Concrete Canoeists Gather for National Championships
10 Jun
In our favorite event involving college engineering students, concrete construction, and caneoing, teams from across North America are gathering in Tuscaloosa, Alabama this week for the finals of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2009 National Concrete Canoe Competition.
Twenty-two college teams from the U.S. and Canada which qualified via regional competition will vie for the title in the competition which gets underway Thursday.
The contest — “a test of think or swim,” according to a recent event media release — judges teams in four categories: aesthetics and structural integrity of the canoe they’ve built; a technical design paper highlighting planning, development, testing, and construction of the craft; an academic presentation covering their canoe’s design, construction, racing ability, and other innovative features; and, finally, the performance of the canoe and its paddlers in five separate races—men’s and women’s slalom/endurance races and men’s, women’s and co-ed sprint races.
Performance in each of the four categories accounts for 25 percent of a team’s total score.
The University of Nevada – Reno is the defending Concrete Canoe champion. Last year, they upset the University of Wisconsin which had won the previous five national titles.
According to THIS story, however, the University of Alabama – Huntsville, national champions in 2001, seem hungry for another concrete canoeing crown.
The champion team earns a $5,000 scholarship for its institution.
