Tag: rowing

March 2024 Rowing PEI Newsletter

We are getting closer and closer to our 2024 on the water season!  With no ice in the Charlottetown Harbour, we have our fingers crossed that the docks will be in at the Charlottetown Yacht Club as early as they were last year when they went in April 29th. 

It will still take a while for the water to warm up, but that will be the first sign of spring for Rowing PEI!! 

2. Rowing PEI Annual General Meeting 

Saturday March 16, 2024 10 am to noon

House of Sport – Royalty Centre 40 Enman Crescent Charlottetown

(storm date: Saturday March 23, 2024  same time) 

We hope you will join us to hear highlights from last season and look ahead to 2024.

Everyone who attends will have a chance to win a stylish Rowing PEI toque!

 

3. Saturday April 27, 2024 – Ice Blaster Indoor Rowing Challenge  9:00 am to 12:30 pm
   Stratford Emergency Measures Building, Georgetown Road roundabout
   Racing distances: 500 metres, 1,000 metres, 2,000 metres and a 2,000 m relay!
   Age Divisions: 18 and under (Junior) and 18+  (Adult)
   *Registration opens April 1st. You need to register with Rowing Canada and pay the $30 registration fee by Friday April 26th. https://membership.rowingcanada.org/JoinProgram
   
   Here is the list of events:2024 Ice Blaster Indoor Rowing Challenge

 

 

4. Key Dates for Returning Members and Volunteers – Here are a few important dates to put in your calendars:

Tuesday April 30, 2024 – 6:30 – 8:00 pm House of Sport – 40 Enman Crescent – Safety training for boat drivers/coaches/dock captains – review 2024 safety plans for Charlottetown/Brackley and Brudenell

Saturday May 4, 2024  House of Sport – 40 Enman Crescent – Safety refresher for returning members 10 am to noon

We will be offering Early Bird Membership Fees in the month of April! Stay tuned for details!! 

 

5. PEI proud!!  Our crew in Charlottetown rowed just over 300 kilometres, including 26 from Brianne from Free from the Harbour and a half marathon (21.2km) from Brendan Reynard!!  We had 15 km from Emily Cameron and then this crew almost all has personal best distances. Thanks also to CrossFit Summerside for their 85 kms. Prince Edward Island rocked Indoor Rowing Day in Canada 2024! Nationally, We had 1,033 participants who rowed 5,326 kilometres!! WOW!  We didn’t quite make it across Canada but we know what it takes for next year. We are proud that we had kms rowed from every province plus the Northwest Territories!!! #indoorrowingdayincanada2024 #coasttocoast2024

6. Free from the Harbour Documentary Showing – Rowing PEI members had a great time at City Cinema watching a documentary about ocean rowing and meeting Team Free From the Harbour. 

Brianne Savage (PEI) and Meryn Avery (NS) are two best friends from the Maritimes who will be rowing 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean in 2025. They are set to be the first all-Canadian female pair ever to attempt the crossing and are raising money for the Marine Animal Response Society along the way. #worldstoughestrow #oceanrowing #rowingpei 

7.  Intro to Rowing 2024:

Do you have friends or family who want to learn to row in 2024? We are taking names now for our summer program!!  There are a limited number of spots available. 

Dates and details are here: https://rowingpei.ca/2024-intro-to-rowing/

Intro to Rowing has a new format in 2024!  We are starting indoors at Kinetic Fitness for two sessions before the safety training and time on the docks and on the water. 

Please help us spread the word about our great sport and help us grow the club!! 

Thanks to Margarita for creating this new infographic that you can share!! 

 

8. Mary MacLean reps Rowing PEI at the World Indoors in Prague! 

Congratulations to Mary MacLean who wore the Rowing PEI colours at the World Rowing Indoor Championships in Prague.  Mary competed in the 500 metres and 2,000 metres events over two days. 

9. Lunenburg Tour – Our friends at the Lunenburg Rowing Club are hosting a coastal rowing tour in late July. The cost is $600 for 3 days of rowing. 

Here is the link for the LYC Rowing’s 2024 Rowing Tour

https://www.lyc.ca/rowing-tour-information.html

​Join us for a coastal rowing adventure off the coast of Nova Scotia!

Enjoy coastal rowing around the beautiful islands and historic waterways of Mahone Bay, while experiencing the unique UNESCO World Heritage town of Lunenburg and surrounding area. Hosted by Lunenburg Yacht Club Rowing, with support from Row NS, this tour will provide three half days of rowing allowing the afternoons free for exploring. See the website for more information!

