Sport
The complex Teriimaevarua
The sport is very important in the life of Polynesians. It is not rare for young people to be a member of several clubs. In the year 2010 the island of BoraBora counted 2.000 sportsmen, about 25% of the population. This number is increasing since the opening of the sports center Teriimaevarua in the Povai Bay, Nunue and new clubs were created.
This sports center, built by the town, had recently been renovated and extended. To this day it offers to the sportsmen a friendly space assembling different sports disciplines in calm and beautiful surroundings. The sports center offers now the following equipments :
- field for soccer, rugby and athletics
- fitness trail
- skate park
- tennis courts
- clubhouse
- playground
- beach for the outriggers or va’a
- nautical base ( for mooring the boats of the island as well as the town’s fire and rescue shuttle)
- sports hall with a parquet coating (basketball, volleyball, futsal, handball …)
- room for fitness and dance
- room for ping-pong
- weight room
- A room for boxing
We are talking about 4 hectares dedicated by the municipality to young people and sports. After 4 years of work, the sports complex has been opened on January 22 2010; its doors are opened 7/7 from 5 a.m.to 10 p.m.except a late night match when the sports center will be closed later.
The Va’a
The extraordinary and complex history of the Polynesian migration needs some further explanation. Five centuries before Christopher Columbus, the Polynesian navigators were capable without a compass or any other instruments to conquer the ocean; they were leaving from South East Asia and settled in this immensity from Easter Island in the South East, New Zealand in the South West to Hawaii in the North; these fearless navigators were the kings of the biggest kingdom on Earth, the Pacific Ocean.
And in the wake of these outrigger canoes the tradition tells us that one of them left Bora Bora, heading north, with 50 men on board. After a long journey they discovered an exceptionally vast archipelago. This island was baptized Hawaii in order to remember the mythical Raiatea, then known as Hawaiki.
This historical reminder enables one to have a better understanding of the cultural dimension of the outrigger canoe for the Polynesians. Whether plain to go fishing in the lagoon or designed for racing, these “va’a”, in Tahitian, have returned as the favorite sportive activity of the young Polynesians. The most spectacular races being those that take place in the ocean , like the famous “Hawaiki Nui Va’a” with its extraordinary finish line on Matira Beach.
Hawaiki Nui Vaa is an international competition of outrigger canoes called va’a . It takes place every year around the end of October, beginning of November, in the Leeward archipelago. This competition last three days, the first day between Huahine to Raiatea, the second across the lagoon from Raiatea to Tahaa and the third from Tahaa to Bora Bora. It is an exceptional event as not only Polynesians come from all the archipelagoes but also teams from the rest of the world participate in this prestigious race.