."
Raised along the wind-rich beaches of Perth, Seman said she initially baulked when introduced to windsurfing.
"I was a teenager and they were the really long and heavy boards so I didn't even really like it," Seman said.
"I was just doing the sport my dad and brother did and it was better than sitting at home but I lost interest and went to university."
Seman later returned to the sport to find equipment lighter and more refined and she quickly embraced it, with a particular fondness for the sub-discipline of wave sailing.
"The moment I jumped on the wave-sailing gear, it quickly became all I wanted to do," Seman said.
"You could turn, ride waves, get air and hit the lip, that's where the action was and that was it for me."
Career on hold
Seman chose to sideline the sport again following the birth of two children and a diagnosis of thyroid cancer.
Recurrent knee injury thwarted an initial attempt to return to the sport until inspiration struck again while chaperoning eldest son Jack, who had also begun to compete, to international locations.
"I mainly went just to watch him compete but then I thought, 'I can't just sit on the beach, I may as well go in it,'" Seman said.
"I happened to go really well so I've kept going. But my son's now doing ATAR so he can't travel with me which is bittersweet."
Seman said key to returning to the sport after health scares such as cancer and the challenges of rearing children was embracing a "slow build" rather than "going hard" to begin with.
"I was mainly bringing up the kids on my own so I had about eight years where I didn't sail for more than a handful of days of the year," Seman said.
"But then I went back to the sport with a weak 'mum body' and would try to do moves I used to do and got injured.
"So I learnt to avoid going hard, got myself fit and strong and started trying to sail like I used to.
"It was a matter of lowering expectations and embracing a slow build."
Equality not quite there yet
WA surfer Lucy Small forced the hand of professional surfing toward pay parity two years ago during an acceptance speech following a tournament in Sydney.
Small noted that female surfers received half the prize money of male counterparts and the sport's organising bodies soon amended the disparity.
The knock-on effect flowed into windsurfing with the code now also offering pay parity, but Seman says some gender-based shortcomings still exist.
"When I first started, women got 10 per cent of the prize money and 10 per cent of the coverage," Seman said.
"Now the prize money is equal which is great and the code is more supportive of women, but you do still encounter problems.
"I was competing in an event in Chile and every single men's heat was filmed but not even one second of the women's was. So we still have a little way to go."
Seman said she had already set her sights beyond the upcoming event in Fiji and prospective world title.
"I have no plans of giving this sport up again," she said.
