Noosa Outrigger Canoe Club today has a membership of more than 170 + paddlers, competing in most age group regattas throughout the season, or if competition is not your thing, enjoy time on the water & social activities with our recreational paddlers.
Noosa Outriggers cater for all ages from 8 to 80 (or older if you are capable)
The Noosa Outrigger Canoe Club has a fleet of 11(no) OC6 outrigger canoes and OC3, OC2, OC1 & V1 canoes.
Competitive training is conducted in the ocean environs of Laguna Bay & Sunshine Coast Bays, but when the weather prevents exit via the bar, the club takes advantage of the waterways within the Noosa River & Lake regions. Recreational/Social paddling is always conducted in the safety of the Noosa River & canal systems.
The club is based at Chaplin Park, accessed off Mill St off Gympie Tce Noosaville. If you would like to chat to someone about the sport of Outrigging prior to committing, please call the Club Secretary who will be happy to put you onto one of the clubs qualified coaches for your age group & level of paddling to talk about how you can be part of this exciting water sport.
In 1985 Evan Gartrell, foundation and life member of NOCC was working on Hamilton Island when he first saw & heard of the sport of outrigging. That same year he began paddling with the Hamilton Island Opens Men’s Team, where they would compete in the inter-island races in the Whitsundays, and in the same year he visited Molokai, Hawaiito participate in paddling events at the birthplace of outrigging.
In 1987 he moved to Noosa where in 1991 he met Zandra Brown (ne D’Aboitze) from Hawaiiat the ‘Frenzy’ ice cream van at Main Beach. Evan was wearing his Molokai T-shirt, which instigated a conversation regarding their experiences in outrigging, resulting in both agreeing that it would be wonderful to have an outrigger club in Noosa.
Evan contacted his old team captain from Hamilton Island and managed to borrow a ‘Malia’ canoe from him for three months, and the Mooloolaba Club kindly lent them a trailer to move the canoe around. The founding paddlers were all close friends or relatives of Zandra and Evan.
Initially the team trained in mixed men’s & women’s teams, & borrowed canoes to enable them to compete in local events. But soon after starting up they had enough paddlers to form both open men’s and open women’s teams for competition.
The first ‘Point to Point’ race, a 42 km change over race from Mooloolaba to Noosa was about to be held and the Hamilton Island Club was coming down to compete. They had a second hand canoe for sale for $4000, which was purchased by Evan on behalf of the club who then arranged to reimburse him from fundraising efforts. One of the paddlers at the time was Lisa Doherty whose parents owned the Noosa North Shore Beachfront Wilderness Camp. They generously offered to purchase the canoe to help get the club going, and so the Noosa Outrigger Canoe Club had its first canoe! Canoe covers were ‘exchanged’ for a carton of FourX from the Hamilton Island Club.
The Noosa Club continued to grow and the following year Sunshine Coast developer Mal Pratt, having an interest in seeing the sport and club develop, suggested they approach Bill Freeman, the principle of ‘Noosa Outlook’ for sponsorship. An agreement was reached, over the phone, for them to contribute $5000 towards a new canoe and the club was to raise the remaining $1900 required to make the purchase possible.
‘Noosa Outlook’ continued their generous support for another two years, donating a total of $15,000 to the club, enabling it to purchase three new canoes over that time.
Over the years the club grew to have representation in all divisions at regattas and to achieve some great results in racing OC6 and OC1 canoe events.
Today the Noosa Outrigger Canoe Club currently has 170 + members and continues to compete competitively in most age groups of OC6, OC2 & OC1 events. Supporting the competitive members the club has a strong ‘Recreational’ membership who enjoy two or three days paddling every week, keeping up basic fitness and great camaraderie.