This week I went to Cambridge for the Waka Ama National Sprints for 2014 at Lake Karapiro. Waka Ama is a sport where you can travel all over the world, and you can paddle in teams or by yourself. I paddled for Tamaki Outrigging Canoe Club, in the Intermediate Men's Team. My team was called Stone Cold Tamaki, and it was a great experience for me to do something new. I had five other team mates in the waka, Stevenson, Collin, Louis, Jordan and Mataio.
In the Waka there are six positions, seat one is the stroker, he sets the pace. Seat two follows the stroker, to make sure the others can see the pace from both sides. Seat three and four are the power house, they are the muscle and callers. Seat five helps the power house, and sometimes the steerer when needed. Seat six is the Steerer, and that's what I do. I steer the waka to make sure it stays in the lane, and I make sure when we turn, that we don't touch the markers. If you touch the markers, you could be disqualified. Next year I hope to just paddle, and let someone else have a turn at steering
Our first race was a double hull with the other Intermediate Men's Team from the same club. A double hull is two waka's joined together, making it 12 paddlers in the same waka. Our team made it to another heat to try again for the semi's, but we missed out on that one. Then we waited 5 hours for another race, and we disappointed to lose another one. It was a good experience for our first year, and we hope to go back next year.
We spent four days in Cambridge at the Hautapu Sports Club, this is where Liam Messam use to play his club rugby, There were pictures on the wall of him, it was cool to see. There were six teams staying there, so we were sleeping on air beds on the floor. My mum told me to wake her up if she snored, I only had to wake her once.
Aaron was our coach, and he had been training us since September last year. We had to race against other kids that were 3 years older than us, so it was really hard to paddle against them. Aaron wanted to start us young so we would be really good when we are about 13. I am looking forward to learning how to paddle in a single Waka, I reckon that would be fun!
Now the Nationals are over, I wonder if we will keep paddling through winter, that would be cold. But I know we are going to have to train for League and Rugby, so its going to be another busy year for us.
This is me paddling with some facials
