BUWAT takes a break from business and heads for the water

9/8/2016

Katrien, fellow photographer, and her boyfriend looking jazzed.

Every year my team at work (called Business Unit Water or BUWAT) has a late summer picnic involving some casual outdoor activities (walks, bikes, playgrounds for kiddos) followed by a dinner buffet of sorts. Last year the picnic was two days before my start date, making it a nice forum for meeting my new colleagues. Apparently all my attempts to get coworkers paddling over the past year have made an impression, because this year our team leader Renaat graciously offered me the chance to organize a kayaking trip as part of our "mandatory" annual team even. Now that's one way to get people in boats!

The company picnic was in Wachtebeke, Belgium, just a few kilometers from a rental shop that I've already visited a couple times. The picnic activities of choice were (1) playground, (2) walk around the town park, and (3) (free) kayaking. If you are reading this blog (and arrived here by your own free will), I'm going to make a wild guess that you agree that option (3) is clearly the coolest, so I was hoping for the best! However, turn out for the picnic was low this year, so I was happy when we ended up with 15 people. The crew included me, Henk, Caroline, Jihane, Doris and her husband, Raquel, Katrien and her boyfriend, Willem, Crespo, and Bram and Glen with their girlfriends.

The kayak shop was brimming with people when we arrived - apparently we weren't the only ones with a big group paddle in mind. It was a bit hectic getting everyone geared up and into boats, but soon we were on our way. We headed east - the direction less travelled - for about an hour before turning around and heading back, since there were only a couple hours allotted to paddling. The scenery wasn't particularly interesting, but the weather was beautiful and it was fun to chat with some less familiar colleagues.

The kayaking prizes are awarded as follows:

Greatest distance traveled: Jihane demonstrated how to get the most kayaking mileage possible by zigzagging (can we call it switchbacking?) across the canal. The little solo boats did not want to track straight, preferring to cause many bumper-kayak situations along the way. The tandem kayaks seemed to do a bit better...
Speediest kayakers: Bram and Emily win for speediest boat!
Most competitive: Willem and Crespo win for their numerous races.
Most energy efficient: Doris wins for most miles covered relative to strokes paddled, thanks to her husband's manpower in the back of the tandem kayak :)
Most analytical: This one goes to Raquel for being so focused on improving her kayaking form and being very receptive to my "tips" :)

And with that, I leave you with some more pictures!
Thanks to Katrien for sharing photography responsibilities :)