‘This Event Will Probably Die’
Kent,
Just got back from paddling about 300 miles in Florida and am catching up on my newspaper reading.
Reference your article in the 3/14 Echo.
The canoe event actually started in 1972 with a group of local paddlers. Then in 1974 it became a “REAL” race – trophies and all. I’ve paddled all 46 of the events and in 1984 took the event under my wing (so to speak) as I was President of the Pennsylvania Association of Canoers and Kayakers and wanted to see it grow.
It became the Very Best Canoe race in the state of Pennsylvania. We even hosted the very first United States Canoe Assoc. Stock Aluminum Championships (hosted them twice) and had folks from as far away as Florida and Texas come here to paddle; some 15 states were represented. We had a “Pro” stock aluminum race about 20 years ago with some fairly good prize money and some great paddlers showed up to participate.