Last weekend the regional waka ama championships were held at Lake Karapiro.

The objective of the first day of the championship is to determine qualifications in the W1 class for the national championships, which will be held at the same location in January 2025.

Several Whakatāne-based waka ama stalwarts such as Max Holder, Tui McCaull, Steve Monk, Bevan Roozendaal, Hemi Wahapango and Ivan Hindmarsh secured their starting tickets.

Saturday also revealed the emergence of Awa Thrupp, a student of Whakatāne Intermediate, as a future prospect in waka ama. Coached by her brother, Kaedyn, she not only quashed her opposition in the intermediate girls’ final but finished in a time faster than the winner of the intermediate boy’s final.

On Sunday, some of our local waka ama stalwarts were involved in coaching several youth teams.

In total, eight teams travelled on Sunday from Whakatāne to gauge their paddling capabilities with other youth teams from within the region. The results were mixed but all the teams clearly enjoyed their waka ama.

The midgets, Wairaka, (Taitamaihine) and Toroa, (Taitama), ended up in the medals in their finals. The other two Taitama teams just had a good day on the water.

All the intermediate teams ended up in finals, but could not secure a medal at the end.

The J19 women’s team from Whakatāne, Tarawera Waka Princesses, had a good day on the water in which they gathered wonderful experiences for the their future development as a team.