Canada Canoe Polo

JayCee Polo production, Pointe-Claire, Qc Issue #1 – July 2010

Happy first issue!
Hello everyone, and welcome to this first edition of
CAN Canoe Polo, the first Canadian magazine about
what is going on in your favourite sport across
Canada. Since this is our debut edition it may not
be perfect and so we hope to receive constructive comments from you, our
readers. Hopefully we will be able to distribute this magazine to all
registered CCP clubs with a new issue a couple of times a year.

We look forward to hearing from all of

you and hope you’ll enjoy this first To contact the Chief Editor:
edition of Canoe Polo news! jaycee.pothier@gmail.com

JC Pothier

In this issue, July 2010

2010 Nationals Page 2 Coach’s Corner Page 11

In the News Page 3 International Page 12
National Team Page 6 Profiles Page 15
Results Page 7 Equipment Page 16
YOUR AD HERE!
If you would like to support your
magazine and would like
information on our advertising
possibilities and prices, please email
the chief editor

1
Canadian Nationals, July 24-25th
www.pccanoekayak.ca/canoepolo/Nationals.html

Hi everyone,
Pointe-Claire Canoe Polo is proud to be hosting the
first Canadian Nationals to be held in the eastern part
of Canada. The event is taking place in the Vieux Canal
de Beauharnois in Valleyfield. Fourteen teams from USA and Canada will battle
for the title in various club and open categories, summing up to 48 games over
the weekend. We have over $1000 in sponsor’s equipment and apparel to give
away for participants and a banquet on Saturday night.

Club de Canoe Deux-Rives Pointe-Claire Canoe Club

Thanks in advance to all our volunteers and teams taking part in the event.
Hope everyone will have a great time and we’ll send out the official results as
soon as we have them!

Club A teams: Club B teams: Women teams:

1) PC Sharks 1) PC Chiefs 1) PC Chicks
2) PC U21 2) Missi B 2) Missi Women
3) Missi A 3) Sudbury Canoe Club 3) USA Women
4) Boston Black 4) Waterloo 4) North East Lobsters
5) NYKP 5) USA Women
6) Boston B
Results from these Nationals
and announcement for 2011
in the next issue!

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1
Canoe Polo Ontario
By John Gregory, Ontario Prov. Rep.

Much has evolved in the world of Canoe Polo in Ontario. We have a growing
group of paddlers. At times we have had 16 paddlers training in the pool
and outside on a weekly basis in Mississauga alone.
Through the winter we provided coaching at a local pool for a ‘learn to kayak’
course. At the end of the program we provided a recommendation to the council
pool to purchase five polo kayaks. Several of the evening sessions ended with
informal polo games. The pool hired out the pool to us for a Saturday to run a polo
tournament. Several paddlers came from a variety of clubs.
At the end of May we had an indoor one day tournament at
the Waterloo University pool. They have now registered
with the University as a club and we are working to
encourage them to apply for funding so that they can have
a fleet of their own boats. It has been amazing to see
several of these paddlers really develop some great core
skills and in the last tournament Waterloo made it through
to the finals ahead of some better known teams.
Dan Fuller ran a two day training camp in Mississauga on a freezing cold weekend
at the beginning of May making it very worthwhile but not that pleasant! Thanks
Dan for sharing your experience and tips with our group. Everyone has shown
consistent improvement over the last couple of years and we have become more
structured in our training.
More formal coaching has begun to take shape at
the Mississauga club. As preparation for the
Canadian National Champs we held a team ‘try out’
selection event. Six tests were devised and paddlers
assessed against them. It created some healthy
competition. The Mississauga July tournament
provided a first opportunity to play as set teams in
preparation for the Canadian Champs. (next page)

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…. Canoe Polo Ontario (continued)
By John Gregory, Ontario Prov. Rep.

There is much more to do to establish a formal organization in Ontario which will

allow us apply for funding support. The fleet of 14 OBECO kayaks are now ten
years old and they have been used extensively with a variety of teams. We are
actively trying to acquire new boats and encourage paddlers to buy their own
carbon paddles.

The primary communication vehicle is our Canoe Polo Ontario Facebook group.
Our next challenge is to build a higher local community awareness through
regular placement of sports news stories with a variety of local media.

Hello from the Northwest Territories !

By Steve Hatch, NWT Rep.

Up here in the NWT, polo activity slows down during the summer due to our
limited warm weather. Our quality outdoor time is spent on the lakes and rivers,
and it is not until the fall and beginning of our pool time that the polo activity
picks up again. This year we are hoping to use our new goals and helmets at the
NWT provincial championships which will be held in October or November in Hay
River against Fort Smith. Unfortunately, due to travel costs we will be unable to
travel to the Canadian Nationals this year but look forward to attending some of
the larger competitions closer to home.

