(2016 ☆ ARCHIVED) Frans Roozendaal - New Zealand

FRANS ROOZENDAAL (New Zealand) – Nominee for the 2016 ‘Foundation Award'.

Without the support of volunteers like Frans Roozendaal, a sport cannot survive. His tireless dedication to New Zealand Dragon Boating, Waka Ama and several other paddlesporting disciplines in both media and organisational roles has helped ensure their success and future development.

Frans first became involved with the sport of Dragon Boat racing with his family (wife and 4 children) in 1989. Since then, he has become the backbone of the organisation where he spends almost all of his time helping out other people, competitions and other events.

On top of being a New Zealand representative since 1989, Frans has been heavily involved in the media coverage of several local, national and international competitions. He helps out with anything from set up, filming of races, photography, TV coverage and video judging as well as helping construct courses and organisation of events. Competitions he has been involved with include:

• 2013 World Rafting Championships, New Zealand
• 2015 World Rafting Championships, Indonesia
• New Zealand Waka Ama Nationals (Outrigger Canoe)
• New Zealand Dragon Boat nationals
• New Zealand Slalom events
• New Zealand Rafting Championships
• Local adventure races
• Mataatua Sports Trust events

Frans is currently supporting a (Maori) initiative called Mataatua Sports Trust which promotes active lifestyles and enhances the wellbeing of Maori people, by taking photos and making videos for them. This is to help get them extra funding for their Iwi paddling inititive and other events. Furthermore, he will be supporting Raanj Rapana, the NZ Waka ama Elite Long Distance Coach for the women's crews with video (coaching) in preparation for next year's long distance World Championships in Tahiti.

Frans is also heavily involved with many sporting teams and clubs where he helps out with the filming and photography at training and performance analysis. On top of helping out various paddlesports, he also films local adventure races and junior rugby teams.

The professionalism of Frans’ media coverage within each of these events has without a doubt helped increase interest and participation in these sports, which typically don’t receive a lot of exposure. 

This is a 2016 archived nominee. Voting has closed.