Annual Newsletter - Oct 2014

SDCKT wins 79 Medals at National Championships with ... Coach Barlow recognized with the Chris Barlow K4 Men's Trophy.

As many SDCKT alumni & their parents know competing on Lake Lanier (site of the 1996 Olympic games for Sprint Canoe/Kayak) can be challenging with high temperatures and high humidity. However the weather was kind this year at the USA Sprint National Club Championships, with San Diego like weather for all 3 days of competition! After all the racing was complete SDCKT came home with a 3rd place finish overall in points and 79 combined medals! After 18 years as the Head Coach of SDCKT and racing in the K4 as a member of the 1992 Olympic Team, Coach Barlow was recognized for his contribution to the sport of Olympic Canoe/Kayak with the Chris Barlow K4 Men's Trophy. Awarded to the team that receives the most combined points for Men's K4 from all age groups. (Chris is pictured holding the trophy, with SDCKT Board Member Miguel Carrillo - who designed and built the trophy - and his wife Cris. For more photos of the 2014 Nationals and results go to www.SDCKT.net. Olympic Day 2014 - A Great Success. Next year it will also include SDCKT Alumni Day at the Bay. SAVE the DATE 6/20/2015 SDCKT Paddlers compete for Team USAat Junior World Championships, Pan Am Championships, Olympic Hopes Regatta and the Lake Placid International (LPI) SDCKT celebrated Olympic Day 2014 to commemorate the birth of the modern Olympic Games on 23 June 1894 at the Sorbonne in Paris. It is an international effort to promote fitness and well-being in addition to the Olympic ideals of Fair Play, Perseverance, Respect and Sportsmanship, and is supported by the USA Olympic Committee. It is celebrated annually by thousands of people in more than 160 countries. SDCKT joined in the celebration to showcase our Olympic sport of Canoe & Kayak and highlight our amazing athletes to the local San Diego community. Council member Ed Harris was in attendance to recognize the Team and its athletes with a Proclamation of the City of San Diego Council that declared June 21, 2014 to be “SAN DIEGO CANOE KAYAK TEAM” in the City of San Diego! Three of the four paddlers in the K4 were SDCKT team members who competed in Hungary at the Junior World Championships.  In addition SDCKT paddlers represented Team USA in Slovakia at the Olympic Hopes International Regatta; in Mexico City at the Pan Am Championships; and at the Lake Placid International (LPI) regatta. 2014 SDCKT Paddle-a-thon, Open House & Pancake Breakfast. Silver Blade International Regatta Great day of racing at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. Save the Date for 2015: April 11th. Go towww.SDCKT.net for more information. The 2014 SDCKT Paddle-a-thon, Open House & Pancake Breakfast was a great success with over 400km paddled and $9000+ raised. Thank you to all our supporters, paddlers, volunteers & new friends. We had a blast! You Are Invited SDCKT Turkey PaddleNov 28th  SDCKT to HOST the 2015 USA Sprint National Club Championships & Paddlefest Paddlers, Volunteers & Sponsors. All are welcome! Contact us at info@sdckt.net For more information on this and other events SDCKT is hosting go to SDCKT.net

Why SDCKT?

The weather? The city? The coaching?  San Diego Canoe Kayak Team has had paddlers come from all over the world to train and experience the many benefits of being a part of such a unified team in one of America’s finest cities.  Racing sprint, marathon, surf ski and white water, SDCKT has hosted many talented athletes from places such as England, Austria, Iran, New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Hungary and more.  We caught up with our international friends that are currently training with us, as well as others who long to come back to San Diego.   

In the United States kayaking is a very unique sport that is almost always mentioned as rowing, although, as our community knows very well, there is a very distinct difference.  Rachel Macuson from Canada explained how grateful she was to be introduced to the right sport.  Living close to the river, she thought she would check out the rowing club: “Lucky for me the canoe club open house and the rowing club open house were on the same day and I happened to walk into the canoe club first.  It seemed like such a cool sport that I didn't even bother checking out the rowing club!”  Here in San Diego, kayaking has been introduced to many by the founder of SDCKT whose own introduction to the sport was a bit of an experiment.  “My brother built a kayak for a school project, put me in it and pushed me down some whitewater rapids when I was eight” said head coach Chris Barlow.  In comparison, Wolfgang Hochtl from Austria, grew up in a paddling oriented community and became involved at the age of ten. 

Many different watercrafts for paddling are offered at SDCKT which has allowed a number of international paddlers the opportunity to get on the water and try out a new style of paddling.  Suzanne de Bruijn grew up doing flat-water racing in the Netherlands and enjoys that the most.  However, when she came to train in San Diego, “[she] got to know surfski; different from flat-water, but really cool... [she] even managed to enjoy a relaxing stand-up session every now and again.”  Residing in Sweden, Scott Cole, “…had done a lot of whitewater paddling in Washington on the White Salmon River, sea kayaking with lots of gear, multisport paddling in rapids and surfski paddling in big wind”.  His training in San Diego brought him, “good memories of surfski paddling with Chris and Barry among seals and big swells”.  One athlete currently training with SDCKT enjoys team boat paddling which is very popular at our club.  “I like working on a goal as a team and the good thing is, you never have to carry your boat on your own”  expressed Moritz Lipperheide from Germany.  

Throughout the past seventeen years, SDCKT has become very well-known through the development of social media advertising and great representation of athletes and coaches at national and international events.  Hanieh Khatibi shared how she discovered SDCKT, “In Junior World Championships in Moscow, I was an athlete from Iran. I met Mac Hickox, the USA Junior Development Coach, and he introduced SDCKT to me… San Diego has great weather, and it is a beautiful city.”  With the power of social media, most athletes simply searched for a kayak team in San Diego.  “My goal was to find a good university in a city with an opportunity to paddle...”  Moritz found SDCKT and UCSD where he could , “…write [his] master thesis in mechanical engineering”.  An athlete from Budapest, Hungary said, “We were searching for a kayaking club in California and Rami Zur recommended SDCKT”.  Isti Urban found the environment to be ‘very friendly’ with a “supportive team, excellent coaching and quality training.” 

The camaraderie amongst the athletes, parents and coaches creates memories every day, on and off the water.  “Every day is a special memory - whether it’s the first stroke a new paddler takes or Carrie Johnson making the Olympic Team,” shares Coach Barlow.  Training in San Diego provides great memories within itself.  Wolfgang recalls being able to, “[find] the motivation to go and paddle at 6 am during [his] holidays,” as well as, “paddling next to the seals and dolphins on the ocean”.  In addition, Suzanne mentioned, “the time there were dolphins in mission bay. We paddled behind them, when suddenly one of the dolphins jumped out of the water less than 10m away.”  Finally, the beautiful sights of San Diego are admired by all athletes.  “What I like most about paddling at SDCKT are the AMAZING sunsets,” said Rachel. 

 

San Diego Canoe Kayak Team, “is not only about paddling. Its principle of developing fair sportsmen and women on and off the water is really brought to life every day. It is amazing to see how kids, and adults as well, get stronger personalities by being members of this club.” – Moritz Lipperheide.