Success at Spring Camp 2000

A very successful spring camp was held in Newport Beach, California for three weeks in March-April. The athletes were hosted by the Newport Aquatic Club which is just outside the L.A. area. Athletes trained under the tutelage of John Tyler and Lynda Roberts, both of the Calgary Canoe Club. This year a number of masters paddlers came down for the camp from the Calgary area. We are very pleased to see the increasing numbers of masters paddlers.

Typical Day at Camp:
6:30am wake up
7-8:30 paddle
break
9:30-12 paddle
lunch
2-4 paddle
4-6 run/weights/frisbee
evening: eat/sleep/hot tub/ TV/ tetris
Total kilometers paddled: 40

The paddlers used their days off to explore the coastal area with trips to the beach and to Knotts Berry Farm.
They had wonderful luck with the weather as it was hot and sunny everyday but the last. The hosting club was very welcoming and the paddling site itself was ideal. The coaches were extremely pleased with the athletes efforts and it is anticipated that the camp has effectively produced paddlers ready for the 2000 season.

Alberta Team to Attend Pre Canada Games

The Alberta Sprint Racing Canoe Association has received the necessary funding to enable our athletes to attend the Pre Canada Summer Games.

The camp and regatta will be held in the north eastern quadrant of London, Ontario (the site of the Canada Summer Games 2001). The competition will be held on Fanshawe Lake, which is the site of the National Rowing Centre. This should prove to be an excellent location for the paddling portion of the Games.

Athlete selection for the Games is still under review, however, it should be noted that the team will be selected within the next year and that athletes under 18 interested in participating should be ready to go hard this summer. Races in particular to concentrate on would be the two sets of Alberta Team Trials.

Try the new 2001 Canada Summer Games website:
www.2001canadagames.com

ASRCA Update

ASRCA Update
The first set of Alberta Team Trials will be held June 18th at the Calgary Canoe Club. This is a mandatory event for those wishing to be on the Alberta Team or for athletes wanting to go to Canada Summer Games. Results will be posted on the website following the races.

The Officials clinic will be held the same weekend as Trials. The clinic will start on Saturday the 17th and your skills will be put to the test on the races on the Sunday. The clinic will be conducted by Stewart McDonald. To register please contact Katherine Klotz at (403)252-8947or kathklotz@hotmail.com.

The level 1 Technical Coaching Clinic was successfully held at the Calgary Canoe Club May 27 & 28th. The clinic was conducted by Jason Rusu and organized by the Director of Coaching, Rick Hill. A special thank you to both of them.

Club Updates

Club Updates
The St. Albert Canoe Club is still in discussion with the city over the new site. They hope to have this resolved shortly so that they are free of their current weed problem. They have hired Deb Jones, a past member of the Alberta team, as their Head Coach for the 2000 season.

The Calgary Canoe Club has a number of good things on the go. Their Head Coach, John Tyler, has a keen interest in promoting masters paddling and has had a group together training over the winter. Their hope is that this will translate into a good showing at this years?NMAS. The CCC is pleased to announce they sent 7 athletes to National Team Trials last month and that ongoing recruitment is in full swing with their Learn-To-Kayak program filling up fast.

The Strathcona Canoe Club has got high hopes for the season and is looking into constructing a permanent structure on their lake for use as a clubhouse. Strathcona paddlers will also be happy to note that the club is looking into adding a Port-O-Potty to the site.

The Leduc Smokies are gearing up for a big summer and are on the lookout for a new coach.

National Team Trials

Alberta had seven athletes attending National Team Trials in Montreal this May. The athletes participating were Carmen Scott, Amy Ringdahl, Blake Dalton, Warren Boyle, Meghan McDonough, Merryn Sturgess and Kamini Jain.

A Big two thumbs up to Carmen Scott who was named to the Jr. National Team and will be participating in the North American Tour June 30- July 15; and to Amy, Blake and Warren for doing personal bests.

Special congratulations to Kamini Jain, who did extremely well at the first set of Olympic trials in Atlanta. She placed fourth and has qualified for the K-4 pool. Kamini added to her list of accomplishments by receiving the Calgary Booster Club Award this April. Keep it up Kamini, we're pulling for you!

