ICONIC Vaka Eiva videographer ‘Rambo’ called Vaka Eiva ‘the most fun event on the outrigger planet’ – and while my paddling experience is limited and I can’t definitively agree one way or the other, I’m inclined to believe him.

This week, Rarotonga came alive to embrace oe vaka and the people who love it. In a whirlwind of sport, stormy weather and Steinlager, Vaka Eiva came and went – leaving outrigger communities here and abroad to await and anticipate VE2011.

For local paddlers, Vaka Eiva was a chance to share a passion with other people who live and breathe it in their own corners of the world. It was the culmination of months of training and cross-training – proof that it was all worth it – but it was more than that.

To some, Vaka Eiva is a reason to come home; to others, it’s an excuse to leave home for a holiday and to still others, it’s all about the medals. For me, though, Vaka Eiva was a real introduction to the sport of oe vaka.

This week marked my first Vaka Eiva experience, as either a spectator or a paddler, and it did away with any doubts I might have harboured about whether to continue with oe vaka long-term.

The energy was palpable. Last week, we were feeling the heat here at CINews to finish the 28-page pull-out Vaka Eiva supplement, and the rest of the island was also kicking into gear – businesses advertised specials, police restructured patrol plans to accommodate the huge visitor numbers, motels bought extra soap.

Hundreds of paddlers filled hotel beds, rented cars and bought Vaka Bar cards this week. The whole affair energised the economy, but it also energised the people. Every day, music was pumping at the harbour, the perimeter of Vaka Village was lined with rental scooters, and waffle-and-coffee stands bordered the canoe shed.

People travelled en masse to chase races, stopping off at the Fishing Club to catch sight of the canoes, then scrambling into the back of a truck to make Matavera Point before a race passed. Hundreds of paddlers descended on Muri beach mid-week, costumed and ready to mingle, and last night the harbour was alive with music and merrymaking.

My first race was the V6 Iron on Monday morning. As a novice and a Vaka Eiva first-timer, I didn’t know what to expect. I was stroking, and had only been training at number one for several weeks – I was afraid of setting a pace too fast or too slow, worried about my fitness level and praying for better weather than the men got during their V6 Iron.

I think to some degree we were all feeling the nerves, but when the green flag went up, the adrenaline took charge, and we gave it our best shot.

I think every paddler knows what it’s like to push the body to its limits – to keep going when you’re parched, overheating and chaffed, and your body is screaming for you to stop. Even when you lose, you can appreciate another’s win, because you know every crew understands what it’s like to ‘pick it up for four’ at the end of a race when shoulders are sore and energy is waning.

We didn’t place in the Iron, but approaching the harbour we were all smiles – the hugs, the kisses and the drum beats made it all worthwhile.

I paddled again during sunset with The Unsquashables, who are low on experience but high on energy, and on Wednesday at Muri. But for me, Thursday’s mixed Round Raro was the highlight of the week.

Our crew hadn’t trained together, but we meshed well and we got the canoe moving. Our changeovers were perhaps not as glamorous as those of other crews, but no one got left behind and we managed to stay strong in spite of bruises, cramps and weariness.

We finished second in the open division, five minutes behind the Worthington brothers and their Australian and Hawaiian counterparts, but we were hugging and kissing and jumping around as if we’d finished first. Even the whales – who have been mysteriously missing from Rarotonga’s coast for weeks – came to congratulate us. Mounting the podium as a novice was special, and it made my first Vaka Eiva experience that much sweeter.

But so much of what makes Vaka Eiva the ‘most fun event on the outrigger planet’ happens post-race – it’s about the concerts and the crowds and catching up with friends new and old.

It’s a chance for paddlers who’ve met in previous years to chat over drinks – and for paddlers who haven’t met to, well, chat over drinks. It’s about bonding with your team over beers and bruise stories, and showing up to support other crews from your club before and after their races.

And then there are the cultural connotations which make Vaka Eiva feel like more than a race. It’s a gathering of Pacific peoples, whose lineages interlace and whose ancestors depended on the vaka we’ve come together to celebrate.

The blessing of the vaka, the Wednesday morning turou, the string bands and even the feasts give Vaka Eiva a distinctly Cook Islands feel.

The word eiva, Sir Geoff said, is a fusion of ‘ei’ – the flowery image of Cook Islands hospitality and festivity – and ‘va’ – the space between then and now. Despite that gap in time, we’re still doing what the ancestors did – perhaps for different reasons, but we haven’t forgotten where oe vaka came from.

It’s what makes oe vaka special. It’s why we put up with chaffing, bruising and sore muscles, and it’s why we forego Friday nights to rest up for Saturday training sessions, and it’s why we’re already counting down to Vaka Eiva 2011.