The Kayak Club is one of the four water club sports offered through the Student Recreation Center. There are about 20 members on the team, which is also opened to canoers, with a majority being beginners. This year’s team is looking to rebuild after many of its premiere members graduated after last year.

“Right now, we are trying to teach people,” said Martin Leavitt, president of the club. “We had to kind of restart the club. Right now it’s just getting people to learn basic skills so they can actually get themselves down the river. In the river, it’s like paddle strokes, learning how to roll and things like that.”

Leavitt said team members have been working on their skills at Manderson Landing on the Black Warrior River. They meet there once or twice a week and are also having weekly meetings with demonstrations, allowing members to visualize kayaking away from the water.

Club treasurer Josh Hill said two members of last year’s team entered the world-renowned Green Race. Both of the members placed in the upper half of the competitors.

Kayaking is a year-long sport, but the team only competes during the spring. In the fall semester the team practices and goes on trips, which members consider to be a highlight of being a part of the team.

“We’re a spirited bunch,” said club secretary Mary Beth England. “We do go on lots of overnight trips and camp. We have a really good time.”

Leavitt said, “This year, since everyone’s pretty much beginners, we’ve only gone to the Coosa River, which is closer to Montgomery. It’s like a class one or two. Later on we are going to go to the Locust, which is close to Birmingham.”

Team members said it is not easy to find a large group to kayak with, and some of them come from backgrounds where they hit the rivers with only two other people. Hill joined the Kayak Club after transferring to the University this year.

“I’ve been kayaking a lot before I got [to UA],” Hill said. “I’ve been kayaking for about three years, and I got down here, and I found out there’s a club, and I immediately wanted to join.”

The team goes to three races in the spring. Two of the races will take place at the Locust River and the Mulberry River.

“Those rivers are really close [to Tuscaloosa],” Leavitt said. “Hopefully in the spring the new members are sticking with it and their skills are getting better and we can go to Ocoee-Nantahala River, which is in Tennessee-North Carolina.”

The club competes in different events that are all timed.

“They take a section of the river and they hang wires across from it,” England, the lone senior on the team, said. “They hang gates from the wires. Some are green and some red, you go down stream with some of them and upstream for others. You’re weaving through a course.”

It is similar to skiing, but kayakers have to travel back up as opposed to only going down. There are also down-river races, where kayakers race the entire river. England said a race like this usually takes 20 to 30 minutes.

England also said that head coach and advisor Tom Land has inserted some gates in the pool at the aquatic center for when the team practices indoors.

Though this year may be a rebuilding year, the Kayak Club is looking to build a foundation like it had before.

“I want to get a solid base of people that paddle so that when we graduate, the club will be able to continue itself,” Leavitt said.

For more information about the Kayak club, contact Tom Land at [email protected].