Coach expects Maui wildfires will add edge to students' trip to waka ama champs

An Auckland University waka ama team full of first-time competitors will be competing at the world's largest long distance canoe race in Hawaii this week.

The team made up of engineering students will face off against more than 5000 paddlers and the best teams across the world over the next four days.

For the last five months the team has been training hard in preparation for the Queen Lili'uokalani Canoe Race in Hawaii.

The competition is named in honour of Hawaii's last reigning monarch.

The team has three races, their longest being just under 30 kilometres between Kailua and Hōnaunau.

Manamea Koteka, 21, along with many of her team-mates, is one who is either new to waka ama or has very little experience.

She said they would keep paddling hard, even when they were exhausted.

"If I'm just fatigued and I just feel like I'm dying in the boat, I have to keep going for my team and being able to support them in the boat and we could just feel completely drained at one point in the race, but just being there for one another is quite important to us and just that respect we have for each other," Koteka said.

It has been four years since the university has been able to participate in the competition because of Covid-19.

It has come with a lot of sacrifices for the whole team including Manamea. She has had to learn how to balance both training and her final year of university.

She said the sport has helped keep her linked to her whenua.

"Waka Ama's a big sport in the Cook Islands and I never got the opportunity to partake back home so I guess during Covid times, just being able to be out on the water, it helped me a lot. I just felt connected to home," Koteka said.

Sonny Vercoe, 23, is doing his PhD in engineering and has not picked up a paddle for the last six years.

He said learning different mind techniques while doing off water training has been crucial at helping build persistence.

"On the water obviously there's the harbour, there's all of the maunga, there's the CBD with all the buildings, there are the fishermen to keep your mind occupied. But in the gym on the erg you're just literally looking at a wall for three hours so building that resilience firstly before going over kind of makes it easier," Vercoe said.

One of his goals is to try and stay focused.

"I guess the excitement, the anticipation, the energy over there, I expect that it might be easy for everything to be really overwhelming and for everything to maybe go out the window.

"So one of my goals is to just to stay locked in and stick to the game plan and obviously try to have fun at the same time," Vercoe said.

Coach Georgia Naera, 25, is no stranger to the competition and has already won gold in the past for the university.

It will be her fourth time going back and she has been feeling nostalgic.

"You're going through it with people who are studying the same degree as you."

She said team members were often going through the same struggles at the same time.

"This race and the campaigns that I've done for this race, they hold a special place in my heart for sure," Naera said.

This time she will be returning during a period when Hawaii is in mourning after the wildfires on Maui.

She has been trying to figure out how the team can help tautoko the Kānaka Maoli (native Hawaiians).

"I was talking to management about, 'hey is there anything we can do?' I'd really like to be a part of that opportunity while we're there.

"We're going to be mindful that a lot of the other paddlers who are there, their whānau and their ohanas [the concept of creating loving relationships with more than just family] probably going to be mamae [painful], yeah they're probably going to be impacted and just the nation itself [is] going to be impacted.

"Just being aware of that and knowing what's surrounding us while we're over there," Naera said.