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Summer 2019 Update – Nationals, Equipment, and Harbor Plans

It has been a busy summer for the Ventura Canoe & Kayak Club – and a productive one.  The foundation of the club is being put together and we should begin recruitment of paddlers in the coming months.  Here’s some highlights of this summer:

2019 Sprint Canoe & Kayak Nationals

Ed Goldthwaite and Drew Story went to Lake Lanier in Gainsville, Georgia to compete in early August and both came home with medals.  Once again, the Washington Canoe Club was our home away from home, loaning us boats and providing us with opportunities for racing some team boats with them.  Many thanks to Washington!

We also cheered former Ventura paddler Joseph Harper’s two daughters. These girls swept all of the Bantam canoe events taking every gold and silver medal possible!  Joseph is the San Diego Canoe & Kayak Team’s canoe coach and making huge gains for their club’s program.  SDCKT provided space on their trailer for a donated canoe from a WCC member to our club to come back to California, too.  We are grateful for the support of SDCKT.

Our club will continue to work with any other club to help grow our sport; that’s what Ventura Canoe & Kayak Club is all about.  Our hope is that while we compete with one another, our competition will always remain a friendly and even supportive environment for our athletes to race and train.  With so few resources in this country for sprint canoe and kayak, we have so much to gain from working with one another.

New Equipment

Boats

As mentioned above, VCKC received a donated boat in Atlanta – a Simon River Sports C1 Lynx from Pam Boteler.  This boat is more stable than newer boats and will be an excellent trainer.  Thanks Pam!

Merv and Victoria Larson donated three surfskis and John Yamasaki of Dana Outrigger Canoe Club donated an additional set of surfskis as well as some wing kayak paddles!

Ventura Canoe & Kayak is very thankful for these donations as the surfskis will be good for introducing kayaking to knew paddlers as well as providing boats that could will work for many years to come.

Kim Hayashi is donating a SUP board to the club, too, which will be useful in teaching new paddlers how to paddle a sprint boat on a much more stable platform.

In the next month, Drew will also be picking up a K1 and a trainer from a former SDCKT paddler in the San Fernando Valley who wants to donate her equipment to the club.  At this point, our boat trailer will be fully stocked with boats!  Mind you, we would still gladly accept donations — especially of a C2 or K2 — but may have to make room for boats by storing some of the racing craft until summer or late spring.

Trailer Equipment: Paddle Boxes and New Lighting

Drew has been working to upgrade our trailer with equipment boxes that are not too heavy or bulky.  The boxes will hold our club paddles, knee blocks, and some life jackets.  It took several efforts to get the design one that would work on our trailer, but the end result is one that should allow us to rinse off equipment after workouts and let dry on the trailer itself.

New brake lights and wiring are also part of this trailer upgrade.  The trailer, even fully packed with our equipment, should still be light enough to pull with the Drew’s antique 1986 Toyota pickup.

Next Steps

The new Turkey Express (the name our original boat trailer was given), will hopefully have a home in the soon to be completed Ventura Harbor dry storage yard by the end of September. 

Once we have a location to store the trailer at the Harbor, recruiting of paddlers will begin!

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