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2020 Fall Update

It’s time for our quarterly update. Thank you all for the support and help in getting the club back to life.

Recruitment

With the Covid-19 pandemic and rising case numbers in Ventura and California as a whole, all recruiting efforts have been halted. It’s simply not been safe to train new paddlers. Despite this setback for the club, there has still been quite a bit of forward movement on other fronts.


Fundraising and Donations

Fundraising on Giving Tuesday provided the club with nearly $1,400 in donations! Patagonia also matched a donation by Drew for another $1,000. Some of these funds have been used to purchase four new ultralight Gara kayak paddles with covers from Steller Kayak. We plan to buy four to six new canoe paddles in January using some of these new funds, too.

Matt Earls, the Steller Kayak rep, has arranged for a K1 to be donated to the club and is also donating his personal K1 which he raced in the 1990s. He’s also giving us a K1/surfski combo boat — new and ready for beginners. Dana Outrigger donated a Nelo K2 and Jack Kraus from Dana Outrigger donated his K1. (See the photo below of these two boats getting cleaned up.) The club’s trailer is completely filled with over 20 boats! HUGE THANKS for all of the donations we have received to reach this milestone!

New Bonfire shirts, sweatshirts, tank tops, and hats, have been created and are for sale now. The club makes a small amount on each sale and our name recognition is increased, too. The materials are high quality and we’ve received many compliments from people who have bought products so far and a few purchases have included additional donations. A peek at some of these designs can be seen below – click on the image to go to our Bonfire store.


Equipment

In addition to the newly donated boats mentioned above, the club trailer got an upgrade. New wheels were purchased and maintenance welding done to one wheel by Jim Oleson when it was discovered that the bolts for three lug nuts would not come off. The bolts needed to be welded to the wheel to prevent them from spinning. New tires and wheels are now on the trailer! The old ones were wickedly dangerous…

Several new boat covers were made and six more should be completed in the next month, allowing all of the sprint boats to have covers.

Coach Drew purchased a used Nelo C1 and a canoe ergometer that were for sale in San Diego. Drew’s older Nelo C1 will be donated to the club and the ergometer will be used for coaching athletes especially during our winter months. The erg is stored in Drew’s out building where we can meet in the future for weight training and stretching.

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