Coaches, athletes and volunteer officials from the Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club received numerous honors at the Canoe Kayak BC awards banquet held December 5, 2009 at the Golden Eagle Golf course.

Canoe Kayak Canada has recently initiated a program to recognize coaches who have developed athletes who win medals at the National Championships. Two coaches working with RCKC athletes were awarded certificates for this accomplishment: Peter Majewski and Kris Lepianka.

Elite athletes from the club were named to the Canoe Kayak National Development Team: Brian Malfesi for Men’s Kayak, and Gillian Fedechko for Women’s Canoe. In addition, Brian Malfesi has been nominated for the Premier’s Athletic Award by the provincial organization.

Canoe Kayak BC also applauded the members of the Canada Games ‘Team BC – CanoeKayak’ athletes, who competed at and had ‘the best results ever’ during the 2009 Canada Games held in Prince Edward Island in August. RCKC athletes who competed at this U-21 competition are: Michelle Kosaka, Amanda Sublett and Tessa Nagai for Women’s Canoe; Clara van Meel, Jessica Mitchell and Sarah Poole for Women’s Kayak; Sean McBeath and Keegan Nagai for Men’s Canoe; and Brian Malfesi, Keith Kelleway, Ken Muir, David Nykl and Josh Horacsek for Men’s Kayak.

A new award has been created, the ACE (Achieving Community Excellence) Leadership Award. This award is for “taking the leadership skills they have honed through sport and are applying them in innovative and exciting ways for the benefit of their clubs, schools and communities.” The RCKC recipients of this new commendation are Brian Malfesi and Clara van Meel. Brian Malfesi has been a club volunteer for many events and sent a letter to the Athlete’s Voice expressing how the recent denial of Gaming funds has affected athletic groups throughout the province. Clara van Meel has clocked an extraordinary amount of volunteer hours, coaching younger athletes, assisting with our new ‘Girls Only’ program, and was an integral part of the volunteer group during Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows 2009 BC Disability Games.

Athlete of the Year Award winners in each age category are named annually, and this year the club’s athletes were recognized in the following categories: Bantam Women: Olivia Cavasinni, Midget Women: Sara Mitchell, Midget Men: Brian Malfesi, Juvenile Men: Keith Kelleway, Junior Men: Ken Muir, Master B Women: Virginia Kuran and Master B Men: Michael van Meel.

And finally, membership in the Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club is a family affair, and parent volunteers who donate their time as officials at regattas held around the province were celebrated for their volunteer hours with a small gift. Of the fourteen volunteer officials who clocked the most volunteer hours, nine were parent volunteers from the Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club.

About Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club: The Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club has been providing high quality recreational and competitive paddling opportunities since 1982. The club offers a wide range of paddling programs suited for all levels of participation. For more information on the club, visit www.rckc.ca

More than 20 years ago Michelle Cederburg won the Ridge Canoe & Kayak Club’s first medal at the Canadian National Championships. Now, every year when RCKC goes to Nationals it is with the realization that getting into a final through 3 heats of 9 competitors can be a huge achievement for one of our Maple Ridge, Mission or Pitt Meadows athletes. (Making a final places the athlete in the top 9 in Canada.) But in spite of the odds - Ridge athletes came home from the 2009 Canada Sprint National Championships with 12 medals and a bunch of kids who made those coveted finals.

RCKC matched their last year placing of 13th out of the 30 clubs across Canada, and again, like the Canada Summer Games one week earlier – Nationals was a great team effort. Ridge athletes made finals (and gained points) in more than 25 events, Ridge athletes finished 5th or higher in 17 of those finals, and Ridge athletes won medals in 8 events bringing home a total of 2 Gold, 5 Silver and 5 Bronze.

Peter Majewski, RCKC’s head coach, singled out Brian Malfesi who’s silver and bronze medals place him in the top three midget sprint athletes in Canada, as well as the contribution of Gillian Fedechko and Michelle Kosaka. Gill and Michelle accounted for medals in 5 events including a gold in the C-2 200 meter event. “We have a great group of kids here, with many young kids new to our sport and new to the club - we are very excited about our future” he stated.

The Canadian Sprint Canoe Kayak National Championships ran from September 2 to September 5 in Sherbrooke Quebec. The Canada Summer Games ran from August 25 through August 28 in Prince Edward Island. The Ridge Canoe & Kayak club athletes have two weeks off before training resumes again in late September.

Charlottetown, PEI - Competitive athletes from the Ridge Canoe & Kayak Club helped Team BC win a total of 14 medals at the 2009 Canada Summer Games in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island against the best paddlers from the other provinces in Canada.

Team BC brought home two Gold, three Silver, and nine Bronze medals, the best finish ever attained by Team BC in the sport of Canoe/Kayak at the Summer Games, which are held once every four years. Team BC finished third overall in women's events and took fourth place overall in the men's events.

