From their home base at Gibsons Marina, the outrigger canoes can be seen plying the waters off Gibsons most every day of the year. We paddle for recreation, exercise, fresh air and just plain fun. Some of us paddle for speed, and compete as part of the Canadian Outrigger Racing Association. On Sunday, Oct. 11, a member of the Gibsons Paddle Club did just that.
Tamas Mihalyi achieved his goal of making the Canadian National team in the masters category, between 40 and 50 years old, at the Cana-dian Outrigger Racing Association time trials at Burnaby Lake.
Mihalyi is 46 years old. He came third in the singles, in a pool of 20 other master and open competitors.
Mihalyi’s wife Krizstina Harasztosi also made the Canadian National Team in women’s open. She said it was a big honour to be chosen on the Canadian team.
“When I moved to the Sunshine Coast in 2013, I joined the Spirit of Aloha Racing Club in Gibsons, and I learned to paddle there. Then I joined Gibsons Paddle Club too, and now this is my life. I’m paddling almost every day.”
Harasztosi and Mihalyi moved to Canada together in 2000 from their homeland of Hungary. It wasn’t until 2012 that they found Gibsons and moved here. In Hungary, Mihalyi had been a high-kneel canoeist on the Hungarian junior national team. When he and Harasztosi moved to Gibsons, they found the Gibsons Paddle Club, but ours was a different paddling discipline than Mihalyi had been accustomed to. Outriggers are a completely different configuration and paddling stroke.
Competing as an outrigger racer would not be without difficulty. In 2013 Mihalyi broke his wrist and shoulder in a work-related accident. He could not lift any weight for over a year, let alone paddle a canoe. Since his recovery in 2014, he has been training diligently with one goal in mind: to make the Canadian National Outrigger Racing Team for World Sprints.
On Sunday, Oct. 11, Mihalyi’s hard work paid off.
The Outrigger World Championships will be held in Australia’s Sunshine Coast in May of next year. Mihalyi hopes to be there representing not only himself but the Gibsons Paddle Club and the Canadian Sunshine Coast. The only thing that will hold him back is the small matter of funding. He’s started working at that right now. If his tenacity and diligence for training is any indication, he should have no trouble generating those funds.
The Gibsons Paddle Club has become an integral part of the fabric of the Sunshine Coast. Our membership spans the age range from 20s to 80s.
