I race in Australia in the south queensland zone for Outrigger Australia in the under 18's age group.
This season Outrigger Australia a club that used to dominate in Juniors and dominates opens, now does not even have teams entered in the Under 16 or Under 18 Divisions. It appears that people lose interest of the sport or that it is not as popular in these age groups.
Outrigging is suffering in the junior ranks in Australia. Lately only a maximum of 3-5 teams have been contesting the Junior races.
Myself and 5 of my team mates wanted to compete in the 2004 Hilo World sprints, but had 2 team members pull out and received no help from the seniors or Opens in fundraising.
If somethign is not done in the future outrigging will only be a sport that people do in open categories as there will be no young people to contest the junior titles.
Blaise
Submitted by blaise on Tue, 06/01/2004 - 1:21am
hi,
Congratulations to Outrigger Austraila on their wonderful performances in the past. You're right Junior outrigging will slowly fade away if nothing is done. I am a fijian outrigger paddler now residin in Canada and i was part of the Fiji junior team that competed in Australian Outrigger Championships in 2002. It was nice to know that there were a lot of young people interestd in such an ancient sport but also sad to learn that the youth are slowly losing interest.
My team back in Fiji have been competing in the open grade because they dont have competition in our u18,u19 n u21 grades. In turn the seniors have organised school regattas to try and promote the sport but still arent gettin good numbers.
I hope that some people out there can get together and help promote the sport. Outrigger canoein is my life and hope i never lose it!
Peace out :!:
#1 Mon, 06/21/2004 - 11:43am
Hey Guys, certainly paddlers 19 & under seem pretty scarce these days. It seems to me though that many young people are still being introduced to the sport, but may not ever really get into it. For example the third year of paddling as a school sport in Hawaii just finished, and if I'm not mistaken there are some schools in Oregon who are adopting it as a school sport as well. Having the sport so easily available to high school students definitely gets people to try it out, something I've seen first hand here on Kaua'i. But how many keep paddling through the summer season? Or even better, during the long distance season?
I think many young paddlers may really miss out on the chance to experience how fun paddling can be. Something that really got myself (as well as friends Luke Evslin & Kelly Foster) really hooked on the sport were the adult practices that we were encouraged to attend after our kids practices. From that we got into long distance six-man racing and eventually (and especially) one-man paddling.
Now I'm not sure what can be done to really get more kids into the sport, but I think as a whole the sport is growing quite rapidly. Just imagine, one day it will be nearly as cool to paddle as it is to surf! :lol: Then there will be plenty of junior paddlers.
#2 Tue, 06/22/2004 - 10:35am
Thanks for replying polynesian and keizo...
I remember when all the figians came over to race at our national titles, no one knew what to expect and all the teams thought that they wre going to win everything. In that year Nationals was highly contested in the juniors with Outrigger Australia being the dominant force. Now outrigger Australia don't even have 16's , 18's or 21 crews entered into nationals that is ocming up in july this year.
If outrigging could become a school sport in Australia like it is in Hawaii i am sure that it woudl gain popularity but i don't think that it would ever happen....sadly.
#3 Tue, 06/22/2004 - 7:27pm
Blaise i wouldn't lose hope, i think paddling might just be going through a little junior slump right now... six mans are hard because you need six dedicated people and the individuals in a crew get little credit for their effort, so i think it's relatively unnatractive to young people. I think one mans are the key to expanding the sport in amazing ways, any kid that has his own one man and does some fun runs in it will be hooked for life. The problem is that they are insanely expensive and out of reach for most youth. So all these people paddle six man for a little while, get tired of it, quit and never come back. If there was some way to get one mans out to kids, get them hooked on one mans and then bring them into six mans after they learn to love the sport... things would rapidly change. For me, keizo and kelly we were lucky enough to have a coach (named Lucky) that was into one mans and into bringing kids into the mens program. He would find one mans for us to use and we'd do runs with the mens. Those first long runs were so amazing for me, i'd been paddling for three years mainly to stay in shape but i didn't have any kind of passion for it, then after doing those runs paddling became incredibly fun, and i realized that there was no way i could ever quit. If more people had coaches like that; coaches that make the effort to bring the kids out on one mans and if there were more mens programs that were as supportive as Kaiola was to us (allowing some scrawny 15 year old paddlers to train and race with them all the time) the youth would be sticking to the sport a lot more. So please please please, any coaches that read this... make the effort to bring the kids up to paddle with the mens (or womans) programs so they can see that there is more to the sport then there seems, and especially try and get them their own one mans... i'm sure there has to be businesses out there willing to sponsor some of the top kids from every club and get them a canoe...
