Do you have athletes aged between 12-17 who are either ski paddling, looking to get into ski paddling or wanting to improve their ski paddling technique?
PaddleNSW and the NSW Institute of Sport are putting together a come and try day for Kayaking – Saturday 29th May – where your athletes can come and see what the sport of sprint kayaking involves and what is needed to make it all the way to the Olympic Games. With the Paris Olympics set for 2024, LA in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032, there is no better time to start to get involved in kayaking.
Olympic success and success in ski paddling is closely linked. Nearly all of the Australian Kayak Team athletes are involved in Surf Life Saving – with Jackson Collins, Riley Fitzimmons, Alisa Bull, Jemma Smith being the previous and current Australian Ski champions. At the 2021 Aussies, all but one single ski race was won by a NSW kayaker (u17 female ski, u19 female ski, open female ski, u19 male ski, open male ski). This demonstrates the importance of having the right technique and need for an efficient stroke.
On the back of our come and try day, we will be setting up some regular winter training sessions for those interested at a kayak club / kayak HUB near you (currently we have 3 hubs across NSW already set up – Narrabeen, Avoca, Wollongong – and always looking for more – Wanda, Central Coast as examples).
These sessions are purely designed to make your athletes better and more technically efficient ski paddlers with the hope that some may also want to participate in kayaking at some point in the future. And when this happens they will have the knowledge and the technique to excel.
These sessions can be set up as a surf club session or mixed club sessions – where we can get certain surf clubs training on certain days.
For more information contact Christine Duff: christine.duff54@icloud.com
Looking forward to seeing you in May.
