Waka Ama

In Te Maunga we have been going to waka ama every Tuesday. Our WALT was write a quality recount. I think I did well with making my paragraphs a good size. I think I could have done better by adding descriptive words in to make it sound better. We have made stories about our experience. Here is my story:

Waka Ama

I rushed to the car door. Waka ama has finally come to us. It was a Tuesday morning on October 31st. Te Maunga rushed to Waitangi to do waka ama.

I quickly zoomed into the car and clicked my seat belt. I was shaking. I just wanted to go go go! As we started driving I could see Waigtangi from the distance. I could hear motors rumbling and Tayla laughing beside me because Rikesh told a funny joke. I guess I laughed a little too.

When we got to the beach, Rob ( The waka ama teacher ) started babbling to us about putting on life jackets. How to put them on, how to get a life jacket on from another person and how to tighten them. He also talked to us about how to use  the hoe (paddle). We had to secure our hand at the very top of the handle and our other hand close to the fat bit of the hoe, otherwise known as the head.

It was soon my turn to go in the waka. My stomach felt super light. I felt like my head was floating in the air. My hands were shaking, but it wasn’t because I was cold! I slowly tumbled inside the waka. We started paddling really fast then we nearly hit the bridge! We turned around so we didn’t hit it. We had to work extra hard because we were about to hit the beach as well! My arms were getting weak, they felt like warm jelly. They also felt like they could collapse because they were super tired. I could hear waves crashing on the beach.  Everyone on the boat was huffing and puffing.

It is so much fun at waka ama. Next time I will try to be named paddler of the week, but it isn’t always about winning and having fun. Isn’t it?