Herberts dominate international field
Herberts On Tour emerged victorious from a field featuring some of the strongest long distance teams in the world to claim the Takapuna Beach Cup at the annual waka ama event in Auckland on Saturday.
Team member — and the Far North’s most successful waka ama exponent — Tupuria King told Te Hiku Media this was the first time the Herberts had won the 42km OC6 open men’s event — coming out on top of a field of 14 sixperson teams — in around a decade of competing at the annual Takapuna Beach event.
The challenging conditions — strong onshores and unruly choppy seas — which plagued the event on Saturday and Sunday played right in to the hands of the Far North team which finished in 3 hours and 25 minutes, just under two minutes ahead of their nearest rivals, the Bhutty Boys.
“For me, [having been] paddling for a long time, I really look forward to conditions like that,” he said of the rough sea. “Big wind and swell coming in on the way home, [we just] had good fun riding waves and surfing them. For paddlers just starting out, it can be quite difficult.”
The 42km OC6 open men’s event was contested by nine-man teams, six in the canoe with another three used as interchange in accompanying support boats. Also notable in the Herberts on Tour team were father and son, Keer and Taonui Henry, the latter at age 15 potentially becoming the youngest paddler to win the cup in the history of the regatta.
King went on to say the Takapuna Beach Cup was one of the biggest events in New Zealand waka ama and regularly attracted a strong, international field.
“Really well run, really well organised.”
King with Steve Roulston also picked up a second place medal in the 24km OC1 relay in difficult sea conditions on Sunday, finishing in 2:34:20, just under a minute behind first placegetters Bryce Irving and Mario Mausio.
Despite being a quieter-than-usual year on his calendar, King is preparing to take part in the Molokai Solo 2020, the notoriously testing open ocean outrigger canoe race between the Molokai and Oahu islands in Hawaii, as well as the world outrigger canoe sprint championships which are also being held in Hawaii.
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This year’s Takapuna Beach Cup 2020 waka ama regatta started on Valentine’s Day (Friday, February 14) in beautiful weather, with the sun shining and just a light breeze — ideal conditions particularly for the strong field of international crews there to try their luck on Auckland waters.
Organisers reported that Saturday brought much more challenging conditions for 42km change race around Rangitoto and the 21km Iron course which were tough for even the most experienced paddlers. Conditions didn’t improve on Sunday forcing some events to be cancelled although the relay events battled on.
Overall, there was a great turnout for the 14th running of the Takapuna Beach Cup with a field of 24 crews in the 5km warm-up race, 71 in the 21km races, 36 in the 42km races, 127 singles relay teamsof-two (equating to 254 paddlers) along with 21 international crews from USA, Hawaii, Australia, Tahiti, Canada and Singapore — an overall total of 1400 paddlers and 289 teams competing over the annual three-day regatta.
Organisers thanked everyone who made the event possible including vendors, supporters, support boat drivers and crew, the local Takapuna community for embracing this event, wha¯nau, friends, local clubs and most importantly, the nga¯ kaihoe (the paddlers).