I have a dream.. that one day every kid will have his or her own one man canoe.. haha, nah.. would be fun though
#4 Tue, 06/22/2004 - 8:23pm
[quote="luke"]if there were more mens programs that were as supportive as Kaiola [b]was[/b] to us (allowing some scrawny 15 year old paddlers to train and race with them all the time) the youth would be sticking to the sport a lot more. [/quote]
:wink: nah, it's still good, but oc1 practices would be fun to do again
Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything luke said. One-man's are key. Sad thing is, it's really difficult to become involved since there is little oc1 racing directed towards kids as with the sixmans. As far as I know there are only a few sprint races every year. I did hear that over on the Big Island Randy Botti was getting a youth program started centered around onemans. I don't know the current state of it, but if that goes through it would really be fantastic since I'm sure many would continue on to paddle in the oc1 season. As for their high cost, well I'm sure that will eventually come down some, but not enough to be affordable. Best way is to find a broken boat, buy it for cheap, and find someone who can make a strong (sea worthy) repair who will cut you a good deal.
Another way to give six-mans more of an exciting edge would be to remove 400 lb the weight regulations. But let's save that issue for another thread. :)
#5 Tue, 06/22/2004 - 9:56pm
I have a dream.. that one day every kid will have his or her own one man canoe.. haha, nah.. would be fun though[/quote]
mmmmm.... well that makes the 2 of us, it would be outrigger heaven if all the kids could have a OC1 of their own. So exactly how expensive are OC1s???
#6 Thu, 06/24/2004 - 1:19pm
In australia one mans are about
$3000 - $5000 in australian dollars
for a brand new oc1.
And another factor i think that also stops the junior age groups of the sport growing are the extremely high membership fees of $90.
and for this you only get about 4 regattas including the national titles.
#7 Sat, 06/26/2004 - 1:58am
I'm in Auckland, New Zealand
and I started paddling 3 years ago for school, the regional school regattas had about 20 schools from the Auckland region completing. As years went on NZ had there first Schools Nationals in 2002 45 schools from around the country were there and now regattas are getting bigger and bigger.
The NZ club nationals had to cut out oc1 because it couldnt fit into the 5 days of racing, years before it could. So oc1 has its own nationals. There are more juniors than other devisions. Also theres a winter 10km series, every 2nd saturday. Even in New Zealands crappy weather the sport is growing.
The world champs coming up in Hawaii, NZ has like 7 teams in each junior devision.
anyway....I think teens and kids are maybe losing interest is probably because its not sport where you can make a living out of. If outrigging became a olympic sport maybe more interest.
How long has outrigger canoeing been in Australia? Just give it time and the sport will grow, but not having it as a school sport is probably what where problem is in australia. Young people need to be exposed to the sport in there early years. What australias youngest devision?
#8 Sat, 07/10/2004 - 2:13am
Under 12 is the youngest division in Australia.
New zealand sounds like they have a great set up, i cant believ that australia are not at the same level.
#9 Tue, 07/13/2004 - 4:53pm
Outrigging has been in Australia 20years. Outside those 2000-3000 that participate, no one knows what it is.
#10 Sat, 10/09/2004 - 5:10pm
Cheap, accessable OC1's are the key I think, as mentioned the ability to get 6 people together to paddle on a regular basis can be frustrating, OC1 use means that time on the water can be increased.
Our club has moved towards more OC1 based training and the results have been encouraging.
The second key as Luke mentioned is coaching, its great when someone who has the knowledge and experience takes the time to help novice paddlers out, more often than not for little reward, malo lava to all those coaches out there!
#11 Sun, 10/10/2004 - 3:04pm