Announcements

- Competition Schedule for Our International Contingent -

If your concrete canoe competition is not being covered... please let us know and we'll do it.

"Concrete Canoe Fever" - 40^th Anniversary of Concrete Canoeing

"On the 40^th anniversary of concrete canoeing, it just seems right that the frenzy returns to the Midwest where it all began."

"For the Record" - Updated for 2011

"The National Concrete Canoe Competition (NCCC) has become one of the most competitive student competitions in the world and Cal Poly raised the bar more than a few notches in 2010.   My prediction is that the national contingent will not tolerate such dominance and that the winners in the various categories at the 2011 NCCC will be distributed resulting in one of the closest top five finishes in history."... Stay tuned for the "The Front Line - 2011" by jag

Team UAH celebrates 26^th anniversary and 10^th year as host of ConcreteCanoe.org

Have you capitalized on our Message Board run by co-host University of Nevada Reno?

Have you read the latest issue of co-host Laval's Concrete Canoe Magazine?

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) volunteers to co-host Photos/Videos partition
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is our newest co-host and will join forces with Universite Laval to showcase Photos/Videos related to concrete canoeing.  The UIUC site was launched by Armen N. Amirkhanian, a past co-captain of 3CT (Clemson).  Some of you may recognize his last name because Serji, his Dad, served as 3CT's faculty advisor for many years.  
All of our co-hosts are most willing to showcase your efforts, so please feel free to contact them.  Better yet... Why not volunteer to become a co-host too?

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2011 Canadian Open
Organized by Universite Laval (2011 Canadian Champion)
Gatineau,Canada
September 11, 2011

Kevin Gagnon, 2011/12 captain of Laval's Concrete Canoe Team, worked with an organization in Gatineau, Canada who wanted to hold concrete canoe races as part of a festival that took place there on Sunday, September 11, 2011.

Gatineau is located in Western Quebec.

Laval was looking for teams to participate and everyone involved in the concrete canoeing community was invited to attend.
The competition consisted of races and a simple display.
There were no rules for this year's competition but entries had to pass a swamp test prior to racing.

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2011 ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition - 24^th Anniversary
Evansville, Indiana
June 16-18, 2011

Cal Poly - SLO Defends U.S. Title

  
 Cal Poly - SLO women's team pulls together in the women's endurance race (upper left).
Photo courtesy of Concrete Canoe Pictures
Their entry called "Cetacea" (upper right) wins best product.

 ConcreteCanoe.org  -  2011 US National Coverage  -  ConcreteCanoe.org
(rules, national qualifiers, photos, top picks, race site, links, commentary, etc.)

Teams and photographer (upper right) get ready to take the official group photo for the 2011 NCCC.

2011 Vital Statistics - Presentations and Boats

Our co-host, the University of Wisconsin - Madison, has posted the top five design reports from the 2011 NCCC.  Great job guys!

2011 Top Five NCCC Design Reports

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2011 Brazilian Concrete Canoe Competition - 9^th Anniversary
Positivo University, Curitiba, Brazil
November 12, 2011

We're pleased to welcome Brazil as the newest addition to our international contingent.  Concrete canoe competitions have been taking place there since 2003.  The campus of Positivo University in Curitiba is located in Southern Brazil and is one of the largest in South America.   We'll be posting a link to the 2011 BCCC soon and look forward to reporting results in November.

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2011 ICCC - 1^st Iran National Concrete Canoe Competition
Kish Island, Iran
February 5-7, 2011

Islamic Azad University of Marand Wins Inaugural Event 

Iran's first national concrete canoe competition took place on Kish Island where 20 teams from state and Islamic Azad (Open) universities were scheduled to compete.  Seven of the 20 boats arrived in tact and the competition rules were eased after the judges found that only three entries fully met the competition guidelines.  In the end, the Islamic Azad University of Marand won the competition.  A team from the Islamic Azad University of Zanjan placed second.  Qum University was third.

