This year is the first year we have won the kayaking intervarsities since 1992, notably only our second time on record. Over the most recent years we have tried to focus a bit more on training towards varsity events. Specifically, three years ago we started our weekly gym sessions with the aim of building kayaking muscles and to introduce some prehab to reduce kayaking related injuries. This has been a huge success, which really tells us that kayakers are very interested in doing kayak specific training whether it be to improve their competitive ability or just to be fitter while paddling recreationally.
The two overall best (possibly better word than "best" here) competing clubs in varsities are NUIG and UL, with 15 and 12 wins to their names respectively. Their ability to perform well at varsities is correlated to their access to kayaking facilities. These two colleges ave some of the best whitewater and freestyle rivers in Ireland, but more notably they have excellent facilities within their campus grounds.
Both kayak clubs have polo goals in the pool, which they can erect at any of their pool sessions. Specifically, UL can set these goals up on any of the three pool session they hold during the week. These goals are of very good quality, and the Munster Canoe Polo League is held in the UL pool every year (which we have been attending for the past two years). Polo is generally a discipline that our club is quite competitively strong in, and is always enjoyed by all. This academic year, we were able to enter two polo teams in the Dublin Canoe Polo League for the first time in several years. To be able to purchase and place polo goals (or at least one goal) in the UCD pool, even for one night a week, would in my opinion inject a huge amount more interest and skill into the discipline.
The most notable feature both clubs have however, is a boathouse right on the waterside. This alone gives them to ability to train on the water during the week with ease. This is definitely the main reason they do well in varsities every year. Specifically, prior to UL having built their boathouse in September 2009 they had only won varsities 4 times. Then from 2010 to 2017, UL won all 8 intervarsity titles.
Although asking for a waterside boathouse might be a bit too much, asking for the ability to train daily with ease would be ideal. With that, our club would love to have access to kayak ergos. Not only would this give us access to train daily, but we could also easily teach paddling technique far more easily. This is clearly a good alternative, as UCD's kayak Ad Astra scholars use these in the high performance gym too.
