WAI TUI International

---

Apparently WAI TUI means "the ocean/waves/the sea" in Fijian (or something like that), and the WAI TUI International is the once-a-year international paddling competition in Fiji. "Paddling?" I hear you say, "how can that be a competitive sport?" . Ah, yes. We Europeans are not so used to this utilisation of the word paddling. What we are talking about here is outrigger canoes and I have included plenty of photos to illustrate...most are of the one-man canoe but there's also the 6-man (women) version if you look carefully....believe me when I say, it is no walk in the park. There were teams from all over: Australia, Samoa, New Zealand, USA, Tahiti and, of course, Fiji.

But, um, what was I doing there you may ask, as , obviously, I've never paddled an outrigger canoe in my life? Well, I volunteered! As with a lot of sporting events around Fiji, funding and sponsors are limited and the organisers are always in need of people to volunteer to help with all kinds of things, in this case, timing the races, moving canoes, organising competitors and races, recording results and running the refreshments shops, etc etc. I ended up as a timekeeper and was with stop watch in hand all day, every day for the whole 3 days of the competition. And yes, I got the free T-shirt!

I figured, I wanted to spend the weekend at the beach and I hadn't been to Nadi yet. So if I was just gonna bum around on the beach, I might as well do something useful and meet a few people while I was at it. The gamble really paid off, as I had a fantastic time with the timekeeping team of 10 girls (thanks girls - you were brilliant company), met lots of people, got some contacts for where to go to start paddling myself, went swimming, went paddling on a board (fun!!!!!!), got a suntan, got sunburnt, saw a traditional Fijian dance, saw a Samoan dance (big men, no shirts, need I say more?), watched a bunch of drunk new zealand teenagers do the haka (I was impressed they could do it!) and generally relaxed. No doubt one of my best weekends in Fiji so far...

---

Photos

Sunset on Wailaolao beach
There are some truly beautiful sunsets here, almost every evening

The blessing of the canoes
How else to start an international paddling competition but with a blessing of the canoes ceremony - at 7am! After the blessing by the priest, bands of flowers were places around the tips of the canoes

Wailaolao Beach
This is where I spent the best part of the long Easter weekend

Kat the timekeeper
Look at me, with my stop watch and free "I am an official" T-shirt (in West Ham / Bristol Uni colours...how appropriate!)

A one-person canoe
A one-man or women outrigger canoe with paddler and official ready to go out on the one-man (V1) marathon!

Rainbow
It was mostly sunshine, so when a few drops did fall we got a rainbow...aaahh!

Lined up on the beach
On-person (V1) canoes lined up ready for use...the numbers identify the competitors although not really big enough to see clearly in the distance as we timekeepers discovered to our frustration...

Marathon start
This is a bad picture of the 6-person (V6) canoes getting ready to go out on the men's marathon...it was really hot day and 3 guys collapsed when they got back after 2 and a half hours of paddling in the hot sun

Timekeeping team
Here are some of my excellent team mates on our own little timekeeping team!

Peaceful mornings
We were on the beach by 6am everyday, but I didn't mind.

Comments

[Manoula]

Beaches....
how wonderful they look! This looks like paradise! i manoula sou

[Nikos]

Paradise
I couldn't I'll have to do all this paddling while staying in paradise . Can't we replace this sport with backgammon . or something like that ? Have fun anyway Katerina ! Ciao Nikos