managed to pull off a successful 2021 season despite a late start due to COVID-19 restrictions still being in place into June.
“It was quite a good season considering it was a little bit of a slow start in the spring with not being able to do very much, but we were able to get quite a bit of programming up and running this year, especially the after school stuff in the spring and the fall,” said Karen Tomlinson, commodore of the association.
“I think parents are always looking for outdoor activities for their kids to do. And the summer camps, they’re the same thing, they are always highly popular, especially last year with COVID too.”
With the after-school program in the spring and fall and the development program in the summer, the PCA ended up having 20 new paddlers join this season.
The club was also able to run its Women on Water program this summer, its Green Lake outrigger program and most of its regular paddling activities for returning members.
Unfortunately, the one program that wasn’t able to get off the ground this year was the association’s dragon boat program.
However, three PCA athletes were able to team up with members of paddling associations from Fort Langley, False Creek, Burnaby and Maple Ridge to compete in the Dragon Boat Festival in Vancouver where they finished in fifth place in the Adult Mixed A final and second in the Open Final.
The association also had paddling duo Landon Drain and Brenna Nott qualify and compete in Nationals in Ottawa, and four girls including Maxine Charron, Adelaide Kluftinger, Naomi Robert and Grace Cleland place second in their age category (U14) at the Pacific Cup Regatta, where Charron also took home first place in the U14 200-metre single kayak event.
The Pemberton Canoe Association hopes to be back to having a full season next summer.
