Row, Row, Row your Boats

Red River North Tourism was pleased to be a premiere sponsor of the Red River Paddle Challenge on Saturday, September 26th. Sixty-two participants paddled the 45km (28mi) course. The race had a staggered start, with the entrants leaving St. Vital Park beginning at 9:36am and paddling to The Half Moon Drive In at Lockport.

The race was open to any paddle-powered craft, and this saw canoes, paddleboards, kayaks, outriggers, and a four-person paddleboard compete. This year, due to Covid-19, registration was limited to solo or tandem types, unless all paddlers were from the same household. This ruled out dragon-boats and war canoes, but did not affect the overall success of the day.

The challenge featured three checkpoints, and saw an overall record time of 3 hours 38 minutes set by Florian Haskerkehrer and Mateus Braga in the sprint canoe category. The weather held and it was a good thing as some paddlers were on the water for up to 8 hours.

Competitors were met at the finish line and welcomed to the RRN region by volunteers from Red River North Tourism. Every participant was presented with a Red River North Tourism gift bag and a participation medal from Red River Paddle Challenge. Each RRNT backpack tote contained bottled water courtesy of Brent Hayluk at WOW Water Selkirk; Barr Soap – Solid Hand Lotion by Christina Barr; a sampling of RRNT’s special blend of tea from Michelle Bloom at Three6Tea; a regional attractions map from Interlake Tourism Association, along with other informational material. In addition, WishME (Inclusion Selkirk) provided several special gift items created by local artists. These were added to a random selection of the gift packages.