This entry was designed for both speed and maneuverability by Ali Ghaderpour.
The canoe was built by students from Azad University of Kerman.

Kish is a 91.5-square-kilometer (35.3 sq mi) resort island located in the Persian Gulf.  It is part of the Hormozgān Province of Iran.
Organizers hope to expand the competition to include international entries next year.

Meanwhile, hats off to the competition organizers, judges, and participants for a job well done.  It goes to show you that, from a structural standpoint, transporting concrete canoes to a competition can be as worrisome as racing them; and, that organizing a competition such as this is not as easy as it seems.  The bottom line is that everyone at the competition had fun.  

We take great pleasure in welcoming Iran as the newest addition to our international contingent.         

More about the Competition

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2010 Israeli Concrete Canoe Competition - 1^st Annual
Tamar Beach, Sea of Galilee
September 28, 2010

Shenkar College Wins Inaugural

Israel held their first concrete canoe competition on September 28, 2010 at Tamar Beach in the Sea of Galilee.  A team from Shenkar College won the competition.  Second place went to a team from the Technion while a team from Ariel finished third.

The competition was organized by the Ariel University Center of Samaria and entries were restricted to architecture and industrial design students.  Each school could have as many as 8 team members but teams were limited to 4. There was no limitation on boat design and points were tallied based on the races alone.

Asaf Photos (Facebook Login Required)    Ariel Photos (Facebook Login Required)

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2010 South African Concrete Boat Race
21^st Edition
Victoria Lake, Germiston
September 18, 2010

University of Pretoria Wins in Africa

The Inland Branch held their 21^st Annual Concrete Boat Race Day at the Victoria Lake Club in Germiston, near Johannesburg on September 18^th.  The event has been held every year since 1990.  This year, there were 59 entries; 1400 people attended the event.

The University of Pretoria took first place with their entry called the 'Agter Os' (see above).  Another entry fielded by the school finished second.  The University of Johannesburg placed third.

2010 Results (great photos and excellent commentary)

2010 South African Concrete Boat Race Website

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2010 Japanese Nationals
16^th All Japan Challenge
August 28, 2010

Utsunomiya University Defends Title

The 16^th Annual All Japan Challenge took place on August 28th.  The event was sponsored by the Japanese Society of Civil Engineers and included 37 College and University teams from across the country.

Utsunomiya University (above) successfully defended their championship.
Yuu Makoto High School placed second; Yamagata Prefectural Technical High School placed third.

2010 All Japan Concrete Canoe Website

Did you know that the first concrete canoe race in Japan took place in Saiko in 1995 (history) and events now take place throughout the country (Japanese venues)?
 (If you can't read Japanese... copy site into Google and press translate... jag).

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High School Students Build Concrete Canoe to National Specifications

Last year Michael Carnivale, long time CNCCC member, started giving guidance to a team of high school students at Philips Exeter Academy on building a concrete canoe.  The students built a mold to the specifications currently used for the National Competition and recently poured the concrete and floated the canoe.

Students carry their concrete canoe across campus after performing a successful float test.

Philips Exeter Academy is a prep boarding high school in New Hampshire, one of the leading high schools in the nation and around the world.  The school offers over 450 courses in a variety of subject areas and is known for its unique method of teaching: the Harkness table.  With each class composed of a maximum of 13 students, classes are taught around an oval table where seminar style discussion is encouraged.

     
The canoe was build using a wooden male mold whose dimensions conformed to the 2011 National Concrete Canoe Competition guidelines.

The Academy has over 100 different clubs, one of which is MecExeter, the Engineering Club on campus.  Started in 2008, MecExeter has completed projects that include a trebuchet, balsa wood bridges, a potato cannon, and most recently their concrete canoe. The club has over 30 active members ranging from 9th to 12th graders.

  See additional photos here.

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2010 ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition  - 23^rd Anniversary
San Luis Obispo, California
June 17-19, 2011

Cal Poly - SLO Wins on Home Turf

Cal Poly-SLO dominates the men's endurance/slalom.  Photo courtesy of Concrete Canoe Pictures.

