Burnaby Canoe and Kayak Club
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In Katja's own words: I came to Vancouver in 1997 for a 1 year post doctoral position at the University of British Columbia. One year turned into two then three and I ended up becoming a landed immigrant in 2000 - never regretted leaving Germany behind. My first experience with kayaking happened on a rainy and windy - typical late winter day - in Vancouver when my partner Jeff and I rented a double sea kayak and went for a 4hr trip. The store owners almost called the coast guard on us not wanting to believe anyone would want to be out on the ocean in English Bay for more than a couple hours on a day like that. But we were hooked. We spent many years touring the coastal waters of BC with whales, sea otters, sea lions, salmon, bears and empty sandy beaches (no palm trees though). While trying to stay in shape for the longer touring trips we started to get involved with the local sea kayak community. Honestly, sea kayaks are a lot of fun but don’t lend themselves to racing that much – if you want to go fast that is. So for years we tried to improve by getting into faster and faster sea kayaks until we met Kamini Jain – two-time Olympic paddler competing in the women K4 team for Canada in Sydney and Athens. She looked at my technique and said: “You paddle like a waddling duck”. That was the turning point for me and I really wanted to learn how to paddle and challenge myself to get faster. We joined BCKC in the early fall of 2003. And what a ride it has been since then. Starting in the most “stable” racing kayak and barely being able to stay afloat for more than a couple meters (racing kayaks could also be called most expensive swim suits if you ask me) to winning a gold medal in Master Woman A K1 500m race at the Canadian National Championship in Regina in 2006. I would have never believed I’d be able to paddle the same boat as Olympic Sprint kayaker Ben Fouhy from New Zealand in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney but now I do – mind you not nearly as fast and I still go for a swim once in a while. One of the most exciting parts of the sprint kayaking sport are the team boats and I really enjoy racing K2, K4 and war canoe with fellow racers. Over the years the club participated in many regattas all over the lower mainland and northern Washington as well as national events all over Canada. In recent years Jeff and I became more involved again with ocean racing paddling surfskis. While sprint races go over 200m, 500m and 1000m courses in a straight line (and you really hope for no waves and no wind), open water races are longer (10-100km) under sometime challenging conditions. The main events I've completed in over the last six years include:
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