I know there will be club members out there going “… but those aren’t Maitahi shirts” so I thought I’d tell you the story about how our uniforms came about.
Taylor Bruning works with Linda Heath at Whenua Iti Outdoors. When she heard about our plans to go to Hilo to the world Sprints she offered to draw up a tohu/design for our uniforms. At the Waka Haurua festival Carol and I chatted to her about what the journey meant to us. Taylor took that on board and went away, thought about it and this is what she came up with and why.
The main whakataukī she chose is really appropriate to us as a crew:
Ki te kotahi te kākaho ka whati, ki te kāpuia, e kore e whati.
When we stand alone we are vulnerable, but together we are unbreakable.
So now we have these amazing uniforms and we will wear them with such pride.
Uniform Designs
The uniforms were created using the design tool on Kapinua.com. The Kapinua team in Levin were so helpful and quick once we had the design sorted. Maitahi club colours are Red and White (but they don’t stipulate which red. We chose a more blue-red than the traditional orange-red as we all felt with older skin tones it was more appropriate for us. It also toned in with the red Taylor had used in her original drawing.
The drawing was “vectorised” (makes it so it can be expanded without loosing image quality) by Jasmin Rowburrey, an emerging designer in Nelson.
W12 with Aratika Water Sports
We will be racing under Aratika Water Sports in the W12 Master Women 70 (and maybe some of us in the Master Women 75). So we have another uniform for that.
Aotearoa New Zealand
Our formal Aotearoa, New Zealand uniform, worn at the opening ceremony is a traditional black TShirt.
Its never too early or too late to start paddling waka ama
We always welcome new members to the Maitahi Outrigger Canoe Club.
We have social and racing waka ama crews catering for a wide variety of ages and abilities.