JDT 2006: Final Words

Coach Dita Pahl, Alison Gifford (Ont), Thomas Boisvert-Weber (Que), Kathleen Tayler (Ont), Ian Williams (Ont), Michael Tayler (Ont), Francois St. Aubin Migneault (Que), Thea Froelich (Ont).

The Junior Development Tour 2006 is now over for the Ontario and Quebec paddlers who competed in the first three U. S. Cups, Junior Olympics, and the North American Championships. The tour was an overall success with representation from Canada, the U.S., China - and of course Australia. Our paddlers did very well throughout the tour and each race brought together a high level of competition on challenging but manageable courses.

I'd like to thank everyone for their support in making this tour happen. Marion and Toby did a great job of organizing the west coast races. Greg Hunter and the team from Alberta put together a really enjoyable series of events on the Kan. Our support team made up of Jacques, Claire, Christine and Glen helped the kids to have a very positive experience and also contributed to each race as officials and judges.

I would also like to thank coach Dita Pahl for an outstanding job of coaching our kids for the three week tour. We were very fortunate to have someone as knowledgeable and committed as Dita and all the paddlers benefitted from her expertise.

Thanks also to all the parents who supported the tour and followed our progress on the blog. Your support was much appreciated.

And finally to the paddlers - Thomas, Michael, Thea, Alison, J.P., Kathleen, Ian, and Francois - a paddle salute to you all for pursuing your goals and pushing your limits as racers. You have all made progess and should be proud of your accomplishments.

The Junior Development Tour is establishing itself as an important event on our paddling schedule. Plans are already underway for next year and it may include additional countries being represented. Locations and venues for JDT 2007 are being discussed and Canadian sites will hopefully be considered.

I hope you have enjoyed the blog. In spite of occasional technological problems, we were able to keep it updated as much as possible. Please remember to support public libraries as we relied on them in each location.

That would be it for JDT 2006.

Signing off from Ottawa.

Jim Tayler