 Hamilton Island Location | |
| Sport | Outrigger Canoe Racing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1983 |
| Country | Host: Field: International |
| Official website | http://hamiltonisland.com.au/hamilton-cup/ |
Set against the backdrop of the Whitsunday Islands, on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef - Hamilton Island Cup has evolved to become a 4-day multi-disciplined outrigger paddling regatta and Australia's premier outrigger canoeing event. [1]
In 1981, Hamilton Island entrepreneur Keith Williams, had founded Sea World, a Gold Coast-based tourist attraction and simultaneously created an outrigger crew largely composed of staff members, while local Gold Coast realtor and friend, Max Christmas was associated with the Outrigger Canoe Club of Australia, founded in 1978. Two rival crews were created; the ‘Max Christmas Gold Coast’ team (in actuality an Outrigger Australia crew) and Keith’s ‘Sea World’ team. They were to compete against each other on Hamilton Island in 1983 at what was considered a trial run of the subsequent Hamilton Cup founded the year after in 1984, coincidentally providing much needed media attention for Keith’s new resort project on Hamilton Island. [2]
By 1984 the first Hamilton race was able to be staged as there were enough canoes and paddlers to make the event worth staging. It was billed as the, ‘Queensland Outrigger Titles’. [1] In later years the event was renamed the Hamilton Cup, and as the sports popularity grew - the number of events and size of the carnival grew. The 4 day event became known as the Hamilton Island Cup, with the signature race - the 42 km marathon event - becoming known as The Hamilton Cup. The Australian Outrigger Canoe Racing Association consider the Hamilton Cup as being one of the most prestigious and challenging major events on the Australian Outrigging Calendar. [3]
In June 2008, the 25th anniversary of the original 1983 race was celebrated. The 25th anniversary event featured over 2000 paddlers, representing 43 Australian clubs and 10 overseas-based clubs from Hawaii, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. [2] In 2010 Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) was included as a discipline for the first time - indicating the growing popularity of this discipline in Australia.
Hamilton Island Race Week has a number of social events at the island resort during the Hamilton Island Cup event. The most famous event is King of the Mountain footrace, where runners must race a steep 6 km loop from the resort centre to Passage Peak (the highest peak in the Whitsunday Islands at 234 metres). [4] [5]
The Scottish Canoe Association is the national governing body for canoeing, kayaking and other paddlesport in Scotland.
Outrigger boats are various watercraft featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull. They can range from small dugout canoes to large plank-built vessels. Outrigger boats can also vary in their configuration, from the ancestral double-hull configuration (catamarans), to single-outrigger vessels prevalent in the Pacific Islands and Madagascar, to the double-outrigger vessels (trimarans) prevalent in Island Southeast Asia. They are traditionally fitted with Austronesian sails, like the crab claw sails and tanja sails, but in modern times are often fitted with petrol engines.
The International Canoe Federation (ICF) is the umbrella organization of all national canoe organizations worldwide. It is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, and administers all aspects of canoe sport worldwide. 157 countries are affiliated with the ICF after seven national federations were added at the 2008 ICF Congress in Rome.
The Whitsunday Islands are a collection of 74 continental islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, Australia, approximately 900 kilometres north of Brisbane. The northernmost of the islands are situated off the coast by the town of Bowen while the southernmost islands are off the coast by Proserpine. The island group is centred on Whitsunday Island, while the group's commercial centre is Hamilton Island. The traditional owners of the area are the Ngaro people and the Gia people whose Juru people has the only legally recognised native title in the region.
The Massive Murray Paddle is an Australian 404 km, 5-day canoe/kayak flatwater race on the Murray River, bordering Victoria and New South Wales. One of the longest annual flatwater canoe races in the world, it starts in Yarrawonga on and heads downstream through Tocumwal, Picnic Point, Echuca, Torrumbarry and Murrabit before finishing in Swan Hill five days later. The Massive Murray Paddle is a 5 day event that raises funds to assist local community-driven programs.
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is the world governing authority for surfing, SUP racing, SUP surfing, bodyboarding, and all other wave riding activities. The ISA is recognized by the International Olympic Committee.
Laurence J. "Larry" Cain, is a Canadian sprint canoeist. He was the first Canadian canoeist since Frank Amyot to win an Olympic gold medal in canoeing.
The Hawkesbury Canoe Classic is an annual marathon canoe race taking place on the Hawkesbury River in Northwest Sydney usually at the end of October. The Hawkesbury Canoe Classic consists of a 111 km paddle downstream starting in Windsor and finishing in Mooney Mooney. The race is Australia's fourth-longest annual canoe race after the 404 km Murray Marathon, the 208 km Riverland Paddling Marathon on the Murray River between Martins Bend and Morgan in South Australia and the 133 km Avon Descent in Western Australia. The Hawkesbury Canoe Classic has over 600 paddlers each year. Around 600 paddlers travel 111 km in moonlight, down the Hawkesbury River from Windsor to Brooklyn, to raise money for Charity. Over the years the Hawkesbury Classic has developed into a great event. Paddlers, their land crew and hundreds of volunteers converge on the banks of the Hawkesbury River at Windsor on the day of the event to enjoy the fun and competition of an overnight paddle, and the now famous camaraderie and spirit of the event. Paddlers leave Windsor between 4pm and 6pm on Saturday and pass 20 safety checkpoints during the night. The fastest craft arrive at Brooklyn on Sunday morning in less than 10 hours, but the average time is closer to 15 hours. The classic began in 1977 and is made possible by volunteers who put in hundreds of hours of time throughout the year, the landowners who allow the use of their land for the weekend and the paddlers and their support crews. The Classic has raised more than $3.3 million for medical research, the major beneficiary continues to be will be the Arrow, The Bone Marrow Transplant Foundation. The 2018 classic will be held on 27–28 October 2018.
