Annual Report

Transcription

1 Annual Report for the Financial Year finishing 28 Feb 2011 Canoe Tasmania Board John Borojevic Chair Jackie Benson Secretary Jason Dicker Public Officer Arthur Alexander Treasurer John McCausland Director Cam Folder Independent Director Andrew Bennett Independent Director Development Officer Andrea McQuitty Auditor David Marshall Hydro Tasmania Liaison (to Oct 2010) Andrew Mollison Affiliated Member Clubs Tasmanian Canoe Club Tamar canoe Club Derwent Canoe Club Life Members Peter Hall Tony Gaiswinkler Bob Boocock Geoff and Robin Walker Andrea McQuitty

2 Chair s Report John Borojevic After the events of the World Cup last year, Canoe Tasmania has returned to its more core business of providing and coordinating development and education programs through the Development Program, the clubs and the Australian Canoeing Qualified Instructors. By the time this report has been tabled, seventeen separate Education program courses will have been conducted including skills and instructors courses in Flat-water, White-water, Sea Kayaking, Coastal Guiding, Basic Skills and River Rescue amongst others. In all over 200 people participated in Canoe Tasmania run courses and there are now have around 156 qualified Instructors, Guides and Assessors in the state providing quality instruction through their clubs and circle of paddling friends. In addition to the on-water training, IT training has also been provided to clubs to enable more efficient membership database and website management. These courses have been run using high standard Instructors of both local and International origin. Of particular significance has been the decision to run canoeing course on Flinders Island for flinders Island residents, a first, we think, by any outdoors recreational group. Canoe Tasmania has also produced a Basic Skills and Safety DVD which is to be used across Australia through working with the Education and Safety Committee of Australian Canoeing. This is available for viewing through YouTube and has been receiving very positive reviews. CT has also been working with MAST and CT postcards have been produced for inclusion in MAST s safety information packs that are to go out with every kayak or canoe sold in Tasmania. CT has also been working closely with the Polytechnic Tasmania liaising and co-assessing their CERT III and IV paddling students. This boosts our Instructor numbers. The Junior Slalom group under Peter Eckhardt and David Borojevic is going from strength to strength with 14 paddlers, 12 of whom competed at Nymboida in January. All have very supportive families and skilling them in basic coaching is proving valuable. The sheer quality of the program is being demonstrated by members of the group being selected onto the Australian Junior teams. Nine paddlers are also on the national Talent Squad, an indication of the importance of this group to Australia s competitive canoeing scene. It is of interest that the coaches encourage cross discipline participation and recreational paddling giving these paddlers very strong skills and a broad interest in all aspects of canoeing not just competition. Congratulations to Andrew and Daniel Watkins, Seb Spinks, Clancy Bowman, Erin McGilvray and Brad Rogers for your National selections in your age groups. The Junior Wildwater Development Program based with Mike Shaw, Bruce Cameron and Andrea McQuittty at Forth is also achieving great success with Thomas Mountney and Sebastian Spinks being placed in the Under 18 Australian Team to compete in the Czech republic and Lochiel Cameron, Thomas Shaw and Stuart Johnson heading to New Zealand as part of the Under 16 team. The clubs around the State are reporting strong activities with Tamar Canoe Club introducing races and changing and upgrading canoes. It has also started Canoe Polo at the new Windmill Hill Centre. This has proved a great success. Derwent Canoe Club has seen significant growth due to Ocean racing and multisport based paddling. On the other hand it continues to contribute strongly in Slalom and Whitewater paddling as well as running polo and having a healthy recreational scene. The future of the Club is very healthy. Tasmania Canoe Club also continues in great health with many new paddlers. Down River Racing is particularly strong at present with juniors gaining many medals at the recent National Championships in Nymboida. North West sprint paddlers also did well at the recent Grand Prix and national Sprint Championships with Tom and Sam Norton and others bringing home a swag of medals. In all, Canoe Tasmania is continuing to develop and has consistently met the targets for the Sport and Recreation grants necessary to maintain our Development Officer without whom, much of our work could not be maintained. Our thanks are extended to Hydro Tasmania for their ongoing assistance with water provision, Sport and Recreation Tasmania, MAST and to all the club officials and volunteers who do so much for the sport of canoeing.