Athlete's Corner

Great work, all of you that have been out on those frigid spring waters. Summer's here, the water's getting warmer and races are just around the corner. Good luck for the upcoming season!

My Take on Spring Camp
By Warren Boyle

Spring Camp was awesome.

The athletes from the different Alberta clubs got along great except that by the end, the guys were pretty sick of those girls. We survived, right Mark and Lewis?

The weather was great - HOT! The water conditions were good too, if you didn't mind the odd fleet of yachts plowing through as though we were mere speedbumps.

It was pretty cool having the masters around. We'd never had the old folks out to spring camp before, but it was good. It was a real event when Mike Leach's luggage showed up.

The hot tub was the common meeting place. That's where we shmoozed with the non-Alberta paddlers. It's also where Jeff met... but that's a story for another time. Give Daddy a hug, hey Jeffy.

The food was terrible, oops did I say that out loud? Seriously folks, we had five star dining. A non-stop buffet of good eats. Mustard was the condiment of choice. John even likes it in his coke.

We did some pretty cool stuff on our days off. Santa Monica for sponge-boarding, Knotts Berry Farm to ride the Superscream, and Laguna Beach for, you guessed it, the beach. Of course the girls were mostly doing shopping.

My favourite memories of camp: Lynda's live a little lifestyle when it comes to stopping for gas, Dave's rug-removal and, of course, waking up each morning to the pleasant sounds of Jeff talking in his sleep. Ahhh, to be back at camp...

Do You Know This Athlete?

This is Blythe Morrow's fourth year kayaking out of the Strathcona Canoe Club. Blythe recently participated in this year's pring camp where she displayed great motivation and effort in working on her technique. In that short time at camp, she improved a great deal. Blythe enjoyed camp tremendously and was happy with her improvements. Her favourite memories of camp were paddling with the seals and scooter boy.

Blythe's big goal for the year is working towards making the Canada Games Team and qualifying to attend the pre Canada Games Regatta this summer in London.

Outside of paddling, Blythe is busy with school where she plays goalie on the soccer team. She also hopes to find a job this summer to help out with paddling costs.

Blythe is really active at her Canoe Club where, as the Paddler's rep, she is currently heading up the recruitment work. She'll be out at schools doing presentations to help promote their club programs. She also hopes to complete her level 1 coaching certification and help out with the Learn-to-Kayak program.

Keep up the good work, Blythe, and best of luck with your training and recruitment efforts.

Recruitment

With the Canada Day Regatta being less than 4 weeks away, most of us are starting to think about crew-boats and war canoe and whether or not we'll be taking a full team to the regatta.

Here are five ideas for recruiting the numbers you need to bring a full team of both youth and masters to your next regatta.

Presentations
Contact a local school, exposition, or community function and ask them if it is possible to show a 20 minute presentation or to have a booth set up on sprint canoe and kayaking.

To create a good presentation you may want to consider having some of the following:
Bring a boat so they can see it up close.
-Use young coaches or volunteers with lots of enthusiasm to do the presentation.
-Use a video showcasing other kids/adults and the fun they have paddling.
-Come armed with intriguing stories about, for example, how elite paddlers can pull a waterskier behind a k-4 or about the thrill of racing in a war canoe.
-Have lots of pamphlets or leaflets complete with contact information and costs for them to take home.

Brochures/Posters
With all the new at-home computer programs, brochures can be made inexpensively and with little effort. The advantage to brochures is that they can be distributed at the end of a learn-to-kayak program, at community events, and can be an effective means of promotion when strategically displayed in community recreation hotspots (pools, arenas, recreation centres).

Likewise, the same is for posters which are particularly good for promoting programs and regattas.

Media
By locating your local sports reporter and by updating him/her with current information on club activities and results, you can receive very good free advertising which can be an effective recruitment tool. Remember to use every kind of media including television, radio, newspapers, and magazines.

Inter-club relationships
A great way to increase club numbers is through collaborating with another sport. For many years, paddling clubs have had relationships with winter sport clubs to provide their athletes with off-season fitness. Some examples include swim clubs and cross-country ski clubs. This is beneficial to both clubs as the result for each is an increase in numbers and better athlete fitness over the off-season.

Word of Mouth
A really effective way to get more kids/masters down is to simply ask your athletes to bring their friends down for a free trial. Make it a game to see who can recruit the most people.