California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo emerged as the ninth school to win the U.S. Nationals and the first host school to ever win on home turf.  Reno's Wolf Pack finished second followed by Canadian National Champion ETS in third.  Michigan Tech finished an impressive fourth with the Wisconsin Badgers in fifth. Team  UAH and Laval were sixth and seventh, respectively.

ConcreteCanoe.org  -  2010 US National Coverage  -  ConcreteCanoe.org
(rules, national qualifiers, photos, top picks, race site, links, commentary, etc.)

SLO's "Amazona" was selected as the best product.

The University of Wisconsin - Madison has archived the following top design reports from the 2010 National Concrete Canoe Competition (Nevada-Reno, Cal Poly-SLO, UAH, Akron, and ETS).
Way to go guys... we really appreciate your continued support.

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Romeo High School Floats 2010 Concrete Canoe

For the second year in a row, students at Romeo Engineering and Technology Center (RETC) located in Romeo, Michigan, have proven what appears to be impossible - design, build and float a canoe made of concrete.

Left: Stephen Figurski and Emery Arnold (left to right) take their canoe for a spin.  Right: 2010 NCCC men's sprint - Team UAH. 
RETC photo by Evva Dossin; race photo courtesy of Concrete Canoe Pictures.

The concrete canoe project at RETC grew this year to not only include Craig Bryant's Construction Trades and Evva Dossin's Drafting classes, but also Aleda Morr's Math-Science Math Theory and Alice Gryspeerd Biology classes.  The concrete canoe is a cross-curricular project incorporating theories of science, math, design and construction all in one. Furthermore, students learned the value of teamwork and communication.  Read more here.

Something tells me that the national contingent will be interested in recruiting students like this.  We have a couple of vacant spots on Team UAH.

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2010 Chinese National Concrete Canoe Competition - 1^st Annual
Huangshi City, China
June 12, 2010

Wuhan University of Technology
Wins Inaugural Event

Wuhan Tech's winning entry was decorated with an elaborate pattern of Beijing Opera Facial Masks.

China became the most recent member of our international contingent by holding its first National Concrete Canoe Competition in Huangshi City.  The competition was held as an extension of Dragon Boat competitions that have taken place annually for 20 centuries.

Wuhan University of Technology won the product category and the overall Championship.  But a team from Huangshi College of Technology won the men’s and women’s endurance races, and was neck to neck with Wuhan University of Technology in the co-ed sprint.  The Southwestern University of Science won the design paper and oral presentation categories.

The first two concrete canoes built in China were exhibited in 2009.

The competition was organized by Dr Weiguo Shen, an associate professor at Wuhan University of Technology and visiting scholar at Northwestern University.  He decided to introduce concrete canoeing into China after witnessing concrete canoe races hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008.  His students held an exhibition in 2009 that attracted a major sponsor who helped organize the Chinese National Concrete Canoe Competition in 2010.  Read more here:

2010 Chinese National Concrete Competition

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2010 BetonKanoRace - 33^rd Anniversary
Utrecht, Netherlands
June 4-6, 2010

BetonBrouwers Win Dutch Challenge

  
The University of Twente won the 2010 Dutch Concrete Canoe Challenge for the third year in a row. 

The University of Twente successfully defended their title making this the third year in a row that the team has won.  This year, the BetonBrouwers from Twente constructed four canoes.  They won an award for construction and placed first overall.

The 2010 BetonKanoeRace (concrete canoe race) was held in Utrecht the most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht.  It is located in the eastern end of the Randstad and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands.  Next year's competition will be held in the city of Eindhoven located in the south of the Netherlands.

 Competitions such as this date back to the early '70s and this was the Netherlands' 33^rd competition.

