Kayakers Having a Ball

October-November 2001

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
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Elle Tim Harvey

How do you get adrenaline surging in a group of paddlers when there isn't a wave or rapid in sight? You throw them a ball, hang a couple of mesh goals a paddle-length above the water, and jump in the game as an exciting young sport unfolds.

Tristan Crees (center), an Aussie born Vancouverite, plays on Canadas National Teamand coaches for the Dragons.

A game of 'Canoe Polo' starts with each team against their goal line, waiting for the referee to toss a water polo ball to the centre. As he throws, each team's chosen speedster sprints for the yellow, floating ball. They meet with a kevlar-crunching collision to decide the first possession of the 20-minute game.

One team falls into zone defense with a single 'chaser' trying to knock the offense off the ball. As the offense closes in with hockey-like positioning, a goalie raises a paddle to guard the 1.5 metre net, and defending players bulldoze the offense from the six-metre zone. Playing the ball by hand or paddle, the offense deftly passes to an open player, who unleashes a blistering shot-unless, of course, a defender capsizes him first.

Canoe Polo, called Kayak Polo in the USA, has gained a following in BC since a wave of top international players recently settled in the Vancouver area. Three years ago BC didn't have a team to enter in Canada's annual championships in Edmonton, but in 2001, BC won gold in both the men's and women's division. It was the first time in the tournament's eight-year history that top honours weren't taken by a team based in Edmonton.

The game's Canadian debut came on a winter night in Edmonton, when a group of whitewater kayakers brought a water polo ball into a swimming pool. "It was like murder ball," remembers Rob Kerestes. "Anyone sane was out of the pool in under a minute. But eventually we got a copy of the rules and a group of us, who had still never faced serious competition, travelled to England for the first world championships." The year was 1994, and Canada finished a predictable last among 18 nations.

BC's men's team

Since then, Canada's game has dramatically improved, but not enough to threaten the world's elite teams. In top-ranked nations like England, Australia and Germany, the sport has a longer history of evolution and popularity. According to the British Canoe Union, the earliest version of Canoe Polo was played in Hunter's Quay, Scotland in 1880, by men sitting on barrels, with double-bladed paddles. By the 1930s Germans were playing in boats the length of sea kayaks and shooting on soccer-sized nets. Well into the seventies the Australian game was played in open, two-person canoes: the stern paddler steered while ball-handling came from the bow. It's an image still conjured when Canadians first hear of a sport called 'Canoe' Polo (a name that stems from the British notion that kayaks are a sub-class of canoes).

In the late eighties, polo gear was standardized. Regulation kayaks are fast, quick to turn, and easy to roll, echoing the design of a diamond-shaped slalom boat. Polo kayaks can't exceed three metres and have blunt, padded ends (a safety feature appreciated by anyone who's been speared by a sharp-nosed river kayak). Paddles must be of an adequate thickness (again, sharp paddles can be taped for safety). PFDs and helmets with face protection are essential.

Though Albertan clubs maintain a large fleet, real polo boats have always been scarce in BC. Vancouver's club, the Dragons, recently purchased six new polo kayaks, "so we'll have boats for anyone who wants to play," says Sam Mottram, a former Team South Africa captain, now Canada's most formidable player. With coaching from Mottram and expert players with Irish and Australian origins, the Dragons have developed an impressive pool of players. The impact of weekly practices at Simon Fraser University is "unbelievable," says Mottram. "In the last year things have picked up by three hundred percent." Several Dragons brought home hardware from the 2001 Canadian Nationals.

BC's women's team

The Victoria Devils Canoe Polo Club practices with the University of Victoria's whitewater kayak club on Friday nights in the MacKinnon Pool. Practicing in whitewater boats with nets made of plastic piping, the Devils also produced medal-winners from novice players, and welcome newcomers.

This summer in Sooke, Scott Taylor of Rush Adventures proved that "if you build it, they will come." In May he built two floating goals, then advertised Friday-night scrimmages. Upwards of fifteen players were turning out by August. Sooke's polo players are a hardy, ocean-paddling variety, who say they'll wear drytops and play outdoors all winter. "We'll set up floodlights and keep playing after dark," said Taylor. Another club comprised largely of junior players practices in Chilliwack.

Whether playing in warm pools or the cold ocean, in polo boats or plastic river runners, west coast paddlers are gravitating to kayaking's latest incarnation. Total newcomers are attending tournaments and forming teams. Canoe Polo's rising wave holds a future of steady growth: league tounaments, youth development teams, and a stronger national squad can be expected. Few paddlers can resist the appeal of a team sport that fosters an arsenal of skills, from throwing to stern-squirt turns and hand rolls. All you need to start are two nets and a ball.

© Tim Harvey - a native west coaster - is an avid kayaker, kayak guide, polo player and writing student at the University of Victoria.