Kia Koutou,
It feels like this year has flown by, but it also feels like it has been a long road since the last AGM! But I’m proud to give you my first President’s report.
I’d firstly like to say THANK YOU! Nothing we have done in the last year or that I’ll talk about here is possible without volunteers. Thank you to the sweeps and coaches who give us all their time, knowledge, experience and energy to help make us all better paddlers and enjoy our time on the water. Especially when most of them coach other teams and have their own paddling careers. Also a major thanks and ‘cheers friends’ to my fellow committee members. Each of these individuals brings smarts, curiosity, passion and energy to their roles in fundraising, health and safety, finances, social media and constitutional matters among many. I personally appreciate everything this group brings both as a collective and as some pretty awesome individuals. I know (and have heard) club members’ appreciation many times this season. So if you’re sitting near a committee member, coach or sweep please give them a wee apt on the back.
I’d also like to extend a special thanks to David Price who is stepping down from the committee, he has been an exemplar of good spirit and leadership with Kākāriki and we are thankful to still have him in this role.
Two years ago we decided to rebrand VDC to Pōneke Watersports, and the last 12 months has seen continual growth from this. We’ve had a push this year to invest in infrastructure:
- We’ve got some professional new merch! We are really proud of these. Thanks to the Sprig & Fern Berhampore for sponsoring these and Hutt Mana Trust for grant funding.
- We have a new set of life jackets, hopefully meaning less rummaging around on race days! Thanks to TAB for grant funding that covered most of the cost of these.
- We have a new set of Pōneke Watersports branded adjustable Hornet paddles. They literally arrived yesterday! Thanks to Pub Charity for grant funding that covered the cost of these.
- First up we attended CRDBA Regionals in Oct 2023, with the most Pōneke Watersports members I’ve ever seen at the event!
- Just a few weeks later we attended our first ever Hamilton Super 12 event, which was a blast! We took 3 teams, with the women pulling double duty. 2 teams made the grand final, and 1 team placed in the minor final! For me the most special part of this trip was the team bonding and support.
Note: Both of these regattas are open to all paddlers! So get to winter training! - Next up was Harbour Fun Day and the Wellington Dragon Boat Festival. For the first time ever we had to waitlist paddlers, with the quickest sign up rate I’ve ever seen and what ended up totalling 104 members. Both events saw some pretty big water! And the WDBF some pretty big competition. Congratulations to Heat for Silver Medals, Force for a first place plaque, Kākariki for Silvers in the Social Grand Final, and Silver Dragons and Ika Moana for 4ths in their Grand Finals. A special mention to the fact that Ika Moana were pipped by less than a second in a final where 1, 2 and 3 went to some of the biggest teams in NZ, competing in a final that had teams from 5 regions across the country.
- And most recently was NZDBA Nationals. We haven’t been since 2021 and 2024 was only our third appearance and first as Pōneke Watersports. There was some tight racing and really respectable placings from us, I won’t list all the results but of particular note are the 500m finals. The Women’s B Final we were 2nd, with .4 of a second between Can2, us and Wairarapa – all CRDBA Teams! The Open Small boat made the Grand Final! A first for our club at this level of paddling. And the Mixed Standard Boat B Final,. where a hard ‘up’ call saw us surge through the pack to come 4/100ths of a second from first place. (And the live stream froze and missed it!)
The Committee, coaches and sweeps all keep working to continue to grow the club and give us all wonderful paddling experiences. We expect to need more coaches and more sweeps in the coming seasons, so if this interests you let us know! There’ll also be some call outs coming up from CRDBA, in particular for event organisation support, if you think your skills are more admin based. The 2024 season has been one of growth, one of putting in the work and really starting to see those efforts on and off the water pay off. I encourage you all to keep putting in that work, as paddlers and as volunteers because if we do I’m pretty confident 2024/25 will be even better!
Kathryn Park | President/Chair