3 I particularly would like both to acknowledge and thank our outgoing treasurer of so many years, Arthur Alexander who has moved to New Zealand arriving in Christchurch a week before the earthquake. Thankfully he and family were unharmed. We truly hope that, with the paddling opportunities New Zealand presents, and not having a farm to run, he will finally get back in a kayak and enjoy some paddling. Development Officer Report April 2010 March 2011 The last 12 months have been extremely busy, particularly in the area of Canoe Education. The following Canoe Education courses have been run: April Flatwater Instructor Course Hobart 1-2 May Flatwater Instructor Course Launceston 8-9 May Whitewater Instructor Course NW July Whitewater Conference Tarraleah/Brady s Lake: July Flatwater Instructor Course Burnie October Canoe Education Weekend Hobart Flatwater Instructor Course Whitewater Instructor Course Whitewater Guide Course Australian Canoeing Assessor Course November Sea Kayaking Skills/ Coastal Guide Course Flinders Island Sep-Dec Guide Training for the Wilderness Program 5 sessions, Hobart 2011 (to date) 29 Jan Basic Skills Course Jan River Rescue Course Upper Mersey 26 March Flatwater Skills Course 26 March Whitewater Skills Course March Sea Kayak Instructor Course It has been a privilege to have some of these courses run by paddlers with vast international experience. James Thorp s contributions to the Whitewater Conference and River Rescue course show how far some Tasmanian paddlers have come in developing their skills. James desire to put back his knowledge into the Tasmanian paddling community is commendable and very much appreciated. Canoe Tasmania has been fortunate to have Fabio Raimo de Oliveira assist with the course on Flinders Island and to run the Sea Kayak Instructor Course in Hobart in March. Currently based in Victoria at OEG, Fabio has trained sea kayaking instructors all over the world and has extensive experience in leading expeditions for NOLS and Outward Bound. Fabio s instructional and paddling skills, together with his personal manner, are exceptional and he has left a lasting influence on those he has trained here. Other courses continue to run to a very high standard due to the fantastic work of instructors such as Dan Hall, Shaun Clement, Leigh Wighton, Anna Feely, Craig Chivers and Jason Dicker. Our relationship with Polytechnic Tasmania continues to work very productively, with Cert III and Cert IV students offered Australian Canoeing registration as well during their assessment. Many take up the opportunity, boosting our instructor numbers. A highlight of 2011 has been the production of the Basic Skills and Safety DVD. This DVD will be of use to assist paddlers in developing skills as well as standardising the performance of basic skills for instructors. Currently it is available for viewing on YouTube and it has received very positive feedback.

4 Training was provided to northern canoe clubs by Sam Lyons in using the upgraded MyClub database. This highlighted the need for standardising the membership categories and timing for Tasmanian canoe clubs. And last but not least, Canoe Tasmania worked with Marine and Safety Tasmania on safety brochures for distribution with new kayaks sold in the state. In total, 4750 Canoe Tasmania postcards were produced for inclusion in MAST s safety information packs that are now supposed to go out with every new kayak sold in Tasmania. These brochures will hopefully impact on safe kayak/sit-on-top use and refer new owners to Canoe Tasmania and the local clubs. Tasmanian Canoe Club Gail Pearce, Commodore This past year has seen a lot of new members, including a few younger paddlers who are very keen to learn from our experienced members. Also we have had 3 New Zealand paddlers join the club and are keen to paddle Tassie s best rivers. Again we held our Thurs nights sessions at Forth during daylight savings and these proved very popular and good socially. Our club events were again held this year with many young paddlers getting into DR racing and the southerners joining us. We also hosted a successful 2010 Tasmanian All-schools Championships. Our younger club DR paddlers have again have shown their worth by bringing home 20 medals from the Nationals in Nymboida NSW this year. Thanks to Bruce Cameron s time and efforts with these youngsters. Also our own Thomas Mountney is the Aus under 18 champion, and will represent Aus in the Junior Worlds in the Czech Republic later this year. And we have Thomas Shaw, Lochiel Cameron and Stuart Johnson representing us in NZ at Easter. The club has also had a very popular and successful Flatwater (sprint) series which continued in Paddlers such as Tom and Sam Norton, Brett Mullins and Stuart Paine won multiple medals at the National Sprint Championships in March Well done to all. On a down note, the Forth canoe site has again been ravaged by recent floods. And while we have removed trees and wire from the river, we now have the job of reconstructing the riverbed and all the slalom posts and wires. Our