EDMONTON – Sure you can canoe on water, but what about down a ski hill? Plans are underway for what’s bound to be quite the sight to see.
For the first time, a flying canoe race will be held at the Edmonton Ski Club. It’s part of the Flying Canoë Volant Festival.
People are encouraged to get a team together, dress up and barrel down the ski hill in none other than, yes, you guessed it, a canoe.
“We thought with Red Bull Crashed Ice last year… We thought why don’t we make something that’s truly Edmonton and there’s nothing more Canadian than a canoe and just imagine it racing down a hill,” Daniel Cournoyer, festival producer said of the event.
“It’s a luge-type toboggan run, but all in a canoe.”
Two people will go in one canoe and race against three other pairs. There are four parallel runs, each 300 metres long.
“This is just a really great toboggan run with a series of rises and falls to control speed and it’ll be all about the start – who can get their fur bundle in their canoe and their tent poles in and then launch off the top of the hill,” Cournoyer said.
“It’s a rush. I did it.”
The race is being held on Wednesday, Feb. 3 from noon. to 5 p.m. If there is a high demand, a second day of racing will go down on Feb. 4.
Teams of four to eight people are encouraged to really get into the fun by creating a team flag or banner and dressing up in a team costume.
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The winner of the race will get their team name on the inaugural flying canoe race trophy. There will also be prizes for the best costume and sportsmanship.
Teams are required to pay a $500 entrance fee. The festival will provide the canoes.
The flying canoe race is all part of the Flying Canoë Volant Festival, which is being held on Feb. 5 and 6.
Proceeds of the race go back into festival programming.
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