The Waka Ama NZ (WANZ) Event Sanctioning process exists to ensure waka ama events, organisers, participants, and the sport itself remains safe and protected and that a duty of care is upheld within the sport. WANZ Event Sanctioning is only available to WANZ member clubs and regions.

Utilise the Kete Karapu - Event Sanctioning booklet for support. (attached below)

For more information on benefits and fees for Waka Ama NZ Sanctioned & Approved events read here.

Need help with writing a pānui for your sanctioned event? Check out our Pānui Template here.

For more information about Event Management, check out our Club Toolkit.

Event Sanctioning

To meet the Waka Ama NZ sanctioning requirements, you must pay the associated sanctioning fee and submit the following sanctioning documents no later than 30 days of approval of your requested event date. All templates are provided below.

·         Operations & Safety Management Plan

·         Sanctioning Agreement

·         Covid Policy Sanctioning Agreement

·         Event Waiver/s

WANZ Event Approval is available for non waka ama entities. The same sanctioning process must be followed, however please use the Event Approval Agreement.

Importance of Event Sanctioning

As the sport grows and as more and more events get added to the calendar it is important that we provide a process for nationally sanctioned events:

·         Safety of participants

·         Minimum Safety standard

·         Legal protection for organisers

·         Protection for the sport

·         One insurance policy for sanctioned events (Saves costs for all event organisers)

·         Website publication of events

·         Capture of real participant numbers

·         Better planning and structure of event calendar

·         Minimum standard of delivery

Protecting Waka Ama

As well as ensuring that event organisers are protected, we have a duty of care that the sport is protected and its members are safe at all times. As a water sport, waka ama is open to risks that require us to ensure we take adequate precautions to inform, protect and enable participants as well as event organisers. For this reason we have developed some standard safety protocols. The following must be used when planning and running your event:

·         Operations & Safety Management Plan (required sanctioning document)

·         Support Boat Calculator: a calculation tool for the minimum number of safety boats required at events

·         Sanctioning Safety Requirements

·         Race/Safety Briefing Checklist

·         Safety Check Forms

·         Incident Report Form

Public Liability Insurance

A public liability certificate will be provided to all Waka Ama NZ sanctioned events.

In New Zealand the availability of no fault insurance cover through ACC and the lack of a right to sue for personal injury must not be allowed to lead to complacency about the safety of others.

A Public and Products Liability policy can provide your club, community group or organisation with an indemnity against all sums which you become legally liable to pay (by way of compensation) for damage to the public resulting from an occurrence which arises from your activities. A legal liability can arise from your negligence, or the negligence of your members, including voluntary workers engaged on behalf of the club, who are working in a recognised role for the club or group.

To put this simply if you do something, or fail to do something, then where you are negligent and someone’s property is damaged as a result of this negligent act, the policy will defend you and pay compensation if you are legally liable subject to the specific terms and conditions of the policy.

The above is a very brief explanation of Public Liability insurance, it is important that all event organisers have appropriate levels of insurance to cover their liability. In many cases now City Councils are requiring that event organisers produce a Public Liability Certificate before permission will be given to use a public space or waterway for an event.