Just as a side note our club is on the lookout for used canoe polo boats that our
club could borrow, rent of purchase from other clubs around Canada. So if any
clubs have boats that they no longer use, could they please contact us at
sombakepaddling@gmail.com

That’s all from Yellowknife for now!

www.sombakepaddling.com

4
Waterloo Polo Summary
By Dermot Smiley, Ont.

Members of Mississauga Canoe Club first introduced canoe

polo to the Waterloo students over the winter of 08-09 as an
8 week beginner’s course followed by a tournament with
other local teams.
A 2nd beginner’s course was held the following winter with various teams from
across Ontario & Quebec at the final tournament in December 2009. These
teams included Sudbury Canoe Club, Laurentian University (Sudbury, ON),
McMaster University Whitewater Club (Hamilton, ON), Pointe Clare Canoe Club
(Montreal, QC), & Mississauga Canoe Club (Mississauga, ON). Some of the teams
in this competition had paddled but never played polo until that morning!!! The
pizza and prize draw afterwards had a Christmas theme - Canoe Polo Christmas
lights were one of several prizes.
A group of returning players officially formed the Waterloo University Canoe
Polo Club and returning and new polo players participated in the 3rd course
(Spring 2010) followed by a club paddling session. This course finished with a
tournament in March 2010.

The aim in the coming year is to support the university club by hosting another
beginner’s course. We are also aiming to pursue funding opportunities for a fleet
of boats and other necessary equipment to support the further development of
clubs in the local area.
We believe that one key method to increase the visibility and participation of
canoe polo throughout Canada is to develop it as an intervarsity sport. Whilst
the continual turnover of participants can make it difficult to provide continuous
coaching, leadership and club coordination, this also has benefits. Players can be
introduced to the sport in their early university years and develop their
personal, leadership and coaching skills. As students graduate and move away
from the area, succession planning within the club generally occurs.
The graduating students also take their
knowledge of canoe polo with them To register your club or for any
wherever they go throughout Canada or questions about CPC, contact
further afield…. watherveremail@cpc.com

5
Milan 2010, Canada going towards Worlds
By Stephen Gale, Head Coach CCP

As many of you already know this year the World Canoe Polo Championships will be
held in Milan Italy on September, 1st -5th. Canada will have teams in all four categories,
Men, Women, U21 Women and U21 Men. All teams have been training hard and by the
time you read this our national teams will be in their final preparations before leaving
for Europe.

The U21 Women Team, coached by Keegan Smith, will depart from Calgary on August
4th, traveling to the Bologna international on August 7-8th, London international on 13-
14th, Du Paddle Belgium on 19-20th, and then resting until Worlds on September 1st.

The Women’s Team coached by Dale O’Brien, will be the next to depart flying into
Amsterdam and joining the U21 Women at the London international. Then traveling on
to Du paddle Belgium, then to Italy to meet the remaining team members and the
Bologna pre-worlds competition on August 28-29th, before moving onto Worlds.

The Men’s Team depart Calgary on the August 9th, traveling to the Austrian Nationals
in Vienna on August 13-14th. They then travel across Europe to meet up with the other
Canadian teams at Du Paddle Belgium and follow to the Bologna Pre-World competition
before heading up to Milan.

The U21 Men’s Team coached by JC Pothier will be the last to arrive in Europe flying
straight into Milan for the World Championships. As the head national coach I know all
our teams are working hard and training harder than any other previous national
teams!

With that in mind I would like to wish all our

national teams all the best and the greatest
success at the 2010 World Canoe Polo Stay tuned for more
Championships. National Teams news and
results!

6
New York Winter Cup 2010, January 30th
By JC Pothier

This year’s NY annual tournament was an intense, but fun, one day event
from 9am to past 10pm! A total of seven teams participated with three
teams from Pointe-Claire, two from New York, one from both Boston and
Mississauga. In the first round Boston took the lead with only one loss
followed closely by two PC teams

In the play-offs, it took two Golden Goal periods and one shoot out for PC
U21 to win their first game against Missi and then they went on to win 5th
place in a Golden Goal game against NY1. PC Two won the 3rd place final
against NY2 and the final saw PC One against Boston with the first PC win in
US territory! More info about NYKP can be found on their website:

Waterloo Uni Tournament, March 27th

By Dermot Smiley
This March 2010 tournament, 3rd tournament hosted by
the University, consisted of 6 teams from Waterloo
University, Mississauga Canoe Club, and Pointe Claire
Canoe Club. We packed 20 games onto 1 pitch in the 1 day
tournament with a full league followed by crossover
games, semi finals, consolation game and the final.
The competition was great, with PCCC Sharks coming out on top for a 2nd
straight year, beating MCC Young guns in a closely fought final. MCC
Wrinklies came in 3rd with the 2 ladies teams (MCC Ladies and PCCC Chicks)
and Waterloo University closely on our heels. The University team
continues to get stronger as it becomes more established.

