Aloha nui from Argentina

Photos from our first regatta.

Well 3 years went by since we started introducing Outrigger ( Va’a) down here and we want to share all this happiness with you guyz, to be honest at the beginning there was no way I could imagine the tons of good things that happened, and while the sport grows, it give us so much Mana to keep moving forward, I guess cause is so good to be part of something way bigger than us, that is alive, that has such a positive tradition and its inner spirit inspires us to better things!!!

After a huge effort and the kokua of Ronald Williams, Father of Outrigger in Brazil, Kai o’ pua arrived to Argentina in 2003, she is the mother of Mana Ohana and Ohana o ke Kai the first 2 Hawaiian Canoes made here, and so far the 3 of them have been going around the country spreading what they are all about, we Founded AADOCH ( The Argentinian Outrigger Hawaiian Canoe Asosiation) to preserve the spirit and its traditions while the sports grows, we try to pass it how we learned in my loved Manu o ke Kai Canoe Club Haleiwa, everybody knows Aloha and Randy Sandborn, 7 years with them gave me so much, words cannot explain, the flame they lighted in my heart make it down here and it was only right to share all that I lived in Manu here in my Country, so far there are 2 canoe-clubs, 3 oc-6 and I am finishing a plug for an 0c-1 , very small you might think…. eh you got to start some place right?? And you cannot imagine the Luaus after regattas how they get , solid!!!

Our project is called Live Aloha, and we presented the sport in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Penisnula Valdez, Concordia, Pinamar, Carilo, Necochea, Villa La Angostura y Bariloche. A total of 8 cities of 5 different states, we do it like planting seeds, hoping one day they grow into Canoe-Clubs, And we can do it cause the solid Kokua of our sponsor RIP CURL.

Another dream come true was our participation in Rio va’a 2005, we put a crew together and went to race the super challenging waters Brazil has to offer, we had fun paddling in the ocean and came back with more that we expected, 1st place of 17crews, super happy. We came back for the 2006 edition, again we had so much fun, we came in second, and we learned a lot from Anapa and Viry form Tahiti, they did such a solid race, we could only see them at the start, of course the Team had solid locals paddlers that know their waters to, Charly Villerme Presindent of IVF gave us so much encouragement to make our own international race that we came back from Brazil super focused, so we are inviting everybody to come and visit Argentina to race the first edition of “Bariloche Hui Hoe Va’a” the 9th of January of 2008, soon we will be sending the info to all the clubs around the world, Would you like to paddle Hawaiian style in “La Patagonia” ?

Ok then, I want to finish sending my deepest mahalos to Randy and Aloha and all Manu members, my foster Ohana!!! They changed my life in such a positive way!! To Charly Villerme for all the feedbacks and his Kokua, To Ronald Williams for making it happened for us, To MOKKCC Argentina and OOKKCC and to my Ku’uipos Solange, Isabella and Francesca!!!

Live aloha!!!

Mariano Larghi
+info www.outrigger.com.ar

Posted by keizo on Mon, 04/23/2007 - 9:19am