The community of Norway Bay hosted the closing weekend of its annual Olympic-like regatta competitions on Saturday and Sunday – a decades-old tradition for the cottage community that sees athletes of all ages compete in three weekends of various races and challenges.
First thing Saturday morning, Norway Bay athletes of all ages met on the pier to kick off the swim regatta, and throughout the day, about 100 participants dove into the Ottawa River to compete for top places.
This year’s competitions, organized as always by the Norway Bay Municipal Association, also included events like a bicycle scavenger hunt, basketball free-throw, distance and sprint runs and swims, a triathlon, a dance, and an air guitar competition and award ceremony to cap it all off.
Over the six days of athletic competitions, points for all the individual competitions were tallied up to determine the male and female George Hermann memorial winners – the highest recognition achievable.
About five years ago, regatta swim director Carrie Bothwell decided to add a junior George Hermann award to increase participation from younger ages who were at significant disadvantage against the older kids competing for the trophy.
“It was really unfair because some of the younger kids can’t do the long swim. It’s not safe. So there wasn’t great participation because they knew they couldn’t win, they had no chance no matter how hard they tried,” she said.
The junior George Hermann is for ages six through 10.
“Now there’s really great participation from the younger age group,” she said.
Winners of this year’s George Hermann awards were Matthew Dunn and Jordyn Einarson and the junior winners were Austin Bailey and Charlotte Bastien.
Remembering the early days
On Saturday, the Bristol Quebec Historical Society was set up at the end of the pier, far from any potential splash, where it had records and photos from past regattas on display.
Society president Nancy Crain said her family has been in Norway Bay since 1915.
According to the society’s records, the regatta tradition began in the 1940s, at which point it was more of a ‘real’ regatta, Crain said, with motor and row boat races, and even gunnel races, where participants would stand on the edge of their canoes rather than sit inside them, which got even harder to balance when they’d get laughing.
Crain recalled how there used to be a synchronized swimming group that would perform to kick off the swim races, but that slowly stopped when there were no longer enough qualified instructors.
“It’s very generational,” she said, not only about the history many current families have in Norway Bay, but also the summer events and regatta.
She pointed out that she and many others gathered to watch the races had all been swim instructors at one time, and now have seen their children participate in the summer programs too.
“It’s pretty special,” she said.
Bothwell said she didn’t know when the regatta started, but does have a photo from 1952 of her husband’s grandfather participating in the field day sprints.
She added that the regatta is something people in the community look forward to, and plan for. People will bring family and friends, and take vacation time during the regatta, noting this year they even had visitors from Colombia, and the Netherlands.
She noted that some things have changed over the years, but the competition and tradition of winning the Hermann trophy has remained a staple.
“Everyone loves it.”
