The Eastern Bay Canoe Racing Club’s goal of producing more international paddlers and growing the sport in the Eastern BOP are set to take a major step forward.
Over the next 12 to 18 months, the club has plans to increase the number of canoes for beginners to train and race in from 10 to 25 and provide easier practice access through a new storage facility on recreation reserve land at the end of Eivers Road. Following consultation with immediate neighbours and the Dog Obedience Club, which also uses the area, the use of the reserve has been approved on a six-month trial basis by the Whakatāne District Council.
The club wants more 10 – 16-year olds to get involved and believes easy and secure storage is vital to its success. Using the Eivers Road riverside reserve will allow paddlers to launch their canoes at the nearby waka ama launching facility, which the Council built several years ago. It also means that younger club members are less reliant on transport to get their canoes onto the water - they simply walk the boats up and over the stopbank to the river.
The club has obtained a shipping container, which will be refurbished and moved on-site, providing secure storage with minimal impact. “The beauty of using a shipping container is that if the trial is discontinued for any reason, we can just pick the container up and shift it,” says club spokesman Tony Lovett.
Council staff have worked closely with the Canoe Club to ensure the facility is placed in a suitable location, with appropriate conditions applied, including the type and colour of cladding materials, occupation licence and reserve use.
Former Whakatane resident and Olympic Gold Medallist Lisa Carrington is right behind the club’s request. “This will be a fantastic facility for the club to build from in for the future. “It would have been great while I was at high school to have a facility like this to store my kayak,” she says. “This facility will certainly enable the youth of the area to have much better access to the river for training throughout the year.”
The Club will be seeking a building consent for the facility as soon as possible to make the most of the trial period.