Canoe Polo Nationals GP Alberta

[benwickland]

From everyone in BC who went to Nationals (me), thanks to Rob, Brad, and everyone who contributed to a very well run tourney.

Just imagine -matches actually started ahead of schedule.

Organizing a thunderstorm with lightening for the Club A final was a nice touch.

Cheers,

Ben :cheers:

[Brian B (EWP)]

Amen to that.
Great job Grand Prarie.

[Albert]

Great Show!!!

Incredible that games started on time or before. I agree the lightning was a nice touch. Delivery of the tornado tho was a little off.

The Canadians on and off the pitch were so nice! Something we from Bushland aren't used to....

Personally, this was my first "international" tourney. The fact that WWK,LaTex, GGB & EWP were so close with so many ties made the tourney very exciting. Many players can compete and never experience a shootout. I got to "enjoy" one in my first tourney, semis no less.

I still don't really understand how we won and think that we really did get lucky.

Great job rob and the rest of the supporting cast!!!

:cheers:

Albert Wang
Golden Gate Breakers
#12- goalie (only when I finally caught up to the play)

[JW Lester]

Right On!

The organizers and volunteers from Grande Prairie did a great job.

A most excellent tournament all round.

Bravo!

John

[MegDawg]

A huge round of applause for all of our neighbors to the North (as I affectionately refer to Canada) !! :thumbup:
I was so impressed by the organization of the event, and all the games I played- the drive from Texas was more than worth it! Thanks for showing us all a great time, on and off the pitch.

Megan :bunny:

PS- Im looking for info on those beautiful aluminium goals- specs and pics. Thanks!

[steffers]

right on! i got so much out of this tourny, thanks to the canadian players that coached us at the training camp as well as throughout the entire weekend. i think it was a huge success and everything ran so efficiently! also, Lee, you're mom was so awesome and gracious! tell her thankyou again for everything she did for us. hope to see lots of familiar faces in October.
:bunny:
-Steph #7 Tx Tornadoes

[steffers]

one more thing, are the pics from the awards ceremony going to be posted anywhere?

[JW Lester]

Here are the ones I have....

:drunk: <------The Golden Gate Breakers after their victory celebration where strangely enough, the Chinese guy and the Americans were the only ones consuming Vodka, the 3 Russians quit early, and one just went to sleep.

Now maybe we're not real Canadians, but when you're tournament champions in Grande Prairie on Canada Day.....

Pictured are Albert Wang, Rob Logan, Alex Izmailov, Sasha Izmailov and John Lester. Sergey Finkelshtein was already on his way home....

[JW Lester]

And here are the Fightin' L.A.-Tex Trojans :gun: .... well actually they're just the Tex Trojans at this point because Paul Macey was on the same flight as Sergey.

This is immediately before the two teams of Yanks roared out in their big SUVs, invaded the Grande Prairie Sears, comandeered a Texas sized TV (with the consent of the nice staff in the store) and watched tape of the games. Only trouble was they didn't have any beer and pretzels.:bang:

It's too bad the Trojan's shots on the empty net went... uh... limp so many times, or they'd have done a bit better in the placings. Even though they finished 4th overall, they never lost a game in regulation. Try to keep the shots a little stiffer next time boys. :cheers:

Pictured are Adrian Nye, Anthony, Tom Maloney and Mark Poindexter

[JW Lester]

Oh, and while I'm at it, congratulations to the Wapiti Whitewater Kayakers of Grande Prairie on their first Canadian Championship. :cheers:

[sp_edey]

Thanks John,
Yeah, it was nice to finally win something that was gold! Next time I'm not going to nail the post with two seconds left in the game! It was a good game though for the final. Congrats to the Golden Gate Breakers for the Club A Final where they beat us 3-2.
See y'all in LA.
Clinton

[Roberto]

Thanks for all the thanks, we enjoyed hosting and REALLY all those travellers from afar helped make this event. See you all in LA. I am going to enjoy just playing polo for a change.

If anyone is interested in getting copies of the professional photographs that were taking at the nationals please contact to make arrangements with Rob Ganzeveld (contact information below) . For any Grande Prairie club members, I have the contact sheets so that you can review them.

Rob Ganzeveld
rob@fxphoto.com
780-568-3097

Best Regards,

Rob K
WWK Prez

[JW Lester]

Cool Rob - I was just going to ask if you had the address for the guy that took the photos.

I only got a chance to review the pictures once early on :( ... but those were some AWESOME pictures that that fellow took. Its funny how in the same game you and your teamates can look silly, studly,goofy determined, and violent all in the space of 20 min. Generally speaking, I was the one who just looked goofy most of the time but oh well.... :silly:

John