The Victoria Lake Club (VLC) Swim to Paddle programme held the end of the year Cool Runners Summer Challenge awards on December 11.

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The summer challenge is an incentive-based 10-week series encouraging the students to attend regularly and improve their overall performance.

“This event was sponsored by local business owners, Uwe and Caroline Schmidthaus, and their company Cool Runners,” said Wayne Saunders, VLC Canoeing Committee and club chairperson.

The morning allowed the parents to witness first-hand how well their youngsters had adapted to being in the water and their swimming skills.

There was also a ‘Dusi Time Trial’ event for all the youngsters to compete in and demonstrate their canoeing and portaging skills.

Saunders commended the three senior coaches, Loveday Zondi, Richard Wade and Richard Cele, for their commitment and dedication.

“They give up their free time to coach the youngsters twice a week. We try to compensate our coaches by ensuring they keep their qualifications up to date and by assisting with their tertiary training, to ensure they get some additional benefit other than just giving back to the community,” said Saunders.

The Swim to Paddle initiative started in October 2020 and the aim was to teach local youngsters how to be water safe and swimming basics.

Saunders said the initiative has been a success as it created an opportunity to expose the youngsters to water sports.

“We initially hoped to attract about 10 regulars for three months, but because of the tremendous support, we have managed to garner, as well as the overall enthusiasm of the students and coaches, we now have close to 30 regulars 12 months later,” said Saunders.