Taupō waka ama team qualifies for world championships

Taupō Waka Ama senior masters team is heading to the World Sprint Championships in Hawaii. They are (left to right) Lisa Crabb, Brenda Lawson, Alice Street, Janet Bishop, Julie Gordon and Sheena Jury.

In August, the tropical Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii is about as far as you can get from wintery Lake Taupō.

However, one local waka ama team will be paddling into a very different climate after they qualified for this year’s World Sprint Championships in Hilo.

The Taupō Waka Ama senior masters team is made up of six women aged over 50, all from different walks of life, from DoC rangers to healthcare and postal workers.

They also range widely in their time with the club; some, like team member Janet Bishop, have a couple of years of paddling under their belts, while Brenda Lawson is a former Olympian and world champion rower.

It will be the first time a Taupō-based team has qualified for the international competition, which team member Alice Street said was an amazing achievement.

“One of the [best] things for me is that we’re a small club with a very small pool of masters women.

“Other teams may have 20 or 30 masters women, and we’ve got pretty much just us.”

The Taupō team beat the competition at January’s Waka Ama National Sprint Championships on Lake Karāpiro to qualify for the international championships, which will take place in the northern hemisphere summer.

Taupō Waka Ama was an underdog compared to those in other towns with more members. Rotorua, for example, fielded multiple teams in their race.

For one event, the Taupō crew even “had to borrow a paddler from Whakatāne”, said team captain Sheena Jury.

The ocean will present a new set of challenges compared to the lake the team is used to, but that’s not the only thing the masters women will have to get their heads, and paddles, around.

Waka ama aren’t exactly transportable by air, so the teams use boats provided by the organisers.

They’ll be hopping into a Matahina waka, a type that none of them have set foot in before.

The model they’ll be using is known for being harder to turn, which in combination with the differing conditions from lake to sea means the event will be challenging in every respect.

Due to the number of teams taking part in the championships, each group was given a tiny window to acclimate to the new boats, said Street. Teams from 35 countries are expected to compete, with 92 club teams and five elite teams from Aotearoa making the trip.

“There’s teams from all over the world who haven’t used the boats, so we only get an hour timeslot each to practise.”

And there’s little chance of trying them out ahead of time, as Jury notes “there’s only a few of these boats in New Zealand”.

There is plenty of preparation to be done ahead of August, both for racing and to fundraise for the high cost of sending the team.

The club is volunteering at events such as Taupō's Ironman, as well as seeking sponsorship from local and national companies.

Street said she’d been “writing to everyone I can think of”, with donations coming in from organisations including the Tokaanu Trust.

As amazing as it was to have a world-class team of women over 50, it had its drawbacks, she said.

“We’re probably in a different position in that we’re not youth, so there’s a lot [of grants] we can’t apply for.”

• Taupō Waka Ama club is seeking sponsorship for its women’s masters team. Contact taupowakaamaclub@gmail.com.

Milly Fullick is a journalist based in Taupō. She joined the Taupō and Tūrangi Herald team in 2022.

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