Cup of the North
Where: Edmonton Alberta
Team: Cottonwood Kayak Club; Mac, Jesse and Hanna, Ashley, Levi, Ryley and Saskia
Favorite Moment: Learning to paddle with a 90 degree offset
I played my first Canoe Polo Tournament ever! I’ve played Yukon Polo in the past which is super fun too. The game is played in 2 ten minute halves; teams switch ends in between halves and each half begins with a sprint to get the ball. The best part; its full on contact. The worst part; its hard on glass boats! I borrowed (hehehe) with the intent to destroy and conquor in all the games I played.
My team mates were from Cottonwood Kayak Club. They were short a player so they lowered their standards and let me on their team. Thanks guys! I spent Friday night learning about the game and playing a little scrimmage. I have to say, its hard for a slalom paddler to crash into boats and players, but once I got the hang of it I found it very satisfying.
Canoe Polo is like all paddle sports. There seems to be a common aire or theme amongst participants that does not happen in all sports. No matter how competitive we get; every player/paddler looks out for each other and is really supportive. So supportive we even shared bottles of I AM BROKEN (IBUPROFEN) a.k.a. vitamin I!
I only had one disagreement that whole weekend. I was informed that this was a great retirement (from racing) sport. What?! Are you joking?! I spent 19 years training to go as fast as I could for 90 seconds; not 20 minutes where I stop and start 400 times, get piledrived and pushed over. Thank you very much, but I was more sore than I have ever been in slalom. Freestyle…now that’s a different story all together.
The Game
The Scrimmage
The Mascot…not as cute as Scotty and Hagat, but he has exceptional ball handling skills and he paddles a kayak! Boys, you have some serious dog training to do.
Another dog park…this one was awesome! Really big.
