International Va’a World Sprints

Lake Natoma, Sacramento saw the bi-annual IVF Va’a World Sprints held from August 1^st to 9^th. Several thousand of the world’s best sprint paddlers gathered at this superb venue to compete for medals in 53 categories. These sprints were run with distances of 500, 1000 and 1500 meters in groupings of open, masters, senior masters and golden masters in both men and women categories.  

Tahiti brought 300 paddlers to these world championships and took home 73 medals.  The Tahitian teams exhibit a unique style and amazing strength and skill level, often taking a sweep of all the medals (gold silver and bronze) in each heat. New Zealand had a large contingent and Hawaii as can be expected was also heavily represented. Many of the heats in which Tahiti did not win all three medals were hotly contested with Hawaii or New Zealand taking home the iron. Had the medals been made of solid gold and silver, there would have been a considerable transfer of wealth across the Pacific.

 

My wife, Lise, went to the games as a club crew with Team RAW from the Ocean River Paddling Club. During the week of practice the RAW team’s many months of hard practice started to pay off with the team gelling well together and turning in excellent training times.  This resulted in Team Canada coaches moving the previous Canada 3 boat to Canada 4 and placing team RAW as the Canada 3 boat.  It was a controversial move for the paddlers, but RAW were performing well and made it to the semi finals in most of their heats.  Considering the world class competition this was a remarkable feat, certainly in my eyes.

We had a long walk back to the hotel one evening with a Tahitian paddler and he confided that the paddlers from Canada were extremely strong, however he said they don’t know how to sprint very well.  Given my French English translation he said we don’t know how to do a quick return of the paddle. This was explained with much arm waving and blindingly quick gestures.  Even though he was elderly and pushing a baby carriage, he obviously was not just a grandpa. I found out later that he is one of the Tahitian coaches.

I watched an under 19 Tahitian paddler in a V1 race stroke from start to finish in excess of 95 strokes per minute as timed by one of the Canada team paddlers, while handily winning the category by several boat lengths.  In the finish, the Tahitian men put so much energy into their V1 paddle stroke that the paddle completely exits the water at the back of the stroke and puts a plume of water into the air at the back of the boat.  Their stroke return is so quick the rooster tail is still in the air while the next paddle catch is placed. This is not exactly what we teach or learn here in Canada.  We place more emphasis on efficiency.  This no doubt makes up for the cultural difference between the hugely strong Tahitians with a heritage of paddling and big V shaped backs rippled with muscles.  The Tahitian paddlers earn their spot by competition, as do the Canadians, however many of the Tahitians earn much or all of their living by paddling. They have three paddle seasons:  Sprinting, Iron races and Change races and have different technique for each. 

The Tahitian walking with us down the sidewalk told us of a three day relay race they have ‘back home’.  They paddle for about 3 ½ hours the first day and 4 or more the second day going to the next successive island where they stay overnight.  On the last day they have a “sprint” race of 2 ½ hours to the last island, where they party for quite a long time and party very well, we were told with a smile.

While the actual medal count was not as high as Tahiti, Canada placed extremely well in most races and learned much that will assist in the next world sprints to be held in New Caledonia in 2010. If Canadian paddlers wish to take the lessons from this event and train specifically for sprinting, the medals will be numerous and much more sparkly the next time around. Hey...its all about the journey! 

Even as a spectator, I highly recommend this event and if anyone wants to see the world of paddling outside of the Johnson Street Bridge in Victoria, train for and plan on attending the next world sprints held in New Caledonia.  Hey, its a great excuse for a Polynesian holiday! The cultural exposure is worth the trip.