Successes and Adventures in Concrete Canoeing

The spring of 2018 was a successful and adventurous one for the 49er concrete canoe team. Success started with victory at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Carolinas Conferences, which qualified the team for nationals in San Diego. Even after the semester had ended, the team kept practicing in preparation for going to the west coast in June. The trip didn’t go quite as planned, though, when the canoe was lost in shipping. The team showed its character, working night and day with the shipping company, constructing a ‘replacement’ canoe out of cardboard, blankets and people, eventually finding the real canoe just in time for the races, winning the admiration of the other teams and judges, and being awarded the Spirit of the Competition Award.

First-hand accounts from two of the UNC Charlotte concrete canoe team members are below.

Kelsey Lynch, junior Civil Engineering:
“This was my first year with the team! We started work early on in the fall 2017 semester. I started out helping on the construction team, then added paddling, creating the canoe stand display, and driving the presentation to my roles as time went on. During competitions I took part in the women’s endurance race, display stand set up and presentation.

“The name of the canoe was Hic Svnt Dracones, which means “Here Be Dragons” in Latin. It was used back in the day to denote dangerous or unexplored locations on maps. For us as a team, this phrase represented our inspiration for the advancements made to our 2018 entry. By facing the unknown and embracing the challenges ahead we were rewriting our story; our legacy.

“We discovered the canoe was missing just a couple hours after landing in San Diego. Not having the canoe there really hit us hard that Saturday when we had to watch all of the other teams set up the canoes and displays. We didn’t have anything to do until the other schools finished setting up, so for fun we decided to build a new canoe and display. The only thing we had with us was a folding table that was purchased in San Diego for our display. We ended up using the cardboard box it came in to cut out the paddles and PFD’s (life vests). A teammate drew our logo and dragon head on our freshly cut ‘equipment’, and two green blankets were borrowed from our dorms to cover a few teammates to make the canoe itself. It actually ended up being a lot of fun and a great morale booster! The judges and other schools got a kick out of it too.

“So much went into trying to find the canoe! Trips were made to various distribution centers, and we had people making calls from both the east and west coasts. We had several people from UNCC helping us out, and by the end of the weekend we found a reliable source from UPS. But we would have never gotten as far as we did without the persistence of our team mom Raqui (Rocky). Raqui was on the phone all through the weekend, and all night Sunday until we got the confirmation that it had been found.

“We received the BEST wake-up call ever that Monday morning (4/5AM), the whisper of “IT’S HERE!” coming from our captain in the hall! I am not a morning person, but I leapt out of bed that day wide awake and grinning from ear to ear! As the judges and other teams began to hear about our canoe’s arrival they offered their congratulations. Several teams even offered to help us unload and get set up.

“I think we all wanted to do better in the races, but we performed decently well. The relief and excitement from having the canoe there to race was amazing, and knowing we were finally able to hop in and race her in California definitely added to the adrenalin rush!

“We were all honored and beyond excited to be presented with the Spirit of the Competition award. I believe that in a way it summed up our trip and team rather well. In a weekend filled with uncertainty we never lost hope, we rose above our circumstances and took advantage of the amazing opportunity given to us. We learned from others, made new friends, strengthened existing friendships, and explored and had a little fun too. Everyone at the competition knew who UNC Charlotte was, not just because of our situation, but because of our Niner pride and spirit!

“Even though we had our hiccup, this trip far exceeded anything I could have anticipated or imagined. It was an incredible experience and opportunity, and I’m hopeful that we will find ourselves at the ASCE Concrete Canoe National level for years to come!”

Jacob Lytton, sophomore Civil Engineering:
“This was my first year on the concrete canoe team. We began planning in early September of last year. We divided work into construction, design and academics. I worked in construction and in design. Specifically, I helped build the canoe and the canoe displays.

“We realized the canoe was missing almost immediately after we arrived in San Diego. A couple of our team members went to San Diego a couple of days ahead of the main group to familiarize with the campus, and found out that the crate was not at the UPS distribution center when they got there.

“We exhausted every lead we could in order to find the canoe. We called every UPS store and distribution center in Southern California. We called corporate offices, posted on multiple social media platforms, and even physically went to the distribution centers in San Diego to look for the canoe. UNCC staff back in North Carolina did the same in distribution centers back in North and South Carolina.

“We decided that since our entire display setup was missing with the canoe, we might as well make one for fun out of materials on hand and donated by other teams on display day. We made life vests, paddles and knee pads out of cardboard, and we made our replacement ‘canoe’ out of our team members.

“The canoe was eventually found on the morning of the races (the last day of the competition), after UPS realized they failed to input the tracking numbers correctly. Our team captain David Smith and his wife Raquel found the canoe after tracking it to a distribution center outside of San Diego. By the time the canoe was found, we had given up hope and expected to not be able to participate in the races. Races were to begin just after 9 AM race day, and the canoe was located barely two hours prior to that. The canoe made it to the lake with mere minutes to spare.

“We placed fairly well during the races. It was a huge shock to actually have the canoe after expecting to go home without competing, but it was a relief to have the canoe and display back. We were ecstatic when the ASCE told us we won the spirit award. It felt great to win something at the national level.

“It was amazing to be able to meet so many people from great schools all across the USA, Canada and China. We learned a lot about different construction methods, and gathered a lot of useful information for next year. I was honestly expecting the National Concrete Canoe Competition to be a real cutthroat competition, but every single one of the teams was not only friendly, but were even helpful towards each other. The University of Akron Ohio, another team competing, offered to take a 1000+ mile detour to bring our canoe back to UNCC after the competition, given the situation with UPS; an offer that they made good on.”