Contact people: Taxi Kotzee 083 609 8051 Chairperson: Rene Boehm 073 363 9866 Secretary: Belinda Morkel Safety officer: Phillip Stumper Dev coach: Etienne Laubscher 079 554 0050 Publicity manager: Andrea Kotze
The West Coast Canoe Club, which had a name and location change in 2015, started as the Navy Canoe Club in 1972. When the interest for canoeing grew within the Defence Force, the name changed to Defence (WP) Canoe Club. Many great canoeists were members of this club, e.g. Steffan Hugo, 5 x winner of Berg River Marathon. JT Basson, 2 x Berg winner. Chris Greeff, Berg winner 1979 and 6 x Springbok canoeist and many more. The club grew in strength and in 1989 it boasted a membership of over 60 paddlers and was ranked 4th amongst canoe clubs in WP. A number of events, during 1990 and shortly after, forced the club to be closed. The chairman was retrenched, the secretary was transferred and national service was abolished. Due to lack of suitable leadership and interest from the members the club closed in 1992. DSC struck canoeing of the list of defence sports and sold all the club equipment on auction. In 2000, the club was re-established and was known as the Simon’s
Town Military Canoe Club. Over the next 15 years most of the active paddlers where civilians and many of them came from the West Coast. In 2014 it was decided to add West Coast to the name. In 2015, new management at the Military sports office stopped supporting civilian club members, so it was decided to break away completely from the Military and establish the West Coast Canoe Club. The club members are very active and have already taken part in major races, like the Swartland / Pink lady, Berg, Oliphant’s, Brede, Green Kalahari and Fish River Marathons. Where is the club situated? Velddrif West Coast. We have limited space at the Velddrif Yacht Club for boat storage When is the time trial? There is no official time trial but there is lots of flat water training as organised amongst the members. It happens mainly on the weekends. Does the club have canoes / Skis for the beginners to try? We have a limited amount of canoes, mainly for the very underprivileged
children from the fishing communities. What makes us great There are lots of social paddlers meeting on the water over the weekends and you could rub shoulders with ex-Berg River winners. We believe that the club is very active and is hosting the West Coast Canoe Challenge, which presently is the most popular canoeing event on the WCCU calendar, with over 200 entries. The West Coast Canoe Club (WSC) was established to promote canoeing and environmental awareness in the geographical area of the West Coast and surrounding areas of the Western Cape. Some of our club members have taken the initiative to introduce and promote canoeing along the West Coast and more specifically in Velddrif. The aim of the club is to establish and maintain a development initiative, which will give children from the West Coast a chance to get involved in the sport of canoeing.
WEST COAST CANOE CLUB