A steering workshop will be held in the Wellington region on 19 December. Please register via your club rep and the NKOA online system.

Click here for details.

Local waka ama world champions from the recent 2010 World Va’a Sprint Championships in Noumea are finalists in this weekend’s 2010 Maori Sports Awards:
Grant Barriball of Hoe Tonga (Mana Pasifika) is reigning World Champion in W1 sprints for Master Men
Women’s crew Mairangi Mai of Golden Master Women (over 55 years of age) won all three events as a W6 crew and with their combination with another crew to for a W12 – two members of the crew are Gaylene Sciascia and Barbara Rudd of Hoe Tonga (Hawaikinui)

NZ Coordinator Marinna Millanta-Lowrey for the 280+ NZ contingent who participated in this year’s Worlds event says “for the Golden Master women the gold medal tally was a serious improvement on last Worlds competition and a tough ask for a nationally selected group who hail from Northland, Auckland, Gisborne and Wellington. Barbara and Gaylene have participated in several Worlds campaigns and use to national selections and having to travel to train, they deserve to be proud of their achievements to date. Grant Barriball he was focused on his gold performance for the 2010 championship he also shares his knowledge with a local women’s crew who are also doing really well in their competitive endeavours – a demonstration of personal commitment to a goal whether as an individual or in a team setting and the passion to do well”.

Congratulations go out to our Hoe Tonga finalists for the 2010 Maori Sprints Awards, and best wishes to all the other finalists in Mairangi Mai – good luck on the night.

Please click here to download workshop information, please register your interest with Marinna.

An event hosted by the Mana Community Grants Foundation based in Porirua (Wellington) who have provided financial assistance to a number of the Hoe Tonga contingent members for this and past World championship competitions.

The event was MC’d by Mr Ken Laban, Deputy Mayor for Porirua Letia Ah Hoi and local dignitaries featuring past Mayor John Burke, current outgoing Mayor Jenny Brash, Hon Winnie Laban, Hekia Parata local MP for National and guest speaker Mr Richard Taylor (very very entertaining and interesting athletics story).

Mandy (Hawaikinui/Mana Pasifika) and of W1 World Champion status in 2006, Grant (Mana Pasifika) current W1 Master Men World Champion and Marinna (Hawaikinui) known for her Manager and NZ Coordinator roles were each one of the three finalists in their respective categories up for grabs last week.

While not winners on this occasion they acknowledge the support of the region and their club members in their endeavours.

Special thanks go Mana Community Grants Foundation for their continued support of things wakaama, to Hoe Tonga’s regional committee for supporting their efforts and the paddling whanau who have contributed to the goal of World representation.

Congratulations to the waka ama nominees and finalists of the Porirua Sports Awards 2009-2010.

The finalists are are as follows:

Mandy Hatton – Coach of Year

Marinna Millanta-Lowry – Service to Sport

Grant Barriball – Individual Sportsperson of Year

Others nominations were as follows:

• J19 HTPWAA Worlds Team – Team of the Year
• Don’t Touch my Food – Hawaiikanui
• Kemara Hauiti-Parapara – Young sportsperson of the year

The awards will be held at Te Raupraha Arena, Porirua on September 30 at 6.30pm (tickets can be purchased from Porirua Sports Trust $90.00).

This is my first report as President of Hoe Tonga and I am pleased to report that during 2009/10 Hoe Tonga has seen progress and a number of achievements.

Races

The quality of race organisation has continually improved over the last few years. Notably, in 2009/2010 Hoe Tonga races for the first time utilised computer technology used at the Waka Ama Nationals to run key races. Hoe Tonga has also invested in some key resources such as radios to run races more effectively. Of course there is still significant room for improvement and Hoe Tonga, with the help of paddlers and supporters, will need to work on those during 2010/11.

