06/09/2026
What if it isn't always the paddler that needs changing? 🤔
Lately I've been encouraging paddlers to look differently at what is happening in the waka.
Not what am I doing wrong,
But
What is the waka telling me?
What is the water doing?
What's happening between us?
What have I not noticed yet?
It's amazing what changes when we stop looking at one thing and start looking at the relationship between things.
The longer I've coached,
And now through my role as Chair of Te Puku o te Ika, the more I find myself widening that lens.
I can look at the paddler.
Then the crew.
Then the club.
But from a regional perspective I have to step back even further and ask:
What is happening across the whole ecosystem?
Because what shapes our paddlers isn't only what we explicitly teach.
It's also what gets rewarded.
What gets normalised.
Who gets heard.
Where knowledge and resources flow.
Who has access and opportunity.
Who holds influence.
And the beliefs and assumptions sitting underneath it all.
These things are harder to see because we are a part of them.
So maybe we need to widen the lens.
And start asking what is the system creating?
That questions been sitting with me for awhile now and I've written a longer piece about what it might mean over on my WordPress site.
Because if we want different outcomes,
We may need to start looking beyond the surface.....
