Paddling — and racing — season is in full swing now that spring is here in the northern hemisphere. With the addition of our evening workouts, progress in technique and conditioning is showing for all of the club members. All of our first and second year paddlers have moved up from our stable beginner boats to the intermediate racing kayaks and we hope will all be capable of managing our most challenging racing boats before the end of the racing season.
Current Training / Fundraising Goals
Coaches had hoped that we would get all of our athletes to travel to Ohio and the end of July for our Nationals but have realized that many of our beginners simply are not ready to do so. Better to work on the fundamentals of our highly technical sport while also fundraising for next year’s event. We will still have a small group going to compete in the US Sprint Nationals and our travel plans and most logistics finalized. Getting a couple more of our boats to the races, or securing access to ones we can borrow or rent is the last hurdle to clear.
One fundraiser we have scheduled is a “Paddle-a-Thon” for Sunday, May 17th. Our athletes have asked for sponsors to donate money for every kilometer paddled that morning. We are hoping each athlete will paddle 20k (12.4 miles) that morning which will be nearly double what most have ever done in a single training session. If you’d like to sponsor an athlete, please drop us a note! You can also provide a tax deductible donation at any time with a note asking that the money be used for scholarships to get our youth athletes to the National Championships.
Team Trials
The National Team Trials were just a couple of weeks ago, held in Chula Vista, California, at Otay Reservoir. One club member, Caleb, raced at them attempting to make the Junior World Team. He has worked very hard this past winter with the goal of making this team and had to overcome a Covid induced case of pneumonia which set him back early in the training season. Prior to the trials, Caleb went to a week long training camp in Gig Harbor, Washington, and has gone to Newport Beach each Saturday to train with some of the Senior National Team members training there. (The coaches give thanks to Caleb’s mother Mary for driving him this long distance each Saturday – she also worked as an official at the Team Trials! )
While Caleb did not qualify for the team, he earned new personal bests in each of the sprint distances — 200, 500, and 1,000 meter events – and gained much needed racing experience. Our friends in Petaluma, River Town Racers, have invited Caleb to train with them during the six weeks prior to Nationals. This will be an excellent training experience for him and will allow the coaches here in Ventura to focus on our less experienced athletes, getting them prepared to race in major regattas next season.
Sprint canoe and kayak is not a large nor well known sport here in the United States. It’s a difficult sport to master, with nearly all of our adult athletes being ones who started paddling in their youth. This is not a sport that your average adult can pick up and become competitive without putting in several years of effort. Perhaps because of the challenging nature of sprint paddling, we are fortunate to have excellent and welcoming role models working with the next generation of paddlers. The Ventura coaches really appreciate the kindness and support given to our junior athletes by the senior team members — thank you!
