Transcript
JAY AH FOOK-SCHUSTER: Alo Papao started when we were trying to develop the sport here seeing what we needed to get it going. We used to send a lot of teams overseas and it ended up costing us a lot of money and not being able to facilitate paddling here in Samoa so we came up with Alo Papao to hopefully try and bring paddlers over to Samoa and then the money we spent goes into preparing the event which in the end also infiltrates the local sport here in Samoa yeah so it is all about developing the sport.
INDIRA MOALA: So now it is in its fourth year running can you describe how the festival has grown and the success that it has achieved so far?
JAFS: It has grown a lot and I think coming along we have sort of learned a lot of lessons and went through a lot of challenges and through that time we were able to look at what we needed to work on and what we need to improve on and the mistakes that we made. We are getting a lot of interest from the local community which is great a great start. And yes it has grown a lot.
IM: So in its first year how many people would you say took part in it or attended?
JAFS: I think first year we had one team.
IM: Wow
JAFS: From overseas
IM: From overseas and what about now?
JAFS: And in the last couple of years we managed to average around 20 to 30 teams.
IM: How impressive is the paddling talent that you see in the waters?
JAFS: Amazing I mean we always, it was an honour to have New Zealand Samoan paddlers that are there who are ... inaudible... I mean they just came back from the world sprints in Australia and they are world champions. So to have them here and to have the local paddlers actually be in competition with them. I think one of the races one of the local teams won one of the races yeah which was exciting for us. And to be able to paddle with those guys has just been awesome and they, these guys come over to support and we are all thankful for that. Just to watch the New Zealand guys, you know world champions paddle here it has been an inspiration to a lot of us locals as well.
IM: Similar events across the Pacific region have helped to boost tourism and revenue in hosting countries. Are you hoping for the same kind of benefits for Samoa?
JAFS: Yeah of course I think that is one of our main push to our local government is the potential that this event or this sport can actually bring to our country. The Vaka Iva in Rarotonga brings in 2000 paddlers a year you know that is the great sort of goal for us and you get inspired of hearing that and being able to hopefully convince our community and hopefully our government to support. But back in 1994 we had the world sprints here in Samoa and we managed to bring over 2000 paddlers that is not including supporters and spectators that came along with them. And for us we feel that this is going to be the only sport that can actually bring in the number of people on a annual basis not on a sort of a one-off. And example is that it was great to have the All Blacks here but that is like a one-off event whereas paddling could become something that is an annual event for us and generate great opportunities for our economy.
