Moore-morial race, Waitangi Day
New Zealand

The 2nd annual James (bhutty) Moore-morial race was held on Waitangi day, February 6th in Mount Maunganui. James Moore was taken by the ocean on July 26, 2008, when four friends looked to take advantage of the building easterly wind and paddle their outrigger canoes from Maketu back to Pilot Bay. After two hours riding 8m swells and 170km winds, a friend was lost. To honour the memory of James the Moore-morial race was born. The date was chosen to be on Waitangi Day in the summer and the day after James’s birthday.

Pieces of James’s canoe still lay on the beach of Matakana Island since the tragedy.
Paddlers from all over New Zealand travel to the beautiful Mount Maunganui to challenge themselves by paddling what was James’s last journey. With all paddlers meeting at Pilot Bay at 8am, waiting to see which way the wind is blowing. Nervous faces overlooked the water as it looked like the wind was dropping. The call was then made, and 72 paddlers took the long drive to Maketu where the race start was to be set up. Thanks to the help of the Maketu community, paddlers were welcomed, and with the Maketu sea rescue and Surfclub out on the water, everyone made it through the challenging breakers which cooled them off as they paddled to the starting line.
Canoes lined the start as they all looked straight ahead with Mauao in the distance 32km away. As the start horn sounded, paddlers were treated with some easterly wind at their backs, and most took advantage of the early rides as they knew the wind could change direction towards the end of the race. Three canoes shot off to lead the bunch. Bryce Irving, Paul Roozendaal and Troy Dolman. This happened to be the three that were with James the day he died. The trio stuck together before Bryce then made a break. Last year's winner, Kingi Gilbert, did not have the best start and made a charge passing Paul and Troy to try and stick with Bryce. At the 10km mark, the spread was getting longer as Bryce extended his lead with Tonga White in 2nd followed by Paul and Troy. Bernie Murch was in full control of the women’s section keeping up with the top men. With her bright pink canoe, men were pushing hard to try and stay in front of her. As the wind dropped, the finish neared. Fatigue came into play as the side wind kicked in making it hard for the paddlers. The last 5km were the toughest with a lot of bouncing waves and an outgoing tide as they entered Pilot Bay. Once in the harbour, it is a short sprint to the beach where they could finally relax in the shallow, drink their ice cold Demon drinks and tell each other stories about what happened the last 3 hours.

Paul Wilford and Katie Pocock were back to hold their surfski titles from last year. Paul stuck with the lead bunch throughout most of the race. It wasn’t till a line choice from Tim Grammer that he made a break from Paul and held it to the finish line. Katie showed she is one of the top women in the world keeping up with the boys.

Out of the 72 competitors, there were four divisional winners. Bryce Irving kept pulling away with a time of 2:54. Bernie continued her dominance with a solid 3:06. Tim Grammer had a smart race with 2:27. Katie Pocock finished in a time of 2:49.

Once finished, all paddlers then took the short walk to Turkish delight where lunch was hot and waiting and seemed to have been a huge hit. Prize giving was then held at the finish line where (thanks to local businesses) a huge table of prizes was ready to be claimed by deserving paddlers. More memories were shared about the race and the life of James Moore. A lot of thanks go to everyone that helped; the Coast guards and Surf clubs for helping with safety, making sure we all got home to see our friends and family. The race is quickly looking to be a popular race. Before James died he was paddling every day, wanting to push himself to be the best. He loved the sport and wanted to introduce paddling to the communities. With the Moore-morial race, James’ dream lives on and so will he. Rest in peace our brother.

Paul Roozendaal