CEO Blog – December 2021

December marks an exciting time, with the summer season in full flight and holiday period fast approaching. As the weather starts to warm up, it’s a good time to remind our community of the importance of being safe in, on and around water. 

At the beginning of the month, Olympic gold medalists Tom Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen represented Paddle Australia in support of National Drowning Day to remind Aussies about the importance of safety. Working with Surf Life Saving Australia and Royal Lifesaving Australia they featured as part of the campaign that reminds people how to be safe on the water, not only this summer, but all year round. Click here to watch

With the holiday season, comes celebration, and a great opportunity to reminisce on the excitement that was the Paddle Australia Awards. Bringing the community together, albeit online, to reflect on the year that was, was a great reminder of how much our paddling community has achieved in the last year.

We were also able to induct dual Olympian Ramon Andersson into the Paddle Australia Hall of Fame, in a special presentation by fellow Hall of Fame inductees and former teammates John Jacoby and Danielle Woodward. If you missed any of the awards, you can catch up on Facebook and the PA website.

This month, I was also pleased to confirm our new look High Performance leadership team. After recently announcing the appointments of Kim Crane (National Performance Director) and David Foureur (General Manager Performance – Canoe Sprint & Paracanoe), it was exciting to unveil the new structure and recent appointments. 

As we look ahead to the next 12 months, it is exciting to start to confirm the return of national competitions. As recently announced, the Paddle Australia Canoe Sprint Championships will be held in Penrith, Sydney in 2022 from the 13-17 April. Over the coming weeks, we hope to confirm the 2022 National Competitions Calendar, and are working closely with the Discipline Technical Committees to do so.

May I take this opportunity to thank you for all your support over what has been a challenging but exciting 12 months. Whether spending time with family and friends or taking the opportunity to visit another part of our beautiful country now that more borders are opening up, whatever you are doing over the Christmas and New Year break, take care and stay safe.

Yours in Paddling,

Phil Jones

Paddle Australia CEO

 

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