Paddlers celebrate
2008 Moso’oi Festival with International Outrigger Regatta
To help kick off the 2008 Moso’oi Festival, the American Samoa Association of Paddlers (ASAP) hosted it’s first international event, the 2008 Moso’oi Festival Outrigger Regatta, this past weekend at Utulei Beach. Teams from Apia
competed alongside local canoe clubs over two days in both sprint and long
distance events.
The regatta is the largest outrigger canoe race to be hosted by a local association in the past few years, with over 100 competitors and volunteers participating in the two-day race.
Three visiting teams from
Samoa
and six local clubs entered 13 different events ranging from 250 meters to 10 kilometers.
The Samoa Outrigger Canoe Association (SOCA) was represented by Pualele and Tautai men’s teams, and the V’aa Alo Womens team. Local clubs from ASAP and the American Samoa Canoe Racing Association (ASCRA) also participated. Social (beginners) teams, including the all-women’s Wahine Holo Kai club, Team King, and the only participating government team, Team EPA, shared in the fun by paddling in 250m and 500m sprints races.
The regatta began Friday afternoon, October 17th with a long distance V6 men’s race. Four teams paddled against hard winds and strong currents to cover a 10 km distance around Pago Pago Harbor. The local Alo O Samoa team finished first with a time of 42 minutes and 25 seconds. Pualele came in a close second, finishing only 32 seconds behind Alo. Third and fourth places were awarded to Tautai and U’umi Uma Lava, respectively.
The following morning, three V6 womens’ teams paddled the same tough 10 km course. First place honors were won by a mixed team of women from Alo O Samoa and Va’a Alo Women’s team. Their winning time of 50:55 was followed by second place winner Va’a Alo Development Squad, who finished 34 seconds behind first place. The local Team Tusi finished in third place.
By early afternoon, Utulei
Beach swarmed with anxious paddlers waiting to compete in the sprint events. The race began with V1 Novice 250m and V1 Open 500m competitions. The 250m V1 men’s race resulted in a first place win by Doug Harper, followed by David Bouslough, then Nick King. Team Tusi entered four women in the 250m V1 women’s race; Naomi Zimmer came in first, Amity Quinn second, Tee Drabble third, and Merrilee May in fourth.
Nine paddlers raced in the highly competitive open 500m V1 men’s event. Local paddler, John Goeke, won the race with a time of 2:34:30. Pulenu’u Mataia of Samoa’s Pualele Team and Chris Danielson of Alo O Samoa finished in a close second and third place.
The regatta concluded with a prize giving ceremony and dinner held at the Pago Pago Yacht Club in Utulei. Apia’s Tautai Outrigger Canoe Club took the most gold medals with three wins in the V6 events. No team left empty-handed that evening, with team representatives receiving prizes and gifts generously contributed by local and off-island sponsors. ASAP also held a raffle, offering prizes donated by Gillespie Paddlers, Interisland Airlines, and Bluesky Communications.
ASAP wishes to thank the participants and sponsors who made this first time event a success. In addition to the raffle prizes, substantial donations were also provided by Wulf Enterprises, MYD, E&W, Alamai, the Sports Clinic, Merrilee S. May Public Accountants, BPW, Friends of Amata, ACE, ANZ Amerika Samoa Bank, NRCS, AS-EPA, Local Grafix, 2nd Look Salon, Panamex Pacific, and J-Len T’s.
EVENT 1 |
V6 Open Men 10km |
|
1 |
Alo O Samoa |
42:25.0 |
2 |
Pualele |
42:57.0 |
3 |
Tautai |
48:51.0 |
4 |
U'umi Uma Lava |
51:18.0 |
|
|
|
EVENT 2 |
V6 Open Women 10km |
1 |
Alo/Apia Mix |
50:55.0 |
2 |
SOCA Development |
51:29.0 |
3 |
Team Tusi |
56:39.0 |
|
|
|
EVENT 3 |
V1 Open Men 500m |
|
1 |
John Goeke |
02:34.3 |
2 |
Pulenu'u Mataia |
02:39.6 |
3 |
Chris Danielson |
02:40.4 |
4 |
Patini Aeau |
02:48.2 |
5 |
Bo Schwenke |
02:48.9 |
|
|
|
EVENT 4 |
V1 Open Men 250m |
|
1 |
Doug Harper |
01:26.5 |
2 |
David Bouslough |
01:29.8 |
3 |
Nick King |
01:31.8 |
|
|
|
EVENT 5 |
V1 Open Women 250m |
1 |
Naomi Zimmer |
01:35.9 |
2 |
Amity Quinn |
01:36.9 |
3 |
Taaloga Drabble |
01:40.2 |
4 |
Merrilee May |
02:35.4 |
|
|
|
EVENT 6 |
V6 Open Men 1000m |
|
1 |
Tautai |
05:17.2 |
2 |
Alo O Samoa |
05:20.6 |
3 |
Pualele |
05:39.3 |
|
|
|
EVENT 7 |
V6 Open Women 1000m |
1 |
SOCA Development |
06:34.6 |
2 |
Alo/Apia Mix |
06:42.7 |
3 |
Team Tusi |
06:57.7 |
4 |
Wahine Holo Kai |
07:39.0 |
|
|
|
EVENT 8 |
V6 Open Mix 1000m |
|
1 |
Pualele |
05:43.8 |
2 |
U'umi Uma Lava |
06:12.6 |
3 |
Team Tusi 1 |
06:48.0 |
|
|
|
EVENT 9 |
V6 Open Men 500m |
|
1 |
Tautai |
02:11.3 |
2 |
Pualele |
02:17.0 |
3 |
Alo O Samoa |
02:17.3 |
4 |
U'umi Uma Lava |
02:18.3 |
5 |
Team Tusi |
02:19.6 |
|
|
|
EVENT 10 |
V6 Open Women 500m |
1 |
SOCA Development |
02:36.7 |
2 |
Team Tusi |
02:39.8 |
3 |
Alo/Apia Mix |
02:56.4 |
EVENT 11 |
|
|
| V6 Open Mix 500m |
|
1 |
Tautai |
02:21.1 |
2 |
Pualele |
02:30.8 |
3 |
Team Tusi 1 |
02:42.2 |
|
|
|
EVENT 12 |
V6 Social Mix 500m |
|
1 |
Team Tusi 1 |
02:21.4 |
2 |
Pualele |
02:23.4 |
3 |
Team Tusi 2 |
02:35.5 |
|
|
|
EVENT 13 |
|
|
| V6 Social Mix 250m |
|
1 |
Pualele |
01:08.2 |
2 |
Team EPA |
01:09.7 |
3 |
Team King |
01:20.1 |
Last Modified on 30/10/2008 12:10