2010 BetonKanoRace Website

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2010 Canadian National Concrete Canoe Competition
16^thAnniversary
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
May 14-16, 2010

ETS Wins Canadian Nationals

ETS won the Canadian Nationals and will represent the Upstate New York Conference at the U.S. Nationals in San Luis Obispo to be held June 17-19, 2010.  Detailed results including scores and pictures from the competition will be posted on the competition website (see link below).  Laval is scheduled to host the 2011 CNCCC.

ETS won this year's Canadian NCCC with "Montferrand."

The Canadian National Concrete Canoe Competition was established in 1994 at the École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) in Montreal, who hosted the event for the first four years of its existence.  With the growing success of the competition, it was decided to rotate host schools each year. The University of Toronto first hosted the CNCCC in 2002, and they are honored to have a second opportunity to welcome students from across Canada to Toronto.

2010 Canadian National Concrete Competition Website

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2010 ICCC 2010 - 1^st Iran International Concrete Canoe Competition
Tabriz, Iran
October 18, 2010

If your concrete canoe competition is not being covered... please let us know and we'll do it.

 The first ever 2010 ICCC (International Concrete Canoe Competition) will take place in conjunction with the 1^st International Concrete Competition to be held in Tabriz, Iran on October 18, 2010.  Welcome aboard!

2010 ICCC Web Site

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2010 1^st Oman Concrete Canoe Competition (OCCC)
Location: Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat 
Dates: April 1-8, 2010

The Civil and Architectural Engineering Society (CAES) at Sultan Qaboos University was planning to establish an Oman Concrete Canoe Competition (OCCC) during the Muscat Festival in 2010, but it had to be cancelled because of H1N1.  Our understanding is that the competition will be held during the period April 1-8 during the forth students engineering gathering 2010 at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.  

We're flying the Omanian flag on our banner (see Gateway).  If your country is not included on this site but you're concrete canoeing, please let us know and we'll include you.

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2010 1^st Turkish Concrete Canoe Competition
Location: To be determined (probably Halic)
Dates: To be determined (most likely June/July)

We're learned from a student at the Istanbul Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey... that plans are currently underway to organize a concrete canoe competition there.  Our best guess is that the competition will be held at Halic, a horn shaped estuary that bifurcates the European side of Istanbul.  June/July 2010 is the most likely timeframe.

We're flying the Turkish flag on our banner (see Gateway).  If your country is not included on this site but you're concrete canoeing, please let us know and we'll include you. 

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2009 South African Concrete Boat Race
20^th Edition
Victoria Lake, Germiston
September 19, 2009

On the 19th September the Inland Branch held their 20th Annual Concrete Boat Race Day at the Victoria Lake Club in Germiston, near Johannesburg.  The South African Boat Race has been held every year since 1990.

In 2009, a team from the University of Johannesburg (upper left) won the Student Construction Award.  The student's race was won by the University of Pretoria (upper right).  Teams from PPC Cement won the Industry Race (lower left) and the Ladies Race (lower right).

There was a new prize awarded in 2009 to the first boat that sank. This occurred in 10 seconds from the start of the first  race and went to the head of the engineering department at one of the universities (name withheld to protect reputation), but you can see the picture along with other photos and additional information here.

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2009 Japanese Nationals
15^th All Japan Challenge
Saitama, Japan
August 29, 2009

The 15th Annual All Japan Challenge took place on August 29, 2009 and the results are in.  The event was sponsored by the Japanese Society of Civil Engineers.

The 2009 competition (left) was won by a team from Utsunomiya University (above).  Akita Prefectural Technical High School Omagari placed second; Yuu Makoto University place third.

You can read all about the 2009 competition here (If you can't read Japanese... copy site into Google and press translate... jag).

  Did you know that the first concrete canoe race in Japan took place in Saiko in 1995 (history) and events now take place throughout the country (Japanese venues)?

2008 Video

2009 All Japan Concrete Canoe Website

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2009 German Nationals - 12^th Deutsche Betonkanu-Regatta
Essen, Germany
June 19-20, 2009

Every few years, the Federal Association of the German Cement industry (BDZ) in Düsseldorf organizes a special type of spectacular... a concrete canoe regatta.  This year over 90 teams registered... with participants coming  from a number of other countries including Switzerland and the Netherlands.  The competition was held in Essen, a city in the center of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany... located on the Ruhr River.

