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Legacy Award Recipients
2008 Legacy Award Recipients
The 2008 Legacy Award was presented to Gord and Rena by Greg Hunter.
The 2007 Legacy Award is awarded to Bruce Waldie for the contribution he has made to improving the level and competence of Judges and other Officials in the sport of Whitewater Slalom. Bruce has given countless clinics to those interested in raising their level of awareness of the rules and their expertise in applying them.
"As parents/volunteers, my wife Diane and
I got involved early on in our son's paddling career as judges", says
Waldie. "However, until Nationals in Chilliwack in the early 2000's, we
never had a clear understanding of many of the rules. The organizers
that year did a good job of trying to
educate officials and for the most part, it worked. However, several
very poor calls and decisions were made that year and I complained about
them."
"That led to the inevitable retort 'well if you think you can do a better job...', so I decided that I could."
Bruce started studying the rules and even
found some inconsistencies that he raised with the International Canoe
Federation (ICF). He then began giving judging clinics with the first
one on May 9, 2004 at Canoe Meadows. "The weather was awful, it was cold
and we had wet snow.
Several people had tents collapse on them overnight. I had to give the
clinic inside the AWA tent, but it went well. We had to suspend the
practice race twice. We could not see the gates on the far side of the
river because of the falling snow!"
Bruce has been able to provide high quality training to over 75 people since then, with many of them coming back for refresher courses. He has been Chief Judge and Chief Official at two National Championships and continues to offer his advice and services whenever he can.
Bruce obtained his IJSL designation (International Judge SLalom) in Prague, Czech Republic in the summer of 2006 after writing a 3 part exam and being a shadow judge at the World Championships. He has now been selected to be one of less than 50 people in the world that will have a new designation of ICF-JSL. He will travel to Beijing China in August 2007 for the Pre-Olympics Test Event, then to Foz do Iguazzu Brazil for the World Championships, and again to Beijing for the Olympics in 2008.
Bruce has been a long time contributor and executive member of the Cottonwood Kayak Club and the Alberta Whitewater Association. He has also been a volunteer referee for Canoe Polo.
Bruce has a motto for all club activities: "none of us could do this without all of us."
Congratulations on this award, Bruce
The 2006 Legacy Award is awarded to the
teams of Barry and Brenda Allen, and Laurie and Marian Curson for the
contributions they have made to club development in Alberta. Starting in
1988 they formed the Cottonwood Kayak Club (CKC) as a result of strong
interest in their area for paddling activities. With a Sport Development
Grant they purchased 4 plastic recreational kayaks which were used by
adults and juniors to develop kayaking skills.
By 1991, CKC was fielding a junior team in the Alberta Summer Games
which did very well. They added 4 Wildwater kayaks to broaden their
experience level. The team was awarded an “Outstanding Team” award by
the town of Innisfail.
In 1992 they built a permanent flatwater course for Slalom training,
with costs covered through club fundraising. They started a second
Junior (development) team. The “senior” juniors started coaching and
helping out the younger athletes. Throughout this all, the Allens and
the Cursons continued to coach and organize activities. CKC expanded to
winter training sessions at the Innisfail Aquatic Centre.
By 1993 CKC had added Adult and Play Paddle sessions for anyone in the
community that was interested. The Competitive Junior team did well
again at the Wetaskiwin Alberta Summer Games. This raised awareness of
the sport locally through newspaper articles and word of mouth.
After 1993, a trend became apparent. More and more experienced paddlers
were coming back to help coach the new paddlers. Parents were becoming
involved both as volunteers (judges, fund raisers, etc), and as
recreational paddlers. CKC became more than a club, it became a
community.
CKC, under the directorship of the Allens and the Cursons, became a club
that could become a role model for other clubs in Alberta and even in
Canada. With values like community, top down contributions by
experienced paddlers, involvement of families in all parts of paddling,
fund raising, and so on, who could go wrong?
Even though the Allens have moved to Airdrie and the Cursons are sailing
around the world (literally) CKC continues to thrive with the
involvement of a new executive that rose from the ranks of involved
parents.
CKC has produced a significant number of athletes who have competed at
Provincial, National, and International levels. At least 3 of their
alumni have been counted in the top 20 in the world. This all happened
because of the top down club structure that the Allens and the Cursons
fostered.
Thank you Barry, Brenda, Laurie, and Marian. Congratulations on
receiving the 2006 Legacy Award!
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2005 Legacy Award
Recipient The 2005 Legacy Award was presented to Greg Hunter at the 2005 Nationals Banquet by Gord and Rena Murrie. |
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2004 Legacy Award
Recipient The AWA Legacy award was presented to Chuck Lee, Pinch-O-Crow Creekers, at the AWA Annual General Meeting - Jan. 24, 2004, held in Cochrane, AB. This is the first time the AWA Legacy Award has been presented. The inscription reads "With appreciation for all your years of commitment, leadership and promotion of kayaking in Alberta". The Alberta Whitewater Association is proud to present this award to Chuck. Position/Discipline: Old
School Whitewater, K-1 river running and surfing, C-1 slalom,
C-2 slalom (stern left), Open Canoe whitewater playboating, Open
Canoe whitewater tripping, |
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Career Accomplishments:
- First time in a kayak was in 1972
- Built my first boat in 1974 – a Mark IV prototype
- Became an instructor in 1977 and learned to roll in 1978
- Education Chair for AWA in 1978 and President in 1984-1988
- Re-enlisted as Environment & Facilities Chair in 1998
- First race was in 1978 at Provincial Champs - Briarlies
- National Slalom Team Member 1980 – 1983 and 1991 in C-1 and C-2
- Best result Pan-Am Cup Gold Medalist in C-2 Slalom 1982 with Rick Lidstone
- Most exciting race – World Championship 1991 with John Irving at Tacen, Yugoslavia Best Trip – World Cup Circuit 1991
- 2004 - AWA Legacy Award
- First decent of the Ram River in 1982
- Still enjoying paddling and teaching people to paddle.
- Whitewater Instructor in kayak, C-1 and open canoe – Instructor Examiner for all levels in all boats since 1979
- Started the Pinch-o-Crow Creekers in 1997 to find other kids for Brace and Ciera to paddle with. Club has grown to 40 paddlers and each year about 80 people get introduced to kayaking through the club in Pincher Creek.
- Career highlights seeing my kids
take an interest in whitewater paddling and enjoying it.
