WAKA AMA: Lippy teen makes her parents proud

ANENDRA SINGH
Hanging out with her street savvy mates under the Hastings Clock Tower three years ago was the norm for teenager Emma Hausman-Laking. Not that the 15-year-old Karamu High School student has ever been truant from school - goodness, no!
"I've never wagged school, ever," says Hausman-Laking, who religiously found herself at the Hastings landmark on weekends and holidays.
The self-confessed "rebellious, lippy" teenager was regularly a source of consternation to her parents, Rachel and Darron Laking. "I was always negative about everything," says the teenager, sporting a glittering nose stud and clad in a pair of denim jeans, with her feet perched comfortably on the armrest as she curls up in the sofa of the lounge in their Hastings home.
However, the former St Joseph's School pupil's life took a turn for the better when a schoolmate asked her if she wanted to row in the waka ama nationals with her.
Putting tae kwon do on the backburner, Hausman-Laking found herself paddling at the Pandora Pond in Ahuriri, Napier.
"I loved it the moment I got there. The people were very welcoming," says Hausman-Laking, as she toys with the paua shell carving secured by a piece of thread around her right ankle.
That led to her becoming a member of Te Rau Oranga o Ngati Kahungunu club based at the pond and her team finishing runners-up at the nationals.
Today she left for the Waka Ama World Championship to be staged at Lake Karapiro, in Cambridge, near Hamilton, starting on Monday.
Rachel Laking says: "Emma's turned her life around because of waka ama and Darron and I are extremely proud of her."
Hausman-Laking will compete in the under-16 category of the champs as the No.3 paddler with Eden Monteith (Ruatoria), Stacee Fraider (Gisborne), Dale Thomas (Rotorua) and Ihipera Sweet (Gisborne). Hawke's Bay veteran paddlers Tamihana Nuku, a former gold medallist, and Sandy Chavellarau will compete in the 50-plus golden masters grade of the championship that has lured 5000 competitors from 26 countries, including the United States, Canada and the South Pacific Island nations. Competition begins on Tuesday after the opening ceremony the day before.
Happiness often follows on the heels of success and, ultimately, behind that driven person is someone filling the mantle of coach.
Arise Matene Ropiha, Hausman-Laking's trainer since May last year, who fine-tuned the youngster's skills after her first call-up for national trials.
Mum Laking says: "Ropiha is just like a granddad to the children. They had to single-man waka training and he was just great."
Hausman-Laking's training camps cram in several fitness regimes, swimming, gym workouts, running and a healthy dose of paddling five to six days a week between four week-long camps.
While martial arts and netball have played second fiddle to schoolwork and waka ama, Hausman-Laking hopes to take up kickboxing in winter to maintain her fitness as paddling unwinds due to the cold.
She has thought of taking up rowing and had a go at canoe polo in school but the latter petrifies her.
"Nah, I don't like the idea of having my head dunked in water," she says. Finding herself bailing out water from the waka, after leaning to the right to cause the ama (outrigger) to flip the vessel is a bad enough experience for Hausman-Laking.
For now she's content with drooling at the thought of making the national under-19 team for the 2008 World Championship in San Diego, in the United States.