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Cup of the North 2010, February 12-14th
By Daniel Fuller

The 2010 edition of the Cup of the North tournament

was a great success. The largest canoe polo
tournament in North America continues to get
bigger and better each year. This year the
tournament included A and B divisions. Sixteen
teams competed from Canada, the United States, and
the United Kingdom. The 2010 edition of the
Cup of the North also marks the first time a team from the
Northwest Territories has attended. This is great for development of the sport in
Canada. We would also like to underline the continued presence of the Welsh
Dragons who have been supporting the Cup of the North since its early days.

The competition was particularly fierce this year because 2010 marks the year of
the World Canoe Polo Championships to be held in Milan, Italy. As a result
members from both the Canadian and American national teams were competing
for their respective countries.

In the A division Canada Men A faced off against the Welsh Dragons. It was a hard
fought defensive game with no goals scored in the first half. In the second half, a
defensive error on the part of Canada Men A resulted in a goal by Dragon. Dragon
were able to hold on for the victory and the final score for the game was 2-1.

A division results: B division results:

1) Welsh Dragons 1) Bat Girls
2) Canada Men A 2) Edmonton Whitewater Paddlers
3) USA West 3) Mad Mix

In the B division the Bat Girls (a team made up primarily of players from the
Canadian women's team) used speed and skill to defeat the Edmonton
Whitewater Paddlers.
Congratulations to all of the participating teams. We look forward to
seeing you at the 2011 Cup of the North, in Edmonton, Alberta.
www.paddleewp.com
8
PC Eastern Polo Cup, Montreal, May 22-23rd
By JC Pothier

Last May, Pointe-Claire Canoe Club hosted its 4th

PC Eastern Polo Cup. Despite the late scheduling
of the event, its strong reputation attracted six
teams from Canada and USA. The teams were:

PC S-One (QC) Mississauga (ON)

PC S-Two (QC) Team White (Boston)
PC U21 (QC) Team Black (Boston)

Two round robins and one play-off round were played with a total of 30 games.
The whole tournament exhibited really tightly fought games where most were
won by only one goal. After the first two rounds, Team White and PC U21 were
leaders in their respective groups with no losses.

Both semi-finals where won in Golden Goal periods where Team White won 2:1
against PC S-One and PC S-Two beat PC U21 4:3. In the final for 5th place, Team
Black won in a high score 7:6 Golden Goal game against Mississauga. PC U21 took
the 3rd place win and PC S-Two won the tournament against Team White from
Boston.

Congratulations to all teams and

a big thanks to everyone who
participated and helped organize
this event. Please visit our
webpage for more information :
www.pccanoekayak.ca/canoepolo.

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Mississauga Tournament, June 3-4th
By John Gregory
Mississauga had a pre-Canadian National Champs weekend tournament at the
club last June. This saw paddlers from Sudbury and Andy Rowland from Ottawa
come down to join us, plus a team from Montreal. The Montreal team which is led
by JC has shown stunning progress in their play over the last few years and won
3:1 in the final against Mississauga A. Mississauga had 18 paddlers and put out a
full ladies team of seven who later played in a ladies full game after the final. Lisa
Cotie hand rolled in a game for the first time and Cindy Mott took advantage of a
fast break to score in an open net. Sasan Moghaddas an ICF ref, coach and paddler
from Iran joined us for the first time.

