Robert Lang Shares His Story
We got in touch with Robert Lang, the man who started the paddling program at Kennebecasis Paddling Centre, to hear about his life as a paddler and about how the only canoe club in New Brunswick came to be.
“I arrived in Canada in Feb 1980, already an established Downriver paddler on the Scottish & British team, I also did some Sprint & Marathon racing.
I had two kayaks following me to Canada and needed a place to paddle, The local Rowing club allowed me to store my boats & paddle from their tin shed at the time, the club was at that time called Kennebecasis Rowing & Canoe club, but I was the only person who paddled.
My first summer here I actually raced Sprint for Mic Mac Aquatic club, my highlight there was winning a Gold in K4 Senior men at Nationals held on Banook.
I also raced Downriver for Canada for a ten year period, and still compete in Marathon & Surfski.
In 1982 the province wanted a Rowing & Paddling team to represent them at 1985 Canada Summer Cames to be held on the Kennebecasis river near Saint John, they asked me to try develop a team which I did, that was the start of our small paddling club who to this day operates out of a much bigger building, The name of our club now is Kennebecasis Paddling Centre,
We have competed at Canada Games every 4 years since that time and try to get our better athletes to Nationals.
Despite being the only club that Sprint races in the Province we are continually introducing a youngster to the sport through our busy summer programs and compete competitively in the younger age divisions at ADCKC events, our higher performance athlete generally continue to develop by joining another Atlantic Div club to get to the next level.
Many kids have come thru our club over the years, spending their summers on the water, my own sons included Craig who went on to be the head coach for 8 years & Neil who went on to Cheema and National Team for a number of years.
We have a summer program & Day camps in operation this year and expect to have our young competitive athletes racing at the ADCKC events this summer, under the supervision of our head coach Danielle Kent, our club colours are a distinctive Black & Pink.”
If you liked this article. Please be sure to share it with others who may be interested, and follow along by subscribing to our mailing list.
