Maskwa Aquatic Club’s world class paracanoe program has the wind firmly at its back.

The Halifax-based club made a big push to expand its program in 2022, starting with four athletes, and increased that total to 10 this year.

Program co-ordinator Dave Waters, who has competed for Canada on the international stage in paracanoe, had been working in a one-on-one mentor role and was looking to expand the reach of the sport at a grassroots level.

“I wanted to demonstrate how, with a little bit of effort, some funding and some enthusiasm, you could develop a paracanoe program,” said Waters.

The program has shown that, at a competitive level, it can more than hold its own. The paracanoe club captured the burgee for the second straight year at nationals, held on Lake Banook in Dartmouth, which helped Maskwa win the overall and senior burgee titles.

Achieving this level of success has not been without its challenges. There have been logistical hurdles, which funding from Parasport Nova Scotia has helped to address.

“There are specific boats for our program and they’re very expensive,” said Waters. “The other thing is making sure your club is both accessible and approachable. We feel our paracanoe program is not an isolated program. It’s part of the club.

“Having the right equipment with the right training and the right people has allowed us to make it safe and enjoyable so people could try it. And we’ve had people come back to us having tried it and say, ‘Wow, I didn’t think I could do that,’ so it’s been really beneficial from a quality of life perspective.”

Natasha Sexton Quillan and her son, Hayden, are among the participates in the program who can attest to that.

“This program has given Hayden a sense of belonging and something to look forward to,” said Natasha. “They have found success and that encourages them to try harder. We had a really tough time prior to joining Maskwa with feeling like we were part of a collective. Even in a group/team atmosphere, there was always a sense of unfriendly competition amount peers. In contrast, our group looks at any one athlete’s success as a win for the group and uses that to continue to find more of those little wins.”

And it’s not just a seasonal program. Waters said athletes work year-round, incorporating dryland activities into their routine.

“We have some who use this to improve their overall physical health and some who use it as cross-training for other sports,” he said. “And just to see that recognition from people, that, ‘Hey, I can do this,’ is really beneficial from a mental health perspective as well as physical.”