See a fantastic video clip from last year: Here 
"12th German Concrete Canoe Regatta Essen 2009 - The Movie"

      This year's races were won by the women's team from the TU Dortmund (left) and the men's team from the University of Twente Enschede (right).

 The Aachen University of Applied Sciences won first prize for having the best name.  The best design award went to the ZHAW - Zurich University while the University Lusatian defended their title in the Open Class.

2009 Deutsche Betonkanu-Regatta Website

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2009 Concrete Canoe Challenge - 7^th French Nationals
IUT - Cergy-Pontoise
May 6-7, 2009

The first Concrete Canoe Challenge took place at IUT Grenoble in 2001, and the latest offering was held in Cergy-Pontoise where IUT de Bourges placed first overall.  Second place went to IUT d'Égletons.  IUT du Havre placed third.  The French Nationals are  typically held once every two years.

2009 Concrete Canoe Challenge Website

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2009 South Australian Concrete Canoe Races - 3^rd Annual
West Lakes, Australia
February 27, 2009

The third annual South Australian Concrete Canoe Competition was hosted by Adelaide University earlier this year.  The University of South Australia participated in the event that was sponsored in part by the Concrete Institute of .Australia.

Be sure to catch the audio segment where Ms. Bree Bennett talks about Adelaide's design and the U.S. competition.  See: 

2009 Australian Concrete Canoe Competition Coverage

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- In Canada... Concrete Canoe Magazine -

 Concrete Canoe Magazine - Free Downloads and Call for Papers

Concrete Canoe Magazine is looking for articles to be published in the next edition (2011).

Call for Papers

In 2006, alumni from Laval (eight time Canadian National Concrete Canoe Champs - statistics) published the inaugural issue of "Concrete Canoe Magazine."    Their intent was to disseminate knowledge and recent developments in concrete canoeing and to share experiences among concrete canoe enthusiasts and former participants. If you haven't seen the magazine yet, you can download PDF copies of the first three issues... free... by visiting.

Concrete Canoe Magazine

          
The first three issues are free on line.
The 4^th edition was not published in 2009 due to financial constraints... but it recently came out in 2010.

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2008 Singapore Nationals
Lower Seletar Reservoir (Near Khatib MRT)
May 25, 2008

The first Singapore National Concrete Canoe Competition ended with racing on May 25, 2008.  The event was sponsored by Nanyang Technological University.  Welcome Singapore!

Web Site

Video

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Concrete Canoe Racing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The University of Sharjah, American University of Sharjah, Dubai Men’s College and Abu Dhabi Men’s College participated in the first concrete canoe contest held in UAE at the Hiltonia Beach Club in Abu Dhabi.

Competition Report (PDF)

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We've reserved this partition for links to announcements of any kind and would like to get one or two schools to volunteer to publish (on the web) a concrete canoe newsletter on their site for ConcreteCanoe.org.

We envision that the host school(s) would write an editorial section and collect information from other organizations.

If you're interested in volunteering, please contact us.  Simply provide an email address to which information should be sent.  We'll make the announcement here, include the link to your newsletter, and give you plenty of credit.  Thanks!

Until we get a volunteer to host the newsletter, please fell free to let us know what your organization is up to and we'll provide a link below.

Typical examples of announcements are:

Joan Buhrman, ASCE, Anthony Reed, "They Are the Champions.  Concrete Canoe Champions, That is. University of California Berkeley Wins National Concrete Canoe Competition" June 13, 2009.

Team UAH - "Concrete Canoe Competition Becomes Part of U.S. Congressional Record" - Washington, D.C., June 28, 2001.

Team UAH - "Alabama State Senate Passes Resolution Commending UAH on Winning an Unprecedented Fifth Concrete Canoe National Championship" - July 12, 2001.