priority now being to get everything in order for the 2011 Tasmanian All-Schools Championships. Tamar Canoe Club John McCausland, Commodore The clubs traditional core activities of white water, creeking, play-boating, and a bit of sea kayaking continued. All the usual local paddles got a look-in (North Esk, South Esk, Meander, Mersey, Forth, Tamar and the north coast, etc). Other trips of note for members include: Donaldson River, Cascade River, Lake Pedder, Swan Island, north west islands (Hunter Island, Three Hummock Island, Albatross Island) and Orford to Kingston around Tasman Peninsula. The new Launceston Aquatic Centre provided a great venue for the resumption of canoe polo in the north after a significant hiatus of around 10 years. Two 10 week rosters were held April - September 2010 attracting around 7 teams, including one from the north west coast in the second roster. The 2010 polo season culminated with an intrastate competition of 5 teams (2 Hobart, 2 Launceston, 1 NW coast) at the Launceston Aquatic Centre. Despite Hobart outclassing everyone and winning first and second places it was a great day. Hopefully an annual intrastate game will continue, and hopefully our skills will improve and the north will win a few more games. With the assistance of a small grant from Dept Sport & Rec the club has purchased 4 more polo bats (to bring its fleet to 10) and upgraded decks and helmets. The 2011 canoe polo roster commences in April and a come & try day in March attracted a good selection of interested non-members looking to join and play. Tamar Canoe Club introduced a Tuesday evening race series at Hadspen, offering concurrent 1.0km, 3.6km and 6.5km events on the South Esk. So far everyone has chosen to race the 6.5km course. A variety of craft have participated, from an old club Dancer to K1 s and a C1 down river racer. Held

5 over the summer daylight saving period around a dozen or more regularly compete and participation is growing slowly. The races and socialising afterwards have been much enjoyed and have instigated a flurry of boat buying activities amongst club members trying to improve their times. The races have also attracted a number of newcomers to the club. It is intended to continue Hadspen racing during the daylight savings period in and to advertise more widely to try and increase the field and widen the appeal of the club. The club sold off a number of older boats and, with the assistance of a small Dept of Sport & Rec grant, purchased two new creek boats. These have proved an excellent addition to the fleet and are very popular with beginner and intermediate members looking to paddle something a bit more challenging. The Tamar Canoe Club s Ben Lomond Descent multi-sport event was very successful and once again appealed to a wide range of abilities and fitness levels. The event is well known as one with a strong emphasis on fun and participation. Southern Cross TV produced a fantastic pre-event promo, which aired a number of times in the preceding week. Both Southern Cross TV and WIN TV aired excellent segments covering the event in their evening news programs. The Examiner Newspaper produced a pre-event article and put the event day details and photos in the sporting section. Local radio also provided event exposure was its 21st birthday year and attracted the largest ever field, 34 teams and 25 individuals for a total number of 120 competitors. It is the longest continuously running multisport event in Tasmania. In short the year has been a good one for the Tamar Canoe Club. The club is in a strong financial position and the extra activities of Canoe Polo and the Hadspen races have resulted in a gradual increase in member numbers, a trend we hope to continue as these activities become an established part of our core activities. Derwent Canoe Club Report Phil Watkins, Commodore The past twelve months have seen significant growth in the DCC mainly due to the growing demand for Ocean racing and multisport based marathon paddling. The DSS has jumped on board this area of growth running twelve 8km races on Tuesday nights based from the Derwent Sailing Squadron and a further 12 ocean races around 20km with one marathon of 45km. To accommodated Ocean Racing as well as all other members the DCC has undertaken a lease with the Derwent Sailing Squadron for a storage shed 20m from the water which we have racked out to fit 50 boats and purchased a rescue dinghy to ensure safety. This lease also gives us access to all of the club room facilities at the DSS, bar, meeting rooms, meals change rooms with showers etc. We have also had a great season of Browns and Huon races with between 25 and 50 paddlers at every race. The Canoe-Polo at the Clarence pool is going strong running a 20 week roster each year. The club has run two senior slalom selection races for AC at Brady s and have received great praise for the way the events where conducted and further events are expected there in the future. There is a strong base of junior paddlers coming through the club at present with three squads