Slote has been dedicated to encouraging more young people to get into waka ama and it appears to have paid off this King’s Birthday weekend.
More than 50 youth — making up the largest cohort of youth crews — will jump in the waka and paddle around Otago Harbour this weekend as part of the annual IceBreaker Challenge.
Hosted by Fire in Ice waka ama club, the two day event is designed to challenge paddlers of all levels of experience.
Slote, who is the race co-ordinator, was delighted to see so many youth paddlers getting involved.
"As a mother of three I have been on a personal mission to create a space for kids to experience competing in the sport I love so much," Slote said.
"Seeing the entries this year is amazing and another step in the road to building taitamariki and rangatahi waka ama involvement across the South."
The 23rd edition of the event will cater for singles, doubles and teams of six paddlers over both 10km and 20km distances.
There is also special 1km to 3km course set up for the junior paddlers.
A large number of crews have travelled from throughout the South Island, and even the North Island, this year, for the waka ama event — one of the fastest growing sports in New Zealand.
Racing for the IceBreaker Challenge starts at 9.30am today and will start at the same time tomorrow before finishing about 3.30pm.
