By Jennifer Browett

Visiting clubs in Quebec was an amazing experience. There are a total of seven RCA (Rowing Canada Aviron) and AQA (Association Quebecoise d’ Aviron) registered clubs in all of Quebec five of them being in the greater Montreal area. Quebec is a province that really knows how to celebrate its athletes. The potential for rowing in Quebec is incredible and the diversity of Quebec’s geography allows for everything from touring and coastal rowing, on one of the many rivers or northern lakes, highly competitive racing, with access to the Olympic basin, and beautiful rowing opportunities for recreational and competitive rowing alike at all the clubs I visited.

The first club I saw was Sherbrooke Rowing Club in Sherbrooke Quebec (about a 2-hour drive southeast of Montreal). This club, which typically has a waiting list of people to join, has a president, Katia Mercier with some amazing philosophies on how the club is run. This includes: respect for yourself, each other and the equipment, having a goal no matter what to improve yourself, always try and push yourself a little harder (physically or otherwise), and inclusivity of all who want to row at Sherbrooke Rowing Club. Sherbrooke’s waiting list is due to the limited space they have as the facility is shared by canoe kayakers and dragon boaters. They hope to expand to a new building in the near future.

This club hosts a recreational regatta, which is very well attended by other Quebec clubs. Sherbrooke University often has student from France that row and Sherbrooke Rowing Club has hired them as coaches. This up and coming club with a dynamic and very community orientated set of volunteers is sure to grow rapidly.

Next I went to Terrebonne where the beginnings of a rowing club have started. Daniel Aucoin, a past competitive rower (narrowly missing a win over Derek Porter and Ian Swann in the 2- he rowed with Ross Lizee in 1989), is ready to make the best rowing club ever in Terrebonne Quebec! Terrebonne Is located Northeast of Montreal on the mainland. The picturesque spot for the club is on Riviere des Mille Iles.

Daniel envisions a combination rowing, canoe/kayak, observatory and learning centre for the community of Terrebonne at this site. Daniel works for GPAT, (Group Plein Air Terrebonne), that has been in existence for 20 years and supports local outdoor activity in Terrebonne. The current facilities GPAT has are amazing (including transportable rock climbing walls and a ski hill!). Daniel would like the club to be inclusive of every type of athlete competitive or recreational. The stretch of water the current programs row on is beautiful and if the plans go through this club will boom! In addition to this, Daniel hopes to get a 500 m sprint race going, single elimination style, head to head in the historic downtown core of Terrebonne. This high exposure location offers the comforting thought of a charming pub at the finish line for those who get eliminated quickly!

Daniel introduced me to Ross Lizee. Ross, Daniels past pair partner is now the president of Laval rowing club located in Laval. This club located on the Riviere des Prairies, is currently undergoing some changes. One very exciting change is that a submission to the community to build a new and improved building seems to be getting some very positive response. Ross is excited about the prospects of this support and this will obviously increase Laval’s ability to have more boats and more members.

Laval does host regattas, but not at this site. The waterway Laval Rowing Club is on is both long and scenic. The most interesting part about Ross being president of Laval and Daniel heading up a rowing club project in Terrebonne is the friendly and yet very competitive spirit between the two! My bet is between these two vying to get the best club happening in Quebec, and their past competitive natures as pair partners, that some interesting and serious progress will be made over the next few years with both clubs! I can hardly wait to see this!

After Laval Rowing Club I had the opportunity to speak with Charles Hauss, president of Lachine Rowing Club located on Ile de Montreal south of Laval. This club is the oldest club in Canada originally founded in 1863. Although it took a hiatus between 1961 and 1997 it is now back in full swing!

Lachine Rowing Club has taken over a vacant canoe kayak boathouse. The old building Lachine Rowing Club uses is really interesting. As the building is on sloped land the attic is used for boat storage. The biggest challenges Lachine faces now is trying to get more people interested in rowing especially youth from the local high schools. My visit to Lachine with past Olympic rower Henry Hering who is now VP Technical of AQA, proved to have some interesting ideas come forth including getting a high school rowing league going in Quebec! As usual, the tremendous commitment by a few volunteers to make a club succeed is very apparent at Lachine. This is seen in many ways including and impressive racking system allowing for less damage to the boats and greater storage.

Montreal Rowing Club (MRC) is the biggest club in Quebec and the next one I visited. I met with Arnold Brookhuis, president of MRC. This club has a unique set up from the rest of the clubs in Canada as they are on the 1976 Olympic Games Rowing Basin. This allows for fantastic facilities including a FISA standard 2000m course, a newly stocked weight room, rowing tanks, dedicated erg room and spacious hangers for boat storage. Recently an office has been built for MRC staff, which overlooks the entire basin. Arnold says this was a great addition as it is very apparent where the general public needs to go to get rowing information.

Montreal RC has quite a few rowing programs. They have two high schools rowing out their club, which is a good start to the potential high school league. Corporate Challenge, Learn to Row, Masters and Juniors are all part of the Montreal Rowing Club. This year they put together a fantastic calendar, which artistically displays the many bodies, that row at the basin. Although I did not have the opportunity to meet with anyone from McGill University, they also row out of the same facility as MRC.

My last visit in Quebec was to Boucherville Rowing Club. Of the five places I had visited prior to seeing Boucherville two of those clubs had either been loaned or rented Boucherville equipment. It was apparent that Boucherville had great equipment. They were working on getting a new structure to house them though, which was looking extremely positive! My welcome was tremendous when I went to Boucherville, both the president and vice president of the club met me, Alain Rochon and Vincent Côté respectively as well as many if not all the coaches from the programs they run. I learned the club has masters, seniors and a large amount of junior rowers!

Boucherville was the only rowing club that officially has a high school rowing for them. The club had secured a letter from the principle of L’Ecole de Mortagne. The stretch of water Boucherville is on, Fleuve St. Laurent, is fairly protected and the club hosted its first regatta, a head race, this October called Comtre Courant (against the current). Boucherville is also currently working towards hosting an indoor erg competition in the winter. This would be the first one they have done.

My visit to Quebec was interesting, in addition to all the clubs I visited, I also met with Matteo Cendamo, the AQA president. It was good to touch base with what is happening in Quebec and the potential this province has to expand their rowing opportunities. Hopefully I will be able to get to the one club I missed in the near future-Alma Rowing Club, which apparently has some unique rowing events that happen there. Thanks to all the clubs that hosted me while I was there!