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Strong debut for MBOCC

Racing together for the first time, the recently created Maple Bay Ocean Canoe Club managed to place ninth out of 15 crews in the Victoria V12 to V21 Race late on Feb. 1. "This was MBOCC's inaugural race and we got to introduce the club to the paddling community," spokesman Joe Lobo explained. "The crew was made up of novice and intermediate paddlers, with assistance from some expert paddlers. All in all, this was considered a novice crew because we never practiced as a whole unit."

Two six-seater outrigger canoes (OC6s) were attached together for the Victoria race, making up a V12. The crews raced from the Gorge Paddling Club to a marker just outside the Inner Harbour and back, for a course 10.5km in length. With the experts leading and the rest of the paddlers following to the best of their abilities, the MBOCC finished the course in 53 minutes and seven seconds.

The inaugural MBOCC crew was made up of Lobo, Tiffany Bartlette, Bruce Johnson, Shirley Imada, Carol Henderson, Marcia Roberts, Shannon Carlow, Dan Gellein, Mike and Cara Weirmier, and Darryl and Marion Draper.

Anyone interested in learning more about outrigger canoes can look up the Maple Bay Ocean Canoe Club on Facebook.



Kevin Rothbauer

About the Author: Kevin Rothbauer

Kevin Rothbauer is the sports reporter for the Cowichan Valley Citizen
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