Annual regatta sends Hatters down the river

By Mo Cranker on October 2, 2017.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

A colourful group of 20-plus paddlers made its way down the South Saskatchewan River Saturday for the Medicine Hat Paddling Club’s annual Hat Regatta event.

“This is the last organized event of the year for us paddlers,” said club president Rick Redmond. “This is actually the last organized paddling event for any group in Canada.”

The club has been hosting the event for five years, and Redmond says it is held to get people out of the house and on to the river.

“We want to get as many people in the community out on the water as possible,” he said. “We have a great river running through our city, and I really think it is underutilized. The Paddling Club has been trying for years now to get people out on the water and just having a good time.”With the event being the last of the year for local paddlers, Redmond says the hats were added into mix to make the event a little more fun for all involved.

“We call it the Medicine Hat Hat Regatta where you wear a hat,” he said. “Really, it’s just a play on words, but we’ve been doing it for a while now and people have been really enjoying it. It’s something fun we’ve added.”

Redmond says 2017 was a great year for local paddlers.

“This has been our best year that we’ve recorded,” he said. “We held six organized events, and saw up to 80 people at one of our events. The biggest event was our solar eclipse paddle out at Elkwater in August, it was a phenomenal event.”

For more information on the paddling club go to its Facebook Page, http://www.facebook.com/medicinehatpaddlingclub

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