Team BC was led by Nicole Haywood of Nanaimo BC, who won two Gold medals in individual women's canoe, (C-1 200m and 500m), and a Silver medal in the women's C-1 1000m event.

Ridge athletes Michelle Kosaka and Amanda Sublett teamed up to win Silver medals in the women's C-2 2000m race, while RCKC's Clara van Meel teamed up with Rebecca Ally of Burnaby to win Bronze medals in both the K-2 1000m and K-2 2000m women's kayak events. Kosaka and Haywood also brought Bronze medals to BC in the women's 500m C-2 event. Brian Malfesi and Ken Muir of RCKC won Bronze medals in the men's K-2 2000m while Sean McBeath also from RCKC, pitched in with a Bronze in the C-1 2000m.

Krystof Lepianka, the Provincial Coach for the sport said, "We have had some very good results here and the whole team contributed to this tremendous success". Team BC and Ridge athletes won medals or finished 4th in 18 of the 36 events which led the team to its best points total ever, creating eager anticipation for the next Canada Summer Games in 2013.

The Ridge athletes are now competing in the Canadian Canoe Association Championships in Sherbrooke, Quebec (Sept. 2 to Sept. 6) to determine the overall Champion among the 30 or so competitive Canadian Paddling Clubs.

About Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club: The Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club has been providing high quality recreational and competitive paddling opportunities since 1982. The club offers a tremendous range of paddling programs suited for all ages and levels of participation, from fitness to High Performance racing. For more information on the club, visit www.rckc.ca

Maple Ridge and Mission paddlers will be out in force when Team BC competes in the Canoe/Kayak competitions at the Canada Summer Games in Prince Edward Island August 22-29. 14 of the 24 paddlers on Team BC are from Ridge Canoe & Kayak Club (RCKC). All have entered a final intense training period in preparation.

"Having our members occupy more than half the team speaks volumes about the kind of athletes we have training with us and reflects well on the challenging program that has evolved over the years at RCKC," said Peter Majewski RCKC head coach. "Our top athletes train year round in anticipation of competing at the highest level. We’re proud that RCKC is able to help these athletes recognize their potential and then work closely with them to achieve their goals."

To be able to compete in Canada Summer Games competition, paddlers must train for at least two years and qualify in 200m, 500m, 1000m and 2000m distances. The RCKC members completed their qualification time trials in June at Whonnock Lake, and in early July while in Regina. All of the RCKC members going to PEI have at least three years’ experience and many of them won medals in the 2007 Western Canada Games.

2009 CANADA SUMMER GAMES – BC CANOE-KAYAK TEAM

Women Canoe Discipline

Women Kayak Discipline

Men Canoe Discipline

Men Kayak Discipline

Coaches/Management

The Ridge Canoe & Kayak Club is a flat-water sprint paddling club based at Whonnock Lake in Maple Ridge, BC. A community-based club, RCKC has offered both recreational and competitive aquatic sports programs to the Maple Ridge, Mission and Pitt Meadows residents since 1982. RCKC welcomes people of all levels/ages and provides a variety of canoe, kayak and dragon boat programs for its members and for the community, with an emphasis on water safety, fun and boat skills – in that order.

When the Ridge Canoe & Kayak Club (RCKC) at Whonnock Lake began its new summer evening recreational paddling program for parents and children this week, they were taken aback by how quickly all of the spots were snapped up.

Such parent and child paddling programs have been popular in eastern Canada, so RCKC recently acquired several child-sized plastic kayaks as an experiment, to add a canoe and kayak program for 12 parent and child pairs to its list of programs. The new program is offered over an eight week period in July and August, under the guidance of qualified RCKC instructors.

“Quite frankly, it caught us a bit by surprise”, said Virginia Kuran, the Program Coordinator for RCKC. “All of the spots in the 10 and under category were gone by the time we started up, and our 10 - 12 Atom and Peewee and kiddie canoe and kayak sessions are almost sold out too. All of us at RCKC know the obvious value of getting kids involved in padding at an early age and getting them used to healthy exercise, but we weren’t expect this kind of uptake. We’re working to gauge how many more people might like to participate in these programs and based on that, we may look at expanding the program even further.”

All of RCKC’s courses take place at the RCKC Club facility alongside the Whonnock Lake Centre and registration details are available through Maple Ridge Parks and Recreation at 604.465.2470 or www.recreg4u.ca.

The Ridge Canoe & Kayak Club is a flat-water sprint paddling club based at Whonnock Lake in Maple Ridge, BC. A community-based club, RCKC has offered both recreational and competitive aquatic sports programs on Whonnock Lake since 1982. RCKC welcomes athletes of all levels and provides a variety of canoe and kayak programs for its members and for the community, with an emphasis on boating skills and water safety. For more information, visit www.rckc.ca.