being trained in white-water as well as competing in the Browns and Huon races. Having these juniors and parents should ensure continued growth over the coming years. Our junior paddlers preformed outstandingly at the Nationals this year with all paddlers making the podium and three paddlers being selected to represent Australia this year. Seb Spinks Wildwater Daniel Watkins Slalom K1 & C1 Andrew Eckhardt Slalom C1 The club also has strong recreational base with members taking advantage of good rainfall in the last 12 months. A number of Franklin and Dennison trips were undertaken, and large Alum Cliffs trip, lots of North West Bay and Picton trips as well as North Esk, Nile, Nive, Cataract Gorge and the like. Overall the past twelve months have been very successful for the DCC we have good member growth and are financially sound with a good group of members committed to running great competitions and training events and with a very social feeling to all the events.

6 Junior Slalom Development Peter Eckhardt So much has happened in the last twelve months and it s all positive. We have had more new kids having a go at slalom and being introduced to basic skills, and we also had kids being selected onto the Australian Junior Teams. Andrew Eckhardt and Daniel Watkins will compete at the Junior Slalom Pre Worlds and Seb Spinks will compete at the Junior Wildwater Worlds. Southern Stars This program continues and has the form of providing coaching to those kids that are committed to improving their slalom skills. We have 14 paddlers in the program who are paddling and being coached regularly. Twelve of these kids competed at the Nymboida national championships in January 2011.All of the kids have very supportive families who value the experience and opportunity being given to the kids. The Southern Stars program has been funded with a $5,000 grant again this year. This funding will be used to assist special coaching projects like visiting coach Louise Natoli and Ros Lawrence, and also the purchase of canoe class boats (C1 and C2) and some slalom gate equipment. Coaching The program is coached by myself and Dave Borojevic. We generally have separate sessions as there are too many kids to coach in the same session. Coaching capacity is our limiting factor and so skilling parents in basic coaching has happened this year. Parents have helped with timing and score feedback to the paddlers. Our parent group is also now very capable of running a major slalom event. Local Program The local program includes one group flatwater gates session and one mid week whitewater gates session. Most weekends involve between one and four whitewater sessions. This year we have introduced running as a part of the athletic fitness development program. The testing program now includes the beep test and strength endurance tests as well as flatwater gate tests, at this stage we plan to retest three times per year. The local program also include one DRR session per week, run by Stu Bennett. Andrew Eckhardt is an individual scholarship holder with the TIS and was offered a visiting scholarship with the AIS for the summer months. Andrew and Daniel Watkins will compete at the slalom pre worlds for juniors and Seb Spinks will compete at the junior worlds in DRR. Clancy Bowman, Erin McGilvray and Brad Rogers will compete in New Zealand with the Australian Junior B Team at Easter. National Program Tasmania now has nine paddlers on the national Talent Squad. They will attend camps at Penrith and some are members of national teams. The NTS had one of its five camps in Tasmania in December in association with the Tas Champs. Local paddlers also benefited from a national AIS program camp held in Tasmania in December and prior to a national selection race in February. Local Race Events I would like to introduce a local race series at the Mersey, Forth and Broken Bridge. I suggest the races be half day events with training and coaching session before and after the slalom races. It would be best if we use the same format with the race running on Sunday morning and coaching sessions on Saturday and after the race on Sunday. It would be best to use a simple timing and scoring system. Equipment The Stars program currently owns five K1s, two C1s and a C2. I think we should slowly sell these as there are now enough boats coming into Tasmania to supply the new paddlers. It will probably always be good for the program to own at least one C2 and two C1s to encourage participation in this class. Program Philosophy Our junior program is still an inclusive one. Kids that don t want to compete at a National level are still included in all paddling opportunities. Our coaching is provided as voluntary and is the clubs contribution to the program; I think this philosophy has a very positive influence on the willingness of parents to also contribute to the program. We encourage cross discipline participation and recreational paddling. I am hoping the older kids also become qualified in river safety and rescue, preferably before they have driving licences!

