A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
New Zealand’s top waka ama club will acknowledge its foundations this weekend by celebrating its 21st anniversary.
Horouta Waka Hoe are the international club champions after their paddlers amassed the most points at the world sprint championships in Tahiti last year.
A lot of toil went into that campaign, on and off the water, as well as growing the sport in Tairawhiti in the preceding years.
They are also the New Zealand club champions, an overall title they have won eight of the nine times it has been contested at the national sprint champs since 2011.
Club chairman Walton Walker said it was important to celebrate the origins of the club and its journey.
There is a reunion dinner in Gisborne at the 2nd NZEF Rooms in Palmerston Road tomorrow night.
Walker said brothers Keiha and Kapua Waikari were key to laying the club’s foundations.
“Everything that followed afterwards was a product of those early aspirations.”
Keiha was coaching youngsters in the sport when he sought his brother’s advice on forming a club.
They considered joining Horouta Sports Club, which already competed in rugby, martial arts, cricket, netball and hockey.
After discussions, it was decided to go it alone and Horouta Waka Hoe Club Inc was formed.
After fundraising, the club sent a junior-16 team, Horouta Brix, to the world championships in Fiji in 1998.
The team — Rowe Wharehinga, Paul Kahui, Duane Hihi, Dane Tangahue, Dean Maraki and Jonas Te Aho — returned with two bronze medals.
Walker said success followed in the next two decades and much came down to the vision of the founders.
“This is their weekend,” he said.
Initially, the club used borrowed waka and one boat of its own, Horouta.
Tributes to those who paved the wayWalker was not involved in the club from the start but has memories of the early days.
He was working in the New Zealand High Commission in Suva in Fiji when the world champs were held there.
“I met Keiha and his team at the champs. It was a great event. There were teams from all over the world.”
He recalled that two New Zealand paddlers, Sonny Grant and the late Amster Reedy, both from the Tairawhiti area, stayed with him in Suva.
By 2002, the club had 90 members, including 70 competitive paddlers.
In 2004, a J16 girls’ crew coached by Kiwi Campbell, the Hinerupe Maidens, won a gold medal at the world champs in Hilo, Hawaii.
In 2006 at Lake Karapiro, an open men’s team called the Woolley Kumaras won gold in the 1500-metres final. The personnel have changed but that name still exists today.
Horouta has became one of New Zealand’s largest waka ama clubs.
This year, it has 230 paddlers on its books.
Walker is the fourth chairperson, following Kapua Waikari, Willie Kaa and Jo Doherty.
He paid tribute to the people who pushed the sport into the consciousness of youngsters before it became popular.
Walker said Keiha Waikari worked with schools while waka ama great Matahi Brightwell from fellow Gisborne club Mareikura club was instrumental in getting the sport moving in New Zealand.
A steering committee was formed at Horouta with a few supportive parents — Monica Wharehinga, Janet Malcolm, Sas Mahuika and others. After a public meeting, Horouta Waka Hoe Inc was established.
As club membership continued to grow, so did the number of waka.
Walker said the name Horouta carried relevance.
It derives its name from the Horouta waka, one of the original ancestral waka that settled in Tairawhiti.
“Horo” means speed and “uta” is landward.
The image it evokes is the peripheral view from the eye of a paddler of land flashing by because the waka was travelling so quickly.
Coaching from the likes of Keiha Waikari, Kiwi Campbell and Irene Takao had been key to the club thriving.
“Kiwi had the top under-16 and u19 teams from 2004 until 2009,” Walker said.
“The Hinerupe Maidens were unbeatable for over six years and her own Kaiarahi Toa open women’s team has been unassailable and are still performing at world level.”
Walker said many top paddlers and parents had given many hours of their time teaching juniors.
Paddlers range in age from five-year-old midgets to golden masters — koro and kuia in their 60s and 70s.
Fundraising continues to be a challenge but the club now has a sponsor — Self Storage Gisborne.