Toronto / Montreal MEC Paddlefest, July 11-12th/19th

Qc, Ont.
Mississauga Canoe Polo took part for the
first time in the MEC Toronto Paddlefest
at Sunnyside Park on the Lake Ontario
waterfront this June 11-12. Many demo
games and free participant sign up took
place on both days. The Paddlefest
Organizers reported 800 people participated, there were 1000 on the water
through the weekend and 4000 people came by to watch. The event gave good
local exposure to Mississauga Canoe Polo. Matt Robinson, another British polo
player joined us as a result and brings further talent to the Mississauga team.
A week later Pointe-Claire Canoe Polo participated at the same event in
Montreal. This was the second year that the club demonstrated canoe-polo at the
event and again the canoe-kayak community showed great interests in the sport!
Every year Mountain Equipment Co-op organizes 10 Paddlefest festivals across
the country in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax,
Quebec and Victoria. The event is a celebration of Paddlesports in just about all of
its forms and features learning opportunities on water and on land. We
strongly encourage every polo club to look
into making polo part of these events. This is a Send your results text and
superb and easy way to demonstrated how relevant images to
cool polo is to the rest of the paddling jaycee.pothier@gmail.com
community!!
10
 New York, Jan 30
Relaxing in the hot tub
between games at the
NY Winter Cup 2010.

Picture taken by Robert Brown

Edmonton, Feb 22
Richard Allan fighting
for the ball at the Cup
of the North 2009.

Picture taken by Kristy Franks

Picture taken by Robert Brown

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 Montreal, June 19
Young canoe-polo
aspirant at the
Montreal MEC
Paddlefest 2010!

Vancouver, August 18
Pat Newman pushing
hard against EWP
Crunch at Nationals
2007 in BC .

These are a few examples of pictures we wish to see. Do not

hesitate to send any nice or funny shots related to canoe polo!

12
Shooting
Shooting is a major part of the
modern game. A simple shot is
now not enough to beat most
top level goalies. Beating a good
goalie requires a powerful shot
Steve is the men’s national
team coach and has been
a member of the Canadian
as well as the Australian
national polo team for years.

and deception.
The power of your shot comes from your technique;
a good throwing action should see your starting
motion coming from your waist, you want to put
your whole body into the shot. You want do draw
your arm far enough back that anyone looking
straight at you will see the ball on the other side of
your head.
As your body and arm move forward you want your
elbow to come through higher than your shoulder
and use your wrist to flick the ball where you want it
to go. Ideally the ball should be spinning backwards
on itself there should be no side spin as any side spin
on the ball is a loss of power.

Before moving on to any type of trick shot, you

should master this technique and be able to hit any
corner consistently from outside 6m. The final part
of a strong shot is simple: your boat speed.
The faster your boat is moving, the more
power will go into your shot. If you have any questions for
Steve you can contact him at
galestephen@hotmail.com

13
Prestige Award, World 2008, Edmonton
CanoeKayak Canada extends congratulations to
the Host Organizing Committee of the 2008
World Canoe Polo Championships hosted in
Edmonton, Alberta. Darryl O’Brien, Chair of the
Host Organizing Committee, accepted the 2009
Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance New Sport
Event of the Year Award at the 3rd Annual
PRESTIGE Gala Luncheon in Ottawa on April 16,
2009.

The 2008 World Canoe Polo Championships were hosted in Edmonton,

Alberta on July 24-27, 2008. The event attracted a record number of
countries and was a resounding success. Congratulations to all of the hard
working volunteers for this well deserved award

Ottawa, April 2009

Darryl O’Brian
accepting the award.

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Pointe-Claire Canoe Polo, Montreal Island, QC
www.pccanoekayak.ca/canoepolo

Situated on Montreal Island, Pointe-Claire Canoe Club offers a wide variety of

activities: sprint paddling, dragon boating and for sure canoe-polo. The club has
even grown some Olympic athletes like Tom Hall (Bronze medalist in Beijing).
Within the club, Pointe-Claire Canoe Polo first started in the 90’s when the current
sprint coach, Jan Crook, bought 10 boats and involved a group of sprint paddlers as
a winter activity only.
Later on, in 1996 Jason Moffat and Patrick Newman
decided to try out for the national team, and realized
their goal by participating at the 2nd World Canoe
Championships in Australia.
It took until 2002 for an inexperienced team of
sprint athletes to compete in the Nationals
Championships (Edm) The team finished 9th in Open
Club and 6th in Open men.
Following those years the group thinned a lot and the activity was kept as a training
for sprint kids not going to Florida Camps. It was only in 2006 that an ex-sprinter,
JC, took the activity in his hands and built a new group. Again, most new players
were ex-sprint athletes, inexperienced with team work and ball play but they were
fast paddlers and wanted to get better. With practice and lots of losses at
tournaments in Boston and NY, the group got a lot better and began to get wins at
various tournaments, wining the PC Eastern Polo Cup from 2008 to 2010 and the
bronze medal at the 2007 National Championships in
Vancouver.
Now the club has about 20 members from many
different backgrounds training all year around
with at least 2 polo practices a week. 7 players are
on the 2010 National Teams (mostly U21) and
the group is taking part in many events all across
the East coast.