7 Junior Wildwater Development Mike Shaw During the year a Junior Wildwater Development Program was implemented across the state with a small squad based at the Tasmanian Canoe Club supported by coaches Bruce Cameron and Andrea McQuitty, and individuals in the south of the state being mentored by Stewart Bennett and other members of the Australian Senior Wildwater team. Juniors from both areas followed structured learning and training programs under the close supervision of coaches and senior paddlers. For paddlers in the north-west, the program not only included regular flat water training, but also a graduated progression to higher grade and more technically difficult rivers. Juniors from the south were involved in some of these sessions. This part of the program utilised the Forth, Leven and upper Mersey rivers as a natural progression for the paddlers. Over a series of weekends, paddlers learned correct techniques in moving water and rapids under the guidance of coach Andrea McQuitty and occasionally, senior Australian Wildwater Team paddlers. The program was designed to culminate at the Tasmanian Wildwater Championships on the upper Mersey, however water management issues meant that this event was delayed. An on-river rescue team consisting of 3 to 4 experienced paddlers accompanied the squad during most of the sessions. This allowed coaches to concentrate on coaching, with any rescue issues being handled by the accompanying team. In December 2010, juniors from both ends of the state travelled to Nymboida in northern New South Wales to compete in the Australian National Wildwater Championships and the National All Schools Kayaking Championships. Prior to the championships, a series of coaching sessions were conducted on the championship course by Coach Bruce Cameron. Juniors from both ends of Tasmania were included in these training and river familiarisation sessions. Wildwater paddlers were also taken on river familiarisation sessions by Ex-Australian Champions Leah and Steve Muir. They were also coached in slalom technique at the site by slalom coach Dave Borojevic. The following edited media release summarises subsequent events: Australian Canoeing has just announced its wildwater junior representative teams for this year with four coastal paddlers and one southern paddler featuring in the teams. Thomas Mountney (TCC) and Sebastian Spinks (DCC) form the Under 18 team to compete in the World Championships to be held in the Czech Republic in July whilst Lochiel Cameron, Thomas Shaw and Stuart Johnson (all TCC) form the under 16 team heading to New Zealand in April. Their selection was based on outstanding results in the Australian Championships recently held in Nymboida, New South Wales. Between them the boys medalled 26 times and continued a long tradition of Tasmanian dominance in the discipline of Wildwater kayaking. The Under 16 team Australian Junior Development Team will compete at the New Zealand National and All Schools Championships to be held on the North Island on the Tarawera river near the town of Kawerau. They will be accompanied by Coach Bruce Cameron, Team Manager Mike Shaw and Senior Paddler Andrew Maynard. Tom Mountney and Seb Spinks will race at the junior worlds, which are held every two years. Competition will be held on the Opava river and they will be accompanied by Team Manager Steve Spinks. Finances Canoe Tasmania remains in a strong position financially and due to growing membership numbers across the clubs is in a position to reduce affiliation fees, financially benefiting clubs and strengthening their ability to fund activities and equipment for their members. We extend our thanks to the Tasmanian Government and Sport and Recreation Tasmania. The Development Grant they provide assists us to deliver a wide range of education services, increasing the skill and safety of paddlers in Tasmania and helping people get into the sport of canoeing in a structured way. We have again been granted funds for to continue and expand this good work. Again our thanks go to outgoing Treasurer, Arthur Alexander, and to our volunteer Auditor, David Marshall for their work on managing our finances over many years. Due to Arthur s move to New Zealand and the delayed arrival of his effects as a result of earthquake damage to the Christchurch port, the Books are yet to finalised ready for Auditing. Un-audited statements will be circulated to Board and Affiliated Clubs as soon as they are available.