I have had a busy two months on the water. Apart from my usual training and races I organised a 5 week program of Down River sessions around buoys on Friday mornings and 3 evening races on a Tuesday night. When that program came to an end I started bringing down a trailer load of kayaks and started an Advanced Flat Water Skills session on Friday mornings but the last 3 sessions switched to a Tuesday evening because of the darker mornings.

About 12 of our Saturday morning crew took up the offer to be taught skills and strokes that they had never dreamed of learning. The unfortunate thing about racing is that most paddlers skip the basic skills sessions or if they do a basic skill session they never practise and all the stuff they have learnt is forgotten. With the 12 paddlers doing this course I am taking them a step further and hopefully making sure that they are not going to forget what they have learnt. This means that these 12 are going to be better skilled when paddling white water, surfing or being in the rough so in theory, they should have the advantage over other paddlers without those skills.

They are not yet perfect, who is, but after another couple of sessions they will get there as they are really determined to learn.

I'm not the best paddler in the world but I do know that the skills that I learnt in my early years have helped me tremendously on white water, but more importantly on all my hazardous expeditions that I have done I have survived without incident.

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The big news of the Century is that we are now on facebook. I didn't think we would succumb, but we have. Now we have to master the art of 'Facebooking' !

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Olympian Clint Robinson (OAM) is coming to town

For a round of serious Coaching Clinics in Kayak & Surf Ski

Possible dates June 27th, 28th & 29th.

More details to come

Kayaking

Member Australian Olympic Team – Beijing 2008
Member Australian Olympic Team – Athens 2004 – Silver Medallist
Member Australian Olympic Team – Sydney 2000
Member Australian Olympic Team – Atlanta 1996 – Bronze Medallist
Member Australian Olympic Team – Barcelona 1992 – Gold Medallist
World Kayaking Champion – 1992 & 1994
Australian K1 1000m Champion – 11 times (2 x Junior, 9 x Open)
Australian K1 500m Champion – 5 times (1 x Junior, 4 x Open)

Surf Life Saving

World Single Ski Champion – 2002
World Board Race Champion – 2002
Surf Lifesaving Captain of Australian Team – 5 times (1999, 2001 x 2, 2002 & 2003)
Australian Single Ski Race Champion – 15 times (2 x Junior, 13 x Open)
Australian Board Race Champion – 4 times (1 x Cadet, 2 x Junior, 1 x Open)

Ocean Ski & Outrigger

Molokai 6 man Outrigger World Champion – 1992
Molokai Surf Ski World Champion – 3 times (2010, 2011 & 2013)

Clint Robinson is your all-round paddler being a World Champion in Kayak, Ski, Outrigger and Board

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Saturday 8th March Oscar's downwind course. As we go for another record of days without rain it seemed that the weather was changing when the clouds came rolling over but it didn't bring any rain where we were.

Mark Lawson leading Rob Roll and Eddie Stoelwinder in the over 55 division in the state marathon. Mark won. He and Rob also won the state doubles marathon championships. It is quite unbelievable that Rob a 67 year old and Mark an over 55 year old were the fastest pair in the championships. Even John Breed (60) and I (62 and 9/12s) came third in the mens doubles. Where were all our younger paddlers???

In the younger classes Josh Kippin, James Morfitt and Shannon Sime were the best three paddlers at the Championships coming 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the open category.

Josh Kippin entering the portage won the Championships

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Don't forget the...

Bevan Dashwood Race

Sunday, March 23rd
Kent Street Weir

Sponsored by Canoeing Down Under

Registration: 7:30am - 8:30am

Race Start: 9:00am

Race Fees: U18 (incl Guppies) $10, Adults $15

Non-CWA Members - U18 $20, Adults $25

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Where Is Paddling Going?

The state marathon championships is now in the past. Despite all the hard work done by the organisers it unfortunately wasn't that well patronized. There were only 43 adult, female and male competitors on Saturday and that included K1s, Multisport kayaks and skis. On Sunday in the doubles race there were only 8 teams. So if it wasn't for the guppies and juniors there wouldn't have been that many paddlers in the event at all.

