Waka Ama: Bay team retains glamour Auckland title

Hawke's Bay's Manuz & Jemimaz waka ama crew on their way to victory in the Takapuna Beach Cup 42km race at the weekend. Photo: Takapuna Beach Cup.

EXPERIENCED competitors in the South Island's gruelling Coast to Coast multisport event can often take a week or two to recover.

But within a week of tackling the three-person, two-day mixed teams section of the 243km run, cycle and kayak adventure race from the West Coast to the east coast of the South Island, Hawke's Bay Olympian Anne Cairns was competing in another of the country's extreme glamour events last weekend.

She was a member of the Haeata Ocean Sports Club's Manuz & Jemimaz women's waka ama team which won a second consecutive 42km Takapuna Beach Cup title in Auckland.
The event involves nine or 10-person teams paddling an open ocean course around Rangitoto and Rakino islands completing water changes where team members jump in and out of the waka throughout the race, usually doing stints of 15-20 minutes before having a break on the support motor boat and getting back in on the next changeover.

"The win was really satisfying as nine of us were in the crew last year and our new member did her first changeover race so it was a really great race all round," Cairns said.

The new paddler was Puhi Nuku, a daughter of multiple world champion Roni Nuku.

This pair and Cairns, who represented Samoa in kayaking at the Rio Olympics, were joined by Amy Renall, Kaye Ross, Tui McCaull, Lynora Hati, Geni Walters, Serena Hunter and Maata Strecker.

"There were 10 women's crews and it was close racing up until about halfway, in some testing conditions with wind and tide changes," Cairns recalled.

"But once we hit the downwind leg we worked hard to get the most out of the swells and pulled away from the second placed crew."

Manuz & Jemimaz, who led from start to finish, completed the race in 3h 51m, two minutes ahead of the second placed Rotorua crew.

The weekend's title followed a successful Lake Karapiro-hosted waka ama sprint nationals for the Manuz and Jemimaz paddlers last month. They won silver in both the W6 1500m and 500m events and bronze in the W12 500m.

All of the 10 paddlers who competed in Auckland were involved, along with Hawke's Bay Olympian Aimee Fisher and Tauranga's Rebecca Still.

Cairns, 37, said the team is aiming to do the Molokai Crossing in Hawaii in September.

"This is a 60 mile changeover race between Molokai and Oahu islands through the Kai Iwi channel and it's often considered the unofficial world race for outrigger canoeing," Cairns explained.

The Haeata club's Tawhiti Nui open men's crew finished eighth in their first attempt at the Takapuna Beach Cup.

Havelock North-based firefighter Cairns predicted the Haeata crews to display the benefits of their Auckland experience during the Napier-hosted waka ama long distance nationals in October.

She competed in the Coast to Coast with her 72-year-old father Lawrie and his 79-year-old mate John Livingstone, who was the oldest competitor for the second consecutive year.

Although the trio were last in their section and thrilled to complete the crossing, Cairns was the second fastest female paddler.

"I was pretty happy with that considering I haven't been down that river before and it was my first Coast to Coast," Cairns said.

She completed 70km of kayaking, her father covered 33km of running and Livingstone added 140km of cycling to his Coast to Coast CV.

"It's a beautiful part of New Zealand and dad had done a lot of work down there when he was a surveyor. We did it as a family thing and next year we intend to do it again and this time with my brother Craig."

This weekend Cairns will compete at the Lake Karapiro-hosted sprint kayak nationals in which she will be up against Fisher and other Kiwi Olympians. In August she will tackle the Sprint Kayak Worlds in Portugal.

"The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo is still my major goal and I won't find out until the February, 2020 Oceania Champs if I have qualified," she added.