 

 

2022 was a very busy year for Rowing Prince Edward Island with a team of ten competitors heading to the Canada Summer Games in the Niagara Region in August, and the introduction of new programming around increasing diversity, as part of the Community Sport for All Initiative. 

2022 Year in Review

Indoor Rowing 2022

The year started with Indoor Rowing Day in Canada in February. There were still COVID restrictions in many parts of the country, including here on Prince Edward Island. But we had a good group taking part, including many of our Canada Games rowers and their families! Thanks also to Mary MacLean and Verna Ryan for hosting an event at the TCAP facility in Montague.

 

In April 2022, the Canada Games rowers took part in our first ever Ergathon fundraiser. Teams Red and Green raced for 21 kilometres for PEI bragging rights! They raised $3,500 towards the purchase of 6 pairs of Concept 2 oars to help them prepare for the Canada Games. Thanks to their friends and families for supporting the team. 

 

Celebrating new boats in 2022!

In June, we celebrated two new racing shells for the Canada Games rowers! Their fundraising efforts raised $24,000 towards a new double, Brackley Bullet and a new single, Tippy Tippy. We are grateful to all of our sponsors and supporters in 2022: Arsenault Bros Construction, Cooke Insurance, Brown’s Volkswagen, Cymbria Lions Club, Robbie Shaw and Shaw’s Hotel, PEI government, Legacy Fund and Sport PEI. THANK YOU! #grateful #supporters

   

Another of our favourite memories of 2022 was the debut of the “Betty Smith”, our newest coastal single. She was donated to Rowing PEI by Claude Maurice, in honour of his late wife Betty Smith, who learned to row on the North River in Charlottetown. Claude lives in B.C. but was planning a trip back to P.E.I this summer to visit family. One thing led to another, and we have a wonderful new member and a very special new boat. #rowingmemories2022 #bettysmith #thankful

Crew 22: Summer of 2022 

We had a great new summer rowing program for new juniors called Crew 22. 

They went from Learn to Row to competing at the Red Island Regatta in just 8 weeks!! 

FUN FACT: There were TWO sets of twins!

Diversity and equity are a major focus for Sport Canada and Rowing Canada Aviron. In 2022, we were fortunate enough to receive more than $42,000 in funding, which allowed us to purchase some new equipment, including a new coastal double and two indoor rowing machines, and helped cover the costs of our summer and winter programming. Our Crew 22 received national recognition, including at the recent RCA conference in Victoria, B.C.

 

Whistle Days 2022

One of the best parts of any rowing season is getting to see new members succeed!  Congrats to everyone who got their whistle in 2022 and graduated to become an L2. Proud of all of you! #learntorow2022 #whistles2022

 

 

Another great highlight was a best ever performance by our Canada Games rowing team in August 2022. Hard work paid off with personal bests for everyone. What great memories! 

Thanks to our coaches, parents, support staff, everyone who helped them get to the Games, especially head coach Chantelle Hanley who spent much of the summer here on P.E.I. or traveling with the team. 

Red Island Regatta 2022

We celebrated the return of the Red Island Regatta on the beautiful Brudenell River, with competitors from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario joining us for the first time since 2019. Thanks to all of our volunteers, sponsors, spectators, officials and rowers. We can’t wait to do it again August 26 and 27, 2023!! 

And then there was Fiona….

 

In September, everyone rallied to help us move the boats to safety as post-tropical storm Fiona approached. We lost some small pieces of equipment at the barn at Brackley, which sustained extensive damage. Fortunately, our new dock stayed more or less in place and was brought to shore after the storm. 

It wasn’t the end to the season that we were hoping for, but everyone was safe and that is what matters. 

After a short break, we hit the indoor rowing machines at Kinetic Fitness, with a group of juniors and another of adults, as part of our 2022-2023 I-Crew program.  

Looking ahead to 2023

 

We continue to grow our pool of coaches and umpires! 

Would you like to become an umpire? Please contact our umpire coordinator, Mary-Lynne Bruvels to find out more.   

Want to become a coach? Reach out to Nancy at rowingpei@gmail.com

We are excited for what 2023 will bring as our Hillsborough Boathouse project takes shape, thanks to an exciting new committee including David Arsenault and Stephen Murray. 

There are a few other new initiatives we hope to launch very soon! Stay tuned.

We are looking forward to another great year of growing our sport in 2022.

We hope you will join us…and tell your friends and family about us!!

The board of Rowing Prince Edward Island