Great end of year for Alo Va’a
Last Saturday was the end of the season of alo vaa samoa with the Prize Giving of the TAULA STRONG V1 SERIES 2016.
The event took place at the Hotel Millenia from 7PM following a 11KM V6 Marathon to celebrate the year of paddling hosted by the Vaa Tasi Kalapu at Milinuu. There were 6 teams that participated in this event and they all paddled hard from start to finish.
The conditions were a bit rough with sea swells at 5ft and ENE winds at 12KM. But all that only added to the excitement of the race as all 6 teams belted it out from mulinuu to fagalii and back to mulinuu catching wave after wave over the reefs.
The top six V1 paddlers from the TAULA STRONG SERIES came together as one team and being the team to beat on the day. The team consisted of three paddlers from Tautai OCC - Esera Aumua, Gase Aumua & Tasi Esekia, two paddlers from Laumei OCC Elton Petersen and Billy Peters and one paddler from Nafanua OCC, Jack Laban who all made the TAULA STRONG TEAM.
They won the 10KM race in a very impressive time of under 45 minutes with a 800 meter lead from the rest of the pack. The other teams were the open men’s mix team of Laumei OCC and Tautai OCC that came in at 2nd place, three open mix teams of Pualele OCC finishing 3rd, TAUTAI OCC at 5th and Laumei OCC at 6th, and a junior team from Nafanua OCC who did very well to take 4th place.
This event was not only to end the season with a good race but also to help bring together top paddlers in a trial run as a stepping stone towards the goal of bringing a medal back from the First Annual Alo Vaa Long Distance Championships that will be held in Tahiti from June 24th to 2nd July of 2017.
The distances in Tahiti will be 24KM in the V6 category and 18KM in the V1 category. So come next year the TAULA STRONG SERIES will be pushing its distances to ensure that whoever makes TEAM SAMOA will be physically ready and more importantly mentally ready for the World Championship. The Te Aito which is like the World Cup of V1 paddling is also held in Tahiti every year and Team Samoa will also be participating in this event with a distance of 28MK.
The top six paddlers walked away with cash prizes and other sponsored items. The top twelve open men’s also received some gifts and cases of Taula Strong and Taxi Softdrinks.
The top four open women’s V1/OC1 were 1. Amanda Wheatley 2. Nicola Mills 3. Anna Bertram 4. Frances Te’o. The Vaa Tasi Kalapu is most grateful to all their sponsors: KRAMER Const, Hotel Millenia, Farmer Joe’s, Mahealanis Island Wear, SSAB and most of all our MAJOR SPONSOR – TAULA BEVERAGE COMPANY with their ongoing support of the TAULA STRONG V1 SERIES.
We hope that more V1/OC1 paddlers will participate in the 2017 series as the ROAD to TAHITI will be underway. Congratulations to all paddlers who made this year a success – GOD BLESS and see you again 2017. VaaTasiKalapu
2016 Placings PADDLER
1 Esera Aumua
2 Elton Petersen
3 Gase Aumua
4 Tasi Esekia
5 Jack Laban
6 Billy Peters
7 Letoa Keil
8 Amanda Wheatley
9 Paul Schmit
10 Jonathan Porter
11 Lucas Soaemoelegi
12 Eddie Peseta
13 Dan Conolly
14 Jay Schuster
15 Konrad Lober
16 Glen Hughes
17 Nicola Mills
18 Tupu Sefo
19 Andy Wheatley
20 Mark Malaki Williams-I NT-NZ
21 Emil Fabricius
22 Danielson Iteli
23 Funder Lightning
24 Anna Bertram
25 AJ Cowley
26 Saju Abraham-INT- AUST
27 Siosi Aumua
28 Titi Anauli
29 Tony Talouli
30 Siala Nafanua
31 John Tuu
32 Pat Ah Him Jr.
33 Ray NgauChang
34 Bob VLF
35 Koli
36 Nato Millenia Va’a
37 Pearl Hosokawa
38 Hans Gabriel
39 Harry Nafanua
40 Sisi Te’o
41 Manu Nafanua
42 Marie Hopley
43 Sam Ieremia
44 Burn Laumei
45 Peter Millenia Va’a
46 Sefo Millenia Va’a