A RELATIVELY new group has set up shop in Castlecliff to cater for one of New Zealand's fastest growing sports, waka ama.
The club, Te Kaihau a Kupe Waka Ama, is based at 1 Wharf Street, Castlecliff with Tahi Nepia and his partner Anna Te Rei at the helm.
Thecouple started the club after Nepia returned from competing the World Waka Ama Championships in Rio in 2014. Nepia was part of the six-man Auckland-based team "Korowai" that won silver in Senior Men's Masters W6 1000m and bronze in the 500m sprint in Rio.
"We decided that we wanted to waka ama in and around the sea and Whanganui River mouth," Te Rei said yesterday.
"We have yet to launch our club officially but did a leaflet drop in Castlecliff at the end of 2014 to gauge the interest. I followed up with a visit to a number of people in their homes and had conversations about the activity and presence. Of course the journey to setting up a committee and meeting regularly has been a challenge as we still have some work to do in terms of tidying up our land and organising a team of adults to train before we can offer this to the younger community."
The couple have also been busy in the past year training for the National Sprints held at Lake Karapiro last week where they failed to qualify.
"We're happy we can now put more time into developing TKAK. We are planning a public launch in the next few weeks and will celebrate with other types of waka joining us that day like a coastal rower, seagoing W6, kayaks and W1s," Te Rei said.
The club is also keen to organise and host a variety of regattas in the future.
