Mixed sea conditions made for exciting and fun races in Monday’s Vaka Eiva V6 iron challenge where the largest fleet of over 1000 paddlers took to the water over the course of the day.

From the start line outside Avarua harbour – paddlers headed east to Matavera point (12km) and Avana (18km) in what was described by competitors as ‘nice big waves’ for the first race early in the morning before waves got bumpier and smaller through the afternoon.

Aotearoa and Australian paddlers dominated the day’s race divisions with Cook Islands crews also enjoying podium finishes.

Local Te Tupu Boiler Boys – a combination of top local and international paddlers, and the Ngakau Toa Vaka tane team proved to be the men to watch out for this week when they took out the top two spots in the open men’s 18km race.

However, it was the lads from team Tahiti Nui that took off the start line first to gain the early lead before the two local crews raced ahead to take command.

In the end it was the mixed crew of locals and international paddlers in the Boiler Boys Int that took out the race in a time of 1.14.23 followed two minutes later by Ngakau Toa Tane in 1.16.09.

Josh Burrell of the winning international team described the race and win as “outrageous awesome”.

In the open women’s 18km race – it was the gun Crown Beach Belles that established themselves as the crew to watch after taking out the race in 1.29.55, followed a little over a minute later by the Tahiti OPT2 team in a time of 1.30.18. Hine Vaa, also of the Tahiti OPT club, placed third a minute after their fellow paddlers in crew OPT2.

Despite struggling in the first leg of their 12km golden master men’s race – Sam Rodrigues of Anuenue says they thoroughly enjoyed their race.

“The race was good. We struggled a bit on the turn but we thoroughly enjoyed the race. It’s all part of the journey,” says Rodrigues.

He says going towards the turn at Matavera the waves were nice and big, but coming back the swells went down.

The Sunshine Coast junior development crew were the best of the under 19 women’s division finishing their race in a blistering time of 1.08.43.

Maddy Cooper of the Sunshine Coast junior development crew described her team’s race as awesome.

“It was bumpy going out but it picked up around the first point. After the turn coming back, it was awesome. It’s great being a part of the winning team!”

The Te Tupu O Te Manava senior master mixed crew was one of the local crews that enjoyed victory yesterday when they took out their division.

Linley Andrew says that after all the hard work the crew has put into their training it was wonderful to win their division, which they did in 1.01.55 – a clear three minutes ahead of the second place getters from Australia’s Surfers Paradise Shark club.

“The canoe we had could take the rough water. We had great backup from our powerhouse.

It feels wonderful, absolutely wonderful to win our category.

We worked hard, we paddle hard and we won hard!” said the local team’s stroker.

Today’s Vaka Eiva attention will be on the junior paddlers who will take part in the first of their Mapu Oe Vaka events.

Matariki Wilson