Canoe team pours mold for race

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 12:48 AM

Members of the concrete canoe team prepare their canoe mold Saturday for the upcoming competition. The Nevada team took first place in the American Society of Civil Engineers Concrete Canoe Competition. Photo by Thomas Levine /Nevada Sagebrush

Twenty students worked together on Saturday in an 11-hour project with one goal: to make a concrete canoe float and capable of racing.

Members of the concrete canoe team poured the mold for this year’s competitive racing canoe and will competitively race it in April, where they hope to win take home a national award. In 2008, the team took first place in the American Society of Civil Engineers Concrete Canoe Competition.

“It takes this long due to the time it takes to prepare a batch of concrete,” he said. “Our concrete is highly specialized and actually floats. If a cylinder of our concrete were to be dropped in [regular] concrete it would rise to the surface due to its low density.”

The team is made up of about 25 members. Nine paddle the canoe in five different races and three present a Powerpoint on the work at the competition. The rest work on designing and building the canoe.

There are four categories within the competition, including the design paper, the business presentation, the final product and the races. Gonzalez said there is a lot of work to be done to prepare.

The team will work on its design paper, a report summarizing the improvements the team has made, the project management and their concrete. The paddling team will practice on the weekends and the presentation team will prepare a 10-minute presentation on the canoe, which is called “Battle Born.”

The team said it is always looking for new members. Members are not required to be engineering majors. Students interested in joining the team may visit the team’s Web site nevadacanoe.com or email nevadacanoe@gmail.com.

“There is never a lack of tasks that need to be completed before our competitions,” Gonzalez said.
The team’s biggest obstacle this year has been fundraising.

“The team is still in need of more funds to help offset the cost for the team traveling to Chico, Calif., for the regional competition,” Gonzalez said.

The regional competition will be held April 8 to 11. There, the team will compete in all four areas.

“We hope to win at regionals this year and advance to nationals again, which will be held at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo June 17 to 19,” Gonzalez said.

Christina Houge can be reached at news@nevadasagebrush.com.