Burloak Canoe Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Burloak Canoe Club is a flatwater canoe-kayak club located in Oakville, Ontario. It serves the communities of Burlington and Oakville and provides a variety of canoe-based activities for local residents focusing primarily on the two disciplines of sprint canoe and sprint kayak. Burloak Canoe Club is located on Navy Flats along the banks of Sixteen Mile Creek and boasts a sizeable building that caters not only to sport but to special events as well.
Burloak's history emerges from two former canoe clubs: The Mohawk Canoe Club, formerly situated in Burlington where the Spencer Smith Park now lies, and the Oakville Racing Canoe Club. Mohawk was started in 1958 by Mike Moir, Bill Pitt and Bill Dinsmore and raced under the black and green colours. The Oakville Racing Canoe Club was founded in 1974 by former Toronto Island paddler Bill Collins and Dorothy Jamieson. Oakville's colours were brown and white but when the two clubs merged in 1989, the new entity adopted a new set of official colours, though the Mohawk colours are often used unofficially to represent Burloak.
The Burloak Canoe Club is an integral part of the local community, participating in local events, hosting events and providing a perfect alternative to people looking for a unique and challenging sport. Several of the country's top paddlers have come out of the Burloak Canoe Club. These include Larry Cain (Olympic gold and silver medallist in C-1, 1984), Mark Oldershaw (Junior World Championship gold medallist in C-1, 2001) and Adam van Koeverden (Olympic gold and bronze medallist in K-1, 2004).
Burloak has won the national championship on seven occasions: 1981, 1982, 1983 (as Oakville Racing Canoe Club) and 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2007.
