Awesome to see such a great event in Mainstream media. What an amazing way to showcase our great sport and illustrate how supportive our local teams are of our local events. To those competing this weekend, good luck and most of all have fun.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/104888384/hundreds-set-to-chop-up-wellington-harbour-for-waka-ama-challenge

The Hoe Tonga Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Mataiawhea Te Kere as Hoe Tonga’s new Regional Development Officer. He will take the lead on the delivery of Hoe Tonga’s KiwiSport contract with Sport Wellington, working closely with schools and clubs. He will also be the first point of contact for paddlers and clubs at Hoe Tonga, as his role also encompasses the previous administrator role. Mataiawhea will already be known to many in the region, as he is also a keen and competitive paddler.

At the same time, the Board would like express its sincere thanks to Gaylene Sciascia for carrying the administrator batton for quite a number of years. She was the often the first point of contact, and the link between paddlers and clubs on one hand, and Hoe Tonga on the other hand. She helped organise various regional events, and many of those tasks are often unseen by most paddlers and supporters.

The original administrator role was set up as waka ama grew. Our regional membership has more than trippled since 2008. As a result, Hoe Tonga’s role has become bigger, and so we needed to transition from a purely voluntary organisation to one that was supported by dedicated personnel. Initially there was insufficient funding to enable us to have more than a part-time administrator. However, last year Hoe Tonga was successful in securing funding for a regional development role to further grow waka ama in schools, and this has enabled the establishment of a near full-time RDO role. The role is initially limited to one year, but our intention is to secure funding to maintain the role beyond June 2019.

Panui for Race 1 of the Hoe Tonga Paddler Series, to be held on 2 June, is now available: https://hoetonga.co.nz/2018/04/02/hoe-tonga-paddler-series-2018/

Hoe Tonga has chosen the dates for Regionals 2018 in Masterton: 24 and 25 November 2018, with a potential back up date of 15/16 December.

The Board has considered various date options, in order to balance various issues, including the potential re-occurence of weed (earlier is better) and avoiding clashes with other races. The Board is aware that 24/25 November clashes with the beginning of Vaka Eiva in Rarotonga.

The back up date has been chosen in case the weed occurs early and there is no time to clear it, to avoid having to cancel the event completely.

Hoe Tonga is the organisation representing Waka Ama (Outrigger Canoeing) interests in the lower North Island.  Hoe Tonga’s vision is for more people to participate in, enjoy and achieve in Waka Ama, and its mission is to lead, inspire and promote Waka Ama our region.

We are looking for a well organised and motivated person with great relationship skills to fill our newly created role of Regional Waka Ama Development Officer. This is an exciting opportunity to work alongside the Hoe Tonga Board and the waka ama community to grow the sport in the lower North Island. This role will take the lead on achieving the following objectives:

• increasing Hoe Tonga’s engagement with our clubs,
• facilitating the increase in the number of volunteers and competent coaches,
• increasing the number of schools and students participating in waka ama,
• facilitating the establishment of clubs in areas not currently served by waka ama clubs.

Please click here to download a job description with further details.

To register your interest, please apply in writing, along with your CV and forward your application, to joern.scherzer@gmail.com, by no later than 6pm Monday 30th April 2018. If you have any questions, please contact Joern on 021-1250997.

Hoe Tonga would like to congratulate  our paddlers who have made the New Zealand teams to paddle at  the IVF World Elite Sprint  Championship

Successful Hoe Tonga Paddlers are:

Marama Elkington           Open Women

Marianna Hodges           Open Women

Paddy Rimene               Open Men

Ducati Walford               Development Men

The full list of crews can be seen on the link below.

http://wakaama.co.nz/stories/read/1004764

Hoe Tonga getting Around

We are getting out and about, introducing ourselves and learning more about the clubs. Please if you are having a club committee/ executive meeting we will would welcome the opportunity for one of our board members to attend. Let us know when your club meetings are on by sending an email to hoetonga@gmail.com.

For those interested in more detail, you can find minutes of the Hoe Tonga Board meetings at https://hoetonga.co.nz/about-2/governance-board/meetings/

Regionals wrap up

At the end of 2017, we had our most successful regionals to date in terms of participant numbers with over 500 paddlers participating on the day and nearly 130 races.

• The first time where we had all volunteers sorted prior to the event without any gaps for stations.
• Holding the 12 man races on Saturday allowed the event to run to time on the Sunday and add addition races
• We had some complications with water quality and weed. This was an additional cost and took significant effort to clear before the races. Masterton District Council Hoe Tonga is working to alter the lakes water flow to allow more fresh water to flow into the lake improving the water quality and reducing the weeds. This will go to the resource consent stage in the middle of 2018, and we are looking to strongly support this action.

Paddler Series planning

• We have received interest from clubs wanting to host races in this year’s long distances paddler series during winter.
• There was some concern about the point system last year and Hoe Tonga invited feedback from clubs on this. We will be maintaining the point system from last year, but adding a stipulation around competing in one division – more details to come.
• Races will be approximately 4 weeks apart.
• Dates and information will be available on the HT website, and HT Facebook, likely from late March.

Regional Development Officer

• We are in contract negotiations with Sport Wellington, in order to lock in the funding that they approved in principle. We are hoping to the RDO in place by the middle of 2018, initial funding is for one year to deliver on key objectives such as growth for waka ama in schools.

Strategic plan

• Our strategic plan 2014-2018 will need to be replaced with a new one. We will be in touch with clubs in the next couple of months with details for a workshop to start that process.