A former Highlander swapped a rugby ball for a paddle nearly 20 years after a neck injury ended his professional career.
Brendon Timmins will be competing in the senior master men’s category at the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals at Lake Karāpiro, near Cambridge, next week.
He began competing in the sport about 5 years ago, about 20 years after he stopped playing rugby and he has since become a strong advocate for it in the South Island.
He became the president of Te Waka o Aoraki, the South Island regional body for waka ama, in 2024.
The national competition at Karāpiro, that begins on Sunday, was set to be its biggest event with more than 4500 paddlers racing — which was 800 more competitors than last year.
He got involved in the sport after an old rugby friend Paul Arnold took him out for a paddle at age 50.
"I had one paddle and I was hooked.
"It was everything that I was missing from my days as a rugby player."
Mr Timmins said he never lost his competitive spirit despite his professional playing career in rugby ending in 2002 due to a prolapsed disc between his fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae and having both his knees replaced.
Waka ama gave him an outlet to be competitive and physical and it offered a great camaraderie with team-mates but also the wider fraternity of the sport.
He said the first time he got in a waka he was getting told off for his poor technique and jumping around in the water.
"I knew absolutely nothing about what I was doing so it was sort of trial by fire."
Everyone at his club Fire in Ice Waka Ama in Dunedin was really supportive and welcomed him in because they really wanted the sport to grow.
It was predominantly an upper-body workout but it did require a connection with the rest of the body and the waka.
"If you just try and flap your arms around, you’re going to go nowhere.
"It’s really important that you’re being one with the waka."
It took time for him to get a feel for the sport and was still learning new ways to paddle every time he got on the water.
It was a sport for everyone, he said.
The oldest paddler involved in the competition was 85 and Mr Timmins’ son Niko was already a South Island champion at 9 years old.
His wife Janelle Timmins also competed in the sport so it was a bit of a family affair, he said.
The sport was growing in the south and being introduced in schools.
Mr Timmins said a University of Otago colleges’ event would also take place in March after O Week for the third time.
A lot of North Islanders did not realise it was a sport in Dunedin and the community was making an effort to educate people that it was available in the South.
