This has been a great summer so far, and this year’s regatta at Hinterland Beach was no different. The attendance on the beach grew as the afternoon progressed, and it appears that while we may havebeen a few attendees short of last year’s turnout, it was close. Once again we had to run 2 heats for the men’s front crawl swim race, but we could only muster one brave soul to swim in the over 50 noodle race – good on you Beth, you rock! The sailing race only had 2 participants this year: John/Marie Craig in their CL16, and Ed Byers/Martin McLeod in their O’Day sailboat. The CL16 prevailed this year giving John and Marie the sailing trophy. Organizer William Cahoon is looking for a volunteer chaser boat for next year’s race so that he can join in the competition. Please contact us at kapoacares@gmail.com if you can meet this need next year (11am to 12:30pm).
This year’s sandcastle entries exceeded prior years, the enthusiasm and inspiration was tremendous and impressed our judges, Deanne and Jackie. They so enjoyed listening to each artist describe their sandcastle materials and methods.
This year’s winners for swimming were once again, Ian Cox (men’s division) and Alaina Ralph (women’s division). Close runners up for the men’s trophy were Aleks Pyz and Cadence St. Louis. Close runners up for the women’s trophy were Nyah Bilous and Lindsay Cox. The all around competitor trophy for highest points received in both swimming and canoeing races went this year to Aleks Pyz, with next closest competitors Gabriel Coutu and Max Perry. Would really like to see more women competing for that trophy next year, by getting many more women and girls into the canoe races. If you have any ideas on how to encourage this participation, please contact Kerra at kapoacares@gmail.com.
The day finished with our usual tug-of-war competition that resulted in 3 separate winners – the really little ones, the junior category, and the always popular senior category. Congratulations to everyone who competes in this grueling battle at the end of a long day, and special congrats to the senior winners – the Pyz/Lagerquist families. We’ve seen them on the podium many times!
Very special for this year were our new regatta t-shirts featuring a refreshed logo on the front and a word cloud of all the things we most cherish on the back, in the shape of our own Kamaniskeg Lake! Thanks to Deanne Farrar for her creative inspiration and her time to get these shirts designed, ordered and delivered in time for the Poker Run and regatta. We pre-sold 120 t-shirts over Facebook and through our KAPOA newsletter, and sold all of our remaining adult shirts and many of the youth sized inventory on the day of the regatta. For those who didn’t get a shirt, stay tuned for more shirts to be available next year. We’ll take a pulse early next summer for pre-sales once again, which is your best bet for getting in on the action.
The regatta could not be a success without our sponsors – Cathy Pitts Re/Max Country Classics (drinks, ribbons and trophies), Yuill’s value-mart (hotdog weiners), the Pyz family (hotdog buns) and Sand Bay Camp (ice). Just as important to the day are the numerous volunteers who jump in to help on BBQ (Michel, Gisele, Jason, Cindy), tabulation (Lisa), both on the swim dock conducting the races (Sean,
Mike) and its installation and removal (Max, Gab, Russ, Mik, Brian & Dave), judging sandcastles (Deanne, Jackie), finish line (Kerra, Frenchy, Johnny and family), under the tent selling food tickets, t-shirts and renewing your memberships (Lynne, Coleen), set up and take down (Duncan, all). Apologies if I’ve missed anyone! My family, good friends and KAPOA fellow volunteers have been coming out for years to help with this event and I can’t thank them enough on this 10th year of my participation. We are an amazing team! Looking forward to doing it all again next year, see you then….Kerra
