By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
GOLD HILL ó Kevin Bower said the canoe races held here Friday allow participants the opportunity to combine the study of civil engineering with excitement.
Then Bower, committee and student activities director for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s American Society of Civil Engineers, chuckled at the irony of putting the words “civil engineers” and “excitement” in the same sentence.
“Normal people would think that’s kind of crazy,” he admitted, grinning.
The event held Friday at Ben Ketchie Park was Stalite’s annual Concrete Canoe Challenge. It was part of the 2009 Carolinas Conference, a competition involving civil engineering majors from 10 colleges and universities in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
The Challenge is intended to allow schools the opportunity to showcase the strengths of their civil engineering departments. Competitions in the Challenge included recycling, environmental and design events, plus a tug-of-war.
But it was the canoe racing that brought the crux of the 250 students and their instructors to Rowan County.
Bower said students spend months preparing their canoes, mixing and re-mixing concrete until they get a creation that makes for just the right buoyancy.
“The idea is to build camaraderie and showcase their innovation,” Bower said of what students are striving for.
Though members of the Rowan Rescue Squad were on hand with their big air boat that resembles something that might be found in the Florida Everglades, Bower said the likelihood of one of the concrete canoes sinking was slim.
He said each canoe must pass a “swamp test” before the start of the races whereby they’re flooded with water, then prove they’ll still float.
Such a test didn’t always precede competitions, meaning that at one time, some of the canoes’ buoyancy was, at best, suspect.
“In the old days, we left a lot of ’em on the bottom,” Bower said, chuckling again.
Erica Cutler is a UNC-Charlotte student who paddled the school’s concrete canoe in a “sprint” competition. To refer to the race as a “sprint,” Cutler admitted, was a bit of a stretch.
She said the only practice she and her paddling partner had in a canoe prior to Friday occurred when they took a regular canoe out for a few spins around the water.
The difference, Cutler said, was comparable to practicing in a Jaguar before taking a Model-T Ford out for a spin.
“This was very different,” Cutler said of racing a concrete canoe. “It’s hard to steer and the other canoe kept getting in the way.”
In addition to the sprint races, Friday’s competitions included a marathon event around the lake there at Ben Ketchie Park. That latter event took the better part of 15 minutes.
Greg Brigman is UNC-Charlotte’s student chapter president for the American Society of Civil Engineers. He said the Challenge will continue today with a steel bridge construction event on the school’s campus.
“We just pretty much come out and have fun,” he said of the annual Challenge. “It’s something we all look forward to.”
Brigman said constructing a concrete canoe isn’t something that’s done quickly.
“Lots of time, lots of patience,” he said of the effort that goes into the construction.
Justin Nance, conference chairman of UNC-Charlotte’s American Society of Civil Engineers, agreed.
“Everyone has different mix designs,” he said.
The races drew lots of interest from the hundred or more who watched from the shore. A judge who fired a starter’s gun to kick off each race would first shout, “Paddles up!”
Volunteers from the Gold Hill Fire Department prepared lunches for participants and their instructors.
In addition to UNCC, schools that competed in the Challenge included The Citadel, Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina A&T, N.C. State, South Carolina, South Carolina State and Trident Technical College.