Feature Article July 17,2003
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeCanoe/Kayak Club Thriving in SydenhamIf the level of activity and enthusiasm that abounded at the Sydenham Canoe/Kayak club regatta last Saturday is any indication, the three-year-old club is getting stronger all time.
Racers from Mississauga, Ottawa, Burlington/Oakville, Toronto, Carlton Place, North Bay and the host club were undaunted by rain, wind, and unseasonably cool temperatures. Many of the paddlers, who range in age from about 10 to 18, raced up to ten times in different categories.
Chaos seemed to reign supreme as a constant wave of boats, ranging from small one-person kayaks to massive war canoes, wended their way to and fro. Bill Shepherd, whose daughter Emily is a paddler and a coach with the club, describes the relationship between all the clubs as a friendly one, so theres lots of help available at the various regattas that take place throughout the summer.
We all help out at each others regattas. For instance, one of the clubs arrived here with a damaged trailer. So we made a quick call, arranged for a welder, and itll be ready by the end of the day.
The Sydenham Canoe/Kayak club is an offshoot of the Cataraqui Canoe Club. We wanted to focus on racing, and the Cataraqui Club is more oriented to recreational canoeing, so we went out on our own, recounts Bill Shepherd.
Since then, the numbers of paddlers with the club has risen from a handful, to over 50 this summer. Unlike some other clubs, the Sydenham club is made up mostly of girls and young women. Last fall, a team of six girls from the club participated in the national championships for young paddlers in Winnipeg, and they all came away with at least one medal.
The teams head coach is Devon Bayly-Jones, and the assistant coaches are Emily Shepherd and Jordan Bayly-Jones. The three coaches have all come through the ranks as paddlers with the club, and have been trained as Level II paddling coaches.
Earlier this summer, two club members, Amy Gamble, and Natasha Ostopovich, qualified for the All- Ontario pre-Canada Games team, in preparation for the games to be held in 2005. The games are for athletes 16 years old and under, and both Gamble and Ostopovich will have to qualify again next year in order to go to the games. They just spent a week in an intensive paddling session, and have been paddling with two other girls in the C4 division for the past few weeks.
Being a team with a large number of girls, many of whom prefer canoe to kayak, the Sydenham club has become active in the movement to bring womens canoeing to the Olympics.
Currently, male canoeists race in singles, doubles, and fours at the Olympic level, but there is no womens division. This, according to Marv Ostopovich, the Sydenham clubs commodore, takes away the incentive for women paddlers when they reach 18 or so to keep going with the sport. The women reach their top level at around age 26, and it would be easier to make a commitment to keep progressing in a sport that has the Olympics as the ultimate level of competition.
Marvs daughter Natasha, who is on the All-Ontario team, has started a petition to promote womens canoeing as an Olympic sport.
When the club started up it had very little money. John Trousdale of Sydenham allowed them to store their boats in a shed on a piece of land he owns on Sydenham Lake. They have subsequently purchased two used tractor trailers, which are parked on the land.
Fundraising has been taking place from the start, and the club now has about $7,000 in the bank. But the club has ambitions. They are hoping to put in a permanent racing course at Sydenham Lake, which would involve sinking concrete pillars to the lake bed and completing other construction as well. If we get a course, then we would be able to attract some major meets, including the national championships, which come to Ontario once every four years, Marv Ostopovich said. The costs involved in building a course are huge, so the club has applied for a Trillium grant to cover them, and to give them more money for coaching. They would also love to have a permanent clubhouse and boat storage facility, but that can not be funded from Trillium grants, and is not part of their current fundraising goals.
The heart and soul of the Sydenham club are the 50 or so paddlers that congregate at the Point Park four days a week to train. The advanced paddlers train in the morning and afternoon, and the rest just in the afternoon. Most of the club members come from Loughborough Public School, but others come from further afield. They also participate in regattas on most weekends, and canoeing and kayaking dominate their summer.
This has taken over our lives, says Marv Ostopovich, who used to coach his daughter in baseball, which she still plays, but there is no sport like this one. They even got me into a war canoe last weekend. It was great.
