The weather continues to delight those of us who come from winter. Today was calm on the course and hot and humid. Visibility was better than yesterday when there was misty rain for most of the morning and visibility varied.
Our day started at 5:45am doing Qi Gong with Penny. It gets us moving and stretching and waking up. We are all enjoying the routine. Next is breakfast and then into the car by 6:45am and off to the venue.
Today was our first race. It was great to get out on the water, suss out the course and get the nerves out of the way. We raced in the W12 (twelve-man – 2 hulls joined together). Our partner crew was the Aratika Master Womens 70 crew. We gathered around 7:30am and sorted out a time to meet up for our warm up together. I think they were surprised by our warmup routine but they joined in with enthusiasm.
Then it’s off through registration. We had a lot of ‘first timers’ so getting into a routine of what to do with our gear (mostly water bottles and ID cards) while we raced was a priority.
The waka are being loaded out from the beach. We can’t turn them sideways as we would normally do, loading one hull, turning it and then loading the other hull. Getting 12 nannies into the waka as it is pointing out to sea is a logistical challenge. As seat one, I had to do an entry from neck deep in the water. Thank goodness for the helpers we had to assist. Even so I now have ‘re-entry’ bruises as I had to ‘hook’ and get someone to give me a push. It’s a really big thing for us older women. We are allowed to take four helpers through from our contingent. Linda and Edz were amazing.
Then it’s off to the start line. The course is so different because it has not lane markers, just flags at the start, the 250m line and the finish. At least they are more visible than the first course they put in.
We had the tide behind us, calm water and a quiet waka. Penny was really clear with the crew that she needed quiet so she could hear the caller and seat one. We came in fifth (out of 5 waka) and thought our chances of getting into the final were over. Our time was 2mins 50secs which is quite good. However, there were two heats. In the second heat there were 4 waka. The one that came in first was DQ’d as it started out of lane, paddled out of lane and finished out of lane. That left 3 others. We found out about an hour after the race that we have a place in the final. The Aratika crew were over the moon. You never can tell how things will pan out.
Aotea win hands down
Linda and I stayed on at the venue to catch Aotea (Carmel’s crew) race. They had joined with a crew from Parehaka from Whangarei. What an exciting race. They came in first and out of the three heats, they had the fastest time by over 5 seconds. The final will be a great race to watch.
We left the venue around 1:30 amd went for a swim at our favourite spot, Carl Smith. Penny saw a turtle.
Everyone is settling into the racing routine and getting more comfortable with the processes. It’s a bit more laid back than at our National Sprints.
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.