Why Waka Ama is cool

Why Waka ama is cool.

Waka Ama is a race where there is a boat (waka) that you have to paddle in. This is an upper body strength sport and it is also a water sport. There are different kinds of wakas like 1 man, 6 man and 12 man.

There are different teams depending on your age:
Midgets/Yr 1, 2, 3, 4.
Intermediates/Yr 5, 6, 7.
J16/Yr 8, 9, 10.
J19/Yr 11, 12, 13.
Opens men/woman/20+


There are tournaments that you compete in. The first tournament is Regionals. If in any of your races you come 1st, 2nd or 3rd you have a time that they record and they compare it with other people times and the person with the fastest time is in the first lane at nationals where you compete with people from all over New Zealand. This tournament goes on for about 5 days and regional goes on for only 2 days. 

The lengths of the lake is 250m for midgets and intermediates race 1000m and 500m, and some times they do turns which is when there is 3 floaty things that have 2 of them on the sides and 1 in the middle. If you cross over 1 of the floaty thing it is 10 seconds added to your time and if you do it twice your team is disqualified for that race.

If your club wants to, your club will go to worlds where you vs people from all around the globe. It is a fun opportunity and the next world competition is in London in 2022. 

This is a great sport and soon you might be the best paddler in New Zealand or even one of the best in the world.