Rookie Racer Monday Nights tradition

Rookie Racer Monday Nights tradition canoeing on the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis.

The late Karl Ketter, a professor at the University of Minnesota, and Jeff Howe, an anesthesiologist at the University Hospital, practiced canoe racing together on Mondays in 1976. River Flats Park on the East Bank of the Mississippi River was the most convenient place for them to meet after work to paddle before the sun went down. Other canoe racers and would-be canoe racers joined them over the years. Now, twenty-six years later, men and women are still coming to Rookie Racer Monday Nights to practice canoe racing. Rain or shine, cold or hot, drought or flood, nothing stops them from paddling except thunder and lightning. After all, real canoe races are never canceled due to any kind of weather except lightning and that’s only because it would be bad publicity for the races if lightning killed a canoe racer.

These days, Ketter Canoeing sponsors Rookie Racer Monday Nights by providing racing canoes and life jackets for free. Five to fifteen experienced canoe racers show up with their canoes and bent shaft paddles every Monday from spring ahead to fall back when the days are long enough. They come because they love the sport of canoe racing and want to get a good workout on the water, to work on their paddling technique, to practice riding other canoe wakes, and to share what they’ve learned with anyone who has an interest. After the paddling, you’re invited to dinner at the Lotus restaurant on Oak Street where you can hear stories of racers past and present and discuss the finer points of racing paddling techniques.

Here are some of the names of experienced canoe racers who have volunteered their time at Rookie Racer Mondays in recent years: Tom Noles, Yuyudahn Hoppe, Kenn Ketter, Todd Ellison, Kjell Peterson, Al and Jeff Dubois, Pete and Chris Kolas, Keith Canny, Tom Gardner, Jered Clausen, Chuck Ryan, Warren Thunstrom, Joe Conrad, Deighen Blakely, Io Harberts, Cal Stenso-Velo, Jason and Stephanie Larson, Sara Kueffer, Kevin Shriver, Scott Richardson, Dave Dahl, Heather Cichanowski, Doug Berg, Lee Jarpy, Duane and Norm Strike, and Rick and Tony Lorenzen.

As for the rookies, some people show up because they haven’t canoed before and don’t want to look foolish in front of their more experienced recreational canoeist friends. Some people show up to try bent shaft paddles or the sleeker racing canoes. Some people show up to learn more efficient paddling techniques for their recreational paddling even though it’s difficult to keep an open mind when your arms are programmed with years of J and C strokes. Some athletes show up because they have an upcoming triathlon that has canoeing as part of the race and they need to learn as much as they can in a few weeks.

Rookie Racer Mondays is one of the only places in the world where you might see a 57 year old dairy farmer paddling a canoe with a 28-year-old woman doctor. Athletes, mothers, college students, doctors, and businessmen have all come together at the sandy edge of the Mississippi River. We share the mighty Mississippi River from the lock just below St. Anthony Falls to the Ford Parkway dam with river barges, paddlewheel showboats, racing sculls and their pace boats, a peregrine falcon nesting under a high bridge, geese, ducks, and beavers.

Where else can you get free one-on-one instruction? What’s keeping you from enjoying the outdoors with us? For more information, visit the Minnesota Canoe Association website at www.canoe-kayak.org or e-mail us at racing@canoe-kayak.org