About Maitahi Outrigger
The Maitahi Outrigger Canoe Club aims to promote waka ama (outrigger canoe or va’a paddling) as a recreational, social and cultural activity, and as competitive team sport.
Waka Ama in Nelson
We’re based in Nelson, which is at the top of the South Island, Aotearoa/New Zealand.
We have lots of different crews, paddling at different times of the day on the local harbour, Nelson Haven. Our club owns six OC6 (six-person canoes) and two OC2 (two-person canoes) and two singles.
Our club was formed in 2001 and our name is derived from the river now known as the Maitai. The Maitai River flows into Nelson Haven.
Club documents
Come paddling with us
We offer a couple of ‘getting started’ paddles for $5 a time to introduce you to waka ama.
If you decide you’d like to paddle on a regular basis, we’ll endeavour to place you in a crew as places become available. Alternatively, you may want to paddle on a more casual basis, filling in when crew members are away or joining the training paddles on Wednesday and Friday evenings or our Sunday Social mornings.
The club provides lifejackets and paddles for beginners.
Fits with our Kiwi lifestyle
Waka ama fits in ideally with our Kiwi lifestyle and attracts paddlers from age 6 to 80+.
Waka Ama is currently the most popular water sport in the country. The sport holds cultural, competitive, social, family and fitness appeal and its popularity just keeps growing.
We belong to Te Waka o Aoraki (the South Island Region) and are affiliated with Waka Ama NZ, the national governing body for Waka Ama in New Zealand.
We have a number of useful resources for outrigger paddlers.
The culture of Waka Ama
The Culture of Waka Ama booklet was put together by Waka Ama NZ so people can learn about the culture of the sport, the way we do things and why. It is well worth looking at as it has all sorts of information.
Come racing with us
Our club has a number of paddlers who compete in sprint and long distance race events as individuals or as part of race crews. We also have local club racing in the winter which allows everyone to get a taste of racing.
Every year our club holds a race regatta, Tuna e Hoe Ana (paddling with the eels), at Lake Rotoiti, in the Nelson Lakes National Park. This is a popular event and features a series of races from 1km, 5km & 10km. To find out more go to the Tuna e Hoe Ana event page.
Its never too early or too late to start paddling waka ama
We welcome new members to the Maitahi Outrigger Canoe Club. Maitahi has social and racing waka ama crews catering for a wide variety of ages and abilities.