The word 'Championships' seems to put people off, instead of paddlers getting excited to be in a Championships. Is it because they think that only the best go in a Championship. This championship was open to all kayaks and skis just like a normal marathon race or club race so where was everyone! When a couple of 60 odd year old paddlers, John Breed and myself get a third place in the men's doubles there is something seriously wrong in WA marathon kayaking. The winners Rob Roll (67) and Mark Lawson (55)..

Over the last few years there seems to be a decline in the number of people paddling kayaks. There are certainly more people paddling skis and more small sit-on kayaks are being sold by the discount stores, but some parts of kayaking, mainly marathon racing, or club racing seems to be slowly dying.

Although most kayak clubs now have bigger membership numbers there are less active kayak club members today than there were 30 years ago. For the development of the kayak sport that is a concern. We need active members to keep our clubs rolling, to keep events happening at club level and to keep up the profile of kayaking. It's not all doom and gloom though as some areas seem to be blooming.

Are we attracting less paddlers to our sport because there are greater things for active people to do. There are now more triathlon's, more Multisport races, more adventure races, more swimming events, more downwind ski events, more SUP events so there is a lot of competition out there to stamp on the paddle blade of kayaking. But surely there are more active people around now than 30 years ago to fill in the spaces.

So is it because our organisation is too busy looking after a multitude of paddle sports that they don't have time to concentrate on kayaking any more? Is it because we don't get any publicity because the bigger sports get all that? Even our biggest event, the Avon Descent doesn't seem to get any publicity until a week or two before the event, then it's too late. Publicity should come much earlier to get people interested.

Okay, the lack of water has surely had an impact and diminished the interest in the Avon Descent, the increased Multisport races have also had a huge impact as people are focussing on them rather then the Avon. Even the Rottnest swim would have taken away many of those people out for a challenge. There doesn't seem to be the frenzy about the Avon Descent as there used to be. It was once on everyone's bucket list and now the bucket has a hole in it and paddlers seem less interested.

This leads me to ask why is it that countries like South Africa, Spain and many countries in Europe have so many paddlers that it is nearly a national sport?

So what can we do to rebuild?

Avon Descent - Just downstream of the Northam Weir

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Canoe and Cray Carnival Kalbarri

May 31st - 1st June

The annual Canoe and Cray Carnival, held on the Western Australia Day long weekend in June, has been a success every year for family entertainment.

We are very excited to present this family friendly weekend to the community - with the return of many crowd pleasers such as Princess Kyli Parade, Canoe Capers,Landlubber Games, 16.5km Murchison River Dash and other canoe events, Blessing
of the Boats and best dressed boat competition, Decky Games, Kids games and activities all weekend with entertainment from Friday night to Sunday night.

With food (crayfish dishes and bbq) plus bar selections to meet everyone's needs, For Canoeist the saturday events include a 6km round-the-buoys race and team relays, in the estuary in front of the foreshore crowd and the Sunday morning, the main event is the 16.5km race from Murchison House Station to the foreshore finish.

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Terry

The K1 is going great!!!. It took a surprising seven months to get used to, especially as I was hopeful that I would get used to it within two days. It was great when I finally got it going. I paddled it for a few weeks after and got pins and needles in my legs. I played around with how I sat in it and it's fine now. I worked out that if I do my course of 4kms in 22 minutes, I could do the dash (16kms) in my target time(1:30). Last years winner did it in about 1:35 and he is way older than me (about 25-30). Right now I can do my course in about 26 minutes which is still going to take some time to get down. Luckily, it isn't until the first of June when I actually do the race so I still have a fair bit of time. After seven months of not really paddling, it will take some time to get faster. Anyway, the K1 is great, it feels like a totally different sport than what I usually paddle but it seems much more fun. It is great with this kayak because you go through the waves, rather than being like a pirate ship and going over the waves. It is also great when you get up before school and paddle because there is no wind and you can just skim across with minimal effort. Thanks for putting the canoe and cray carnival in your news letter. It would be great to get a couple more people up than usual. You should probably come up yourself.

Thank you, Luke Dooley

Luke is about 12 years old. He said that Peter Tomczak always wins the race and he wants to win it one day so he is training hard. Being the only junior K1 paddler in Kalbarri he doesn't have much competition or help with his training, but he is a very focussed junior and he will go well.

He worked over his holidays to save enough money to buy his K1.

Kalbarri kayak race

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