Paddleboarding participants are propelled by a swimming motion using their arms while lying, kneeling, or standing on a paddleboard or surfboard in the ocean. This article refers to traditional prone or kneeling paddleboarding. A derivative of paddleboarding is stand up paddleboarding also called stand up paddle surfing. Paddleboarding is usually performed in the open ocean, with the participant paddling and surfing unbroken swells to cross between islands or journey from one coastal area to another. Champion paddlers can stroke for hours and a 20-mile (32 km) race is only a warm-up for well-trained paddlers.
Paddling with regard to watercraft is the act of manually propelling a boat using a paddle. The paddle, which consists of one or two blades joined to a shaft, is also used to steer the vessel. The paddle is not connected to the boat.
Dave Kalama is a big wave surfer/tow-in surfer, stand-up paddle (SUP) surfer and racer, surf and SUP board shaper, windsurfer, outrigger canoe racer, private adventure guide, and celebrity watersports enthusiast. Kalama, his wife, 2 sons and 1 daughter live in Kula, Maui.
Hamilton Island Race Week is a keelboat regatta set against the backdrop of the Whitsunday Islands, on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef. It is one of Australia’s favourite yachting events and a firm fixture on the international sailing calendar. Competitors, family and friends come together to enjoy the convivial atmosphere and unique camaraderie of the event’s on-water and off-water carnival.
Stand up paddleboarding (SUP) or Stand up paddle surfing is an offshoot of surfing that originated in Hawaii. Unlike traditional surfing where the rider sits until a wave comes, stand up paddle boarders stand on their boards and use a paddle to propel themselves through the water. The sport was documented in a 2013 report that identified it as the outdoor sporting activity with the most first-time participants in the United States that year. Variations include flat water paddling for outdoor recreation, fitness, or sightseeing, racing on lakes, large rivers and canals, surfing on ocean waves, paddling in river rapids, paddle board yoga and even fishing.
Canoe marathon is a paddling sport in which athletes paddle a kayak or canoe over a long distance to the finish line. While the International Canoe Federation states the standard distances are up to 30 km, many races are significantly longer. Many events are raced down sections of river, including currents or portages around obstacles. Some events attract thousands of competitors and are staged over several days.
Mālia is a Hawaiian-style wooden racing canoe crafted by James Takeo Yamasaki. The canoe was hewn out of blonde koa wood in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, in 1933. Its wooden hull provided the founding model for all subsequent outrigger canoeing hulls, including those later molded from fiberglass. Hawaiian racing canoeist Tommy Holmes observed that Malia "remains a prototype for contemporary racing canoes [and] was among the first canoes built exclusively for the sport." The canoe was listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
The Ngaro were a seafaring Australian Aborigine group of people that inhabited the Whitsunday Islands and coastal regions of Queensland, in an area that archaeologically shows evidence of human habitation since 9000 BP. Ngaro society was destroyed by warfare with traders, colonists, and the Australian Native Police. The Native Police Corps forcibly relocated the remaining Ngaro aborigines in 1870 to a penal colony on Palm Island or to the lumber mills of Brampton Island as forced laborers.
The following outline is provided as an overview of canoeing and kayaking:
Andrea Moller is a Brazilian-American competitive canoeist and surfer. She competes in every outrigger race large event, from one-man (OC1) to six-man (OC6) canoes as well as SUP long distance races all year round. She is a professional Paramedic and mother, on Maui where she lives.
Hamilton Island is the largest inhabited island of the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, Australia. It is positioned approximately 887 kilometres (551 mi) north of Brisbane and 512 kilometres (318 mi) south of Cairns. It is also one of the only islands in the Great Barrier Reef with its own commercial airport, with short direct flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns. Like most in the Whitsunday group, Hamilton Island was formed as sea levels rose which created numerous drowned mountains that are situated close to the east coast of Queensland. At the 2011 Australian Census, the island recorded a population of 1,208 people. Hamilton Island is a popular tourist destination all year round. In late August, the island plays host to its annual Hamilton Island Race Week yachting festival, in which more than 250 yachts from across Australia and New Zealand gather for a week of races around the Whitsunday Islands. This is only one of many events hosted on the island. Hamilton Island has won multiple awards including the Australian Traveller 'Most Desirable Island Escape' Award in 2015.
Roray Kam is a surfer, a multiple-time winner of longboard surfing competitions and an early participant in stand up paddle boarding in South Florida. He is a surfing coach and the founder of RK Ocean Gear, and in 2013 resides in Fort Lauderdale, FL and works for the Broward County Sherriff's Office. Kam has hosted a number of Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) events and races.
