WAKA AMA - Paddling waka ama `tougher than first-class rugby'

Ian `Wuzz' Phillips used to be a one man wrecking machine on the rugby field.
His career as a Northland representative had many highlights, including a try-scoring effort against the British Lions and several rib rattling hits on, and from, opponents.
It all seemed like gut busting hard work at the time, but Phillips reckons wrestling your way around the rugby field pales in comparison to his latest sporting venture: paddling waka ama.
"I used to think rugby was hard, but this is the toughest thing I have ever done. It is all anaerobic and just blows you to pieces," Phillips said.
He is so taken with the physical demands of the sport that Phillips is now planning to use it to prepare the 1st XV rugby team at Otamatea High School for the rigours of the year.
As the 1st XV coach, he reckons he would struggle to find a better way to knock his students into shape. "They reckon they're pretty tough, but I reckon I will put the boys up against our women's crew and watch them suffer," he said.
Phillips only "discovered: his new sport by accident though.
A relaxed day at the beach saw him tossed into a waka ama for a "bit of a blast". He soon realised this was the sport for him.
Now he is helping to set up a new club at Pahi, on the shores of the Kaipara Harbour where he lives. The club, called Nga Hoe Uranga, has just scored some funding to buy a new six-man boat, and Phillips reckons it won't take long to have a thriving club running and hosting regattas on the Kaipara Harbour.
In the meantime Phillips has been racing for the Mitimitaga Club in Ngunguru, having only just returned from a three day competition in Rarotonga where he and his fellow crew members battled 4-5 metre swells. He has also raced marathons in Tauranga and in Auckland this season.