The number of regular races has also increased. The region now sees three regional events and championships organised by Hoe Tonga (W1, W6 and secondary schools), in addition to two regular series (with 6 six races each) organised by individuals, and at least one regular club event. This means that paddlers can now get on the water and compete at least once a month in the Hoe Tonga region. While the region is still lacking a major event in the summer months that draws in the top teams from the North, without more volunteers this situation is unlikely to change in the short term.

Many of you will have noticed higher registration fees at the regional W1 and W6 Sprints. Some view them as unfair but it is important to keep in mind that races are run on a cost recovery basis and fees are kept as low as possible. Junior paddlers continue to get subsidised through lower fees. Without race fees it is not possible to provide paddlers with the well-run events they deserve; and feedback from paddlers through various surveys suggest that paddlers would like the quality of races to improve further.

Strategic plan

Hoe Tonga was the first region in New Zealand to embark on the process to develop a strategic plan so as to be clear where we want to go and how we are planning to get there. Its key objective is the growth and development of Waka Ama in the region. The strategic plan was adopted at the last AGM in 2009 and during 2009/10 we commenced its implementation.

As planned we have revised the constitution and improved the website (now updated at least weekly) to improve information provision. Hoe Tonga has also invested in better resources to improve the running of races.

Having said that, much work remains to be done and progress is relatively slow. For instance, work in the future will need to focus on key challenges such as

• enabling investment into equipment and volunteers (through increasing the financial resources available to Hoe Tonga), and
• better coordination of Waka Ama in secondary schools in the region.

As with many things, many hands make little work and I invite paddlers and supporters to assist in any way they can.

Finances

Hoe Tonga’s finances are in healthy state. However, Hoe Tonga’s income is still very limited (i.e. affiliation and race fees). Unfortunately there is no income yet from important funding sources such as sponsors or community funding organisations. This in turn limits our ability to fulfil our aspirations.

During next year and the years ahead it will be important to broaden the funding base. This in turn will enable us to consider investments in a number of areas, including administration support, support of high performance paddlers, regional development and coaching programmes and better equipment.

Many challenges remain but I am confident that together we can overcome them. I am looking forward to the next year.

Joern Scherzer
President
Hoe Tonga Pacifica Waka Ama Association

ENDS

Hoe Tonga held its annual general meeting on 6 September.

At the meeting, Hoe Tonga adopted a revised constitution and the executive presented its annual reports.

At the meeting the election of executive officers also took place. The executive for 2010/11 is as follows:

• President: Jörn Scherzer
• Vice-President: Chris Fox
• Secretary: Mere Elkington
• Treasurer: Len Tamapeau
• NKOA representative: Marinna Millanta-Lowrey

Congratulations to the executive officers.

Many many thanks to outgoing officers Samantha Tamanui and Averalle Paenga for their hard work and commitment during their tenure. Both had served on the executive for a number of years.

ENDS

The SPARC Volunteer Coach Awards 2010 are an important opportunity to thank all the hard-working coaches making a huge difference to Waka Ama paddlers and supporters.

Nominations close 8 September. More information under www.sparc.org.nz/volunteers.

Why not take the opportunity to nominate your coach?

ENDS

Below you can find a brief summary of the results for the recent survey of Hoe Tonga paddlers and members regarding Hoe Tonga’s performance.

27 people responded to the survey; providing a useful insight into the thinking of Hoe Tonga’s key stakeholders, i.e. paddlers and supporters.

Re question 4, i.e. whether Hoe Tonga’s delivery and performance of waka ama related activities demonstrate our values, the picture is mixed and there is clearly room for improvement for Hoe Tonga.

Re question 5, i.e. the performance of Hoe Tonga in terms of three key areas, work in terms of information provision and race organisation appears to be relatively good, but there is clearly room for improvement in terms of growing and developing waka ama in the region.

Note that by focusing on implementing the initiatives as set out in Hoe Tonga’s strategic plan 09-14 it should be possible to improve on the above results.

Note that the survey also collected information on potential volunteers; this information will be used in the future to approach people to see whether they may be interested in relevant work (where applicable).

You can access a copy of the results here by clicking here.

ENDS