15
OBECO Whitewater Products
By Darryl O’Brien

The story of how the need for FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) kayaks for
whitewater racing and recreational whitewater paddling was tied to the growth of
the sport in Canada, and for OBECO began in a garage, like many other groups of
the time (‘70s). It soon became obvious that our needs and interests could not be
satisfied only by providing a source of old boat designs although it was certainly
true that older slalom designs became popular for recreation almost as soon as a
new design evolved. And in Canada, this was always about 2 years or more behind
the Europeans. However, we began to create our own designs for various classes of
slalom boats in the middle to late ‘80s. We became
interested in polo in the latter years of a 20-year slalom
racing history as a winter conditioning sport (in the
pool).

The Edmonton Whitewater Paddlers (EWP), our local

club, became the recipient of a grant to acquire 10 polo Darryl (front) and Dale (back)
kayaks and this was followed by an explosion of the World Cup Slalom in New Zealand

sport in Alberta and neighboring provinces with several clubs acquiring fleets of
polo kayaks and hosting tournaments. It soon became clear that polo was not just
for training, but was an exciting new sport that added specialized boat and ball
skills, along with team tactics to the kayak paddling skills…and to top it off, was a
game that was great fun to play and a wonderful way to develop kayak skills in
beginners.

Fabrication of polo kayaks occupies most of OBECO’s present business. We now

have in excess of 16 different polo designs available for all sizes of players. Boats
can be constructed using conventional FRP materials or using epoxy resin
combined with space-age materials like Kevlar, and carbon fiber or combinations
to create very strong boats that are necessary for polo, while remaining very light.

For more information, please visit our website

Every issue will feature some
www.paddleobeco.ca
polo related profiles. Stay
tuned for more!

16
Inset Bumpers and Striker
By OBECO Whitewater Products

Recent changes in the International Canoe Federation rules for canoe polo have
allowed for the development of (“integral”) or inset bumpers that, instead of
protruding beyond the back and front of the kayak, now conform to the lines of the
boat. At least in the stern, this makes for improved turning capability without the
drag due to conventional bumpers. To continue in our desire to provide the best
polo boats available in North America, we now have the capability to produce inset
bumpers in several of our most popular designs including Dynamic, Dynamite,
Igniter, Maxel, Fighter and Vendetta.

OBECO has also partnered with an industry

leader in thermal molded sea kayaks, Delta
Kayaks to produce an ABS thermal molded
polo kayak that, in keeping with recent
innovations, will have inset bumpers. We
look to this boat to promote further growth
in the sport of kayak polo in North America
by providing an economical durable plastic The Striker in action

boat with similar performance characteristics to composite boats for clubs and
organizations that want to incorporate kayak polo in the activities that they do.

The boat will come in two sizes: the first, Striker, will fit players 145 to 175 lbs
(65-80 kgs), while the second, Striker Plus, will fit 165-205+ lbs (75-95 kgs)
providing a wide range of sizing potential to meet the needs of blossoming kayak
polo clubs.

You can visit their website for more details

www.paddleobeco.ca
Let us know if you have any
exciting news on equipment
you want to share

17
Calendar of Events
2010
July23-25th, Canadian Nats, Mtl
th
Sept. 1-5 , Worlds, Milan (IT)
Sept. 2010, NY Tourney, USA
Oct. 2010, Sudbury Tourney, Ont.
Oct. 2010, US Nationals, NC, USA
2011
Feb. 19-20th, Cup of the North, Edm
2013
World Masters Games, Torino, IT

Links / Equipment
www.canoepolo.com
www.canoepolo.ca
www.canoeicf.com

www.restlessboards.com
www.paddleobeco.ca
www.shredready.com
www.basecampmtl.com
www.skyventuremontreal.com
www.creapierre.ca
www.maracing.info

18
Canoe Polo Canada Committee
Chairman – Keegan Smith
High Perf. Director – Dale O’Brian
National Team Coach – Stephen Gale
Athlete Rep - Dan Fuller
Alberta Rep – Darryl O’Brian
British-Columbia Rep. – Mike Goodman
Ontario Rep. – John Gregory
Québec Rep. – JC Pothier
Saskatchewan Rep. – Jason Allen
North West Terr. Rep. – Steve Hatch

CAN Canoe-Polo Team We want your stories!

Chief Editor – JC Pothier
jaycee.pothier @gmail.com
_
Editor - John Gregory
hudsandqs@gmail.com
Do not hesitate to send us any
news, pictures or stories related
to the polo community.
The deadline for the next issue
is December , 2010.