Hawaiki Nui Va'a 2019

This year I was fortunate enough to join the Ka Lahui Kai competing in the Hawaiki Nui va’a race down in French Polynesia! What an experience! It is a 3 day iron race where you paddle through 4 different Tahitian islands.

Our week started off on the beautiful island of Huahine. We were greeted by Sophie and her amazing family who housed us for the week. We ate Tahitian food and relaxed on the beautiful beaches for the three days before the race. on Monday we checked in for the race and got our BEAUTIFUL new Matahina canoe ready for the race. Tuesday we just relaxed and hydrated for the race.

Wednesday was day one of the race! Our first day line up was Hunter, Kala, Tupuria, Abel, myself, and Tuarongo steering. All 100 teams began the 30 mile race in the lagoon and paddled out through the pass of Huahine venturing towards the island of Raiatea. Once we clear the island we are greeted by good wind and fun surfing all the way to the island. We end up in 16th which is a good placing for a first time International team.

The second day is the “sprint” in the lagoon from Raiatea to Tahaa. I say sprint because the race is still about 2 hours… For this day we put in Bronson, Shon, Mario, Francesco, and Tuarongo. These boys crushed and hammered as us day one guys cheered them on from the sidelines! the battled with the best of the best and ended up with a near top 20!

Day three was a doozy! 40 miles from Tahaa to Bora Bora. This day was Lined up with me, Tupuria, Kala, Hunter, Abel, And Tuarongo (yes Tua did all 3 days!) We started with a great start lined up in between OPT and EDT two of the greatest teams in Tahiti! after an hour in the lagoon slugging it out we finally exit the pass on our way to Bora. We are welcomed to great waves surfing the Whole way! when we enter the pass of Bora we see the beautiful wooden canoe of EDT just a few boat lengths ahead. We fought hard and strategically to over take them in the sticky lagoon waters. This was an absolute dream becusase not only is EDT one of my idols, but they are one of the best to ever do this race! we finished off with a 13th overall and and a bunch of very excited boys.

I would like to thank Everyone who made this happen, Especially the hard working boys on this team, and our amazing coach Alan Pflueger for always supporting us!

For photos and videos of our race go to the Ka lahui kai Facebook page to see the amazing edits Hayden Ramler put together!