A team of Snuneymuxw men are champions in a sport that holds tradition and meaning to their people.
Snuneymuxw Island Brave paddlers, three-time Canadian champions in their division, will be going to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, next month to compete in the world championships in outrigger canoe racing.
"It's overwhelming that we're representing all of Canada. It's going to be jitters, for sure, once we're on that starting line," said Michael Wyse, the team captain.
His dad, Snuneymuxw Chief Mike Wyse, founded the Island Brave Canoe Club nearly 25 years ago as a youth program. The chief remembered a bunch of 14-15-year-olds along the shoreline, waiting their turn for a canoe, and he wanted to find a way to help them embrace the sport.
"It's one of our traditional sports. We start off with a cedar log and we'll carve a canoe out and create a racing canoe," he said. "You need a full crew to bring the canoe to life – that was one of our traditional teachings, we come together to work as one. That's very instrumental in a lot of the development of our youths and keeping them active throughout their life."
Some of that history and tradition is transferable to the kind of lightweight racing outrigger that Island Brave will be paddling in Rio.
The team competes on the Canadian Outrigger Racing Association circuit and has won three straight national championships in the open men's division. Island Brave knows the level of competition will be that much higher at an international race.
"We know they're all world-class paddlers, some of them are even professionals, that's all they do is paddle," said Michael Wyse. "So it's cool to compete against those guys."
The team captain said Island Brave's paddlers all grew up around the sport, and saw past team members training hard and racing, and now they're "hungry" to excel and willing to work for it.
"I'm just thankful that they've embraced this sport," said Chief Wyse. "It gives them something to shoot for, a common goal, but it's also helped them later in life, too. They've developed good habits: commitment, sacrifice. It pays off."
The International Va'a Federation World Distance Championships will be held in mid August. Team Canada outrigger teams don't receive government funding and must cover their own costs to compete, so the team is appealing to the community to help them fundraise. For more information, visit www.islandbrave.ca or e-mail singhjamesgallery@gmail.com.
