For Lifetime Achievement winner Bill Endicott WPA is about (new) friends

Bill Endicott with WPA Event Manager Ulrike Williges.

Writer: Bill Endicott - My experience at the World Paddle Awards event was a combination of reconnecting with old friends but also making new ones. 

The first new friend was meeting Rob van Bommel when he picked my wife Abbie and me up at the Barcelona airport.  We had several hours with him during which we learned more about his background and his ambitious and very inspiring agenda for the future.  It got us “psyched” about canoeing and kayaking again!

The next day we moved from the lovely waterside art hotel Estela Barcelona in scenic Sitges to the Masia Almiral De La Font, the elegant venue where the award ceremonies were to be held.

Magically, just before we were supposed to be picked up and taken to the Masia, a number of old friends started assembling in the lobby of our hotel, along with some new ones!

My gosh!  There was Elizabeth Micheler, the 1992 Olympic Champion from Germany!  She had earned my everlasting gratitude back in the early 1990s by thanking me for helping to create the Slalom World Cup. She said that winning it had gained her attention from sponsors who had given her the use of a car, which had facilitated her successful 1992 Olympic campaign.

I then learned she was on the city counsel of Augsburg, and because of my interest in politics we had a good talk about that riding up to the Masia.

Another old friend who got into the bus going to the Masia was Karl Heinz Englet, whom I had met before, but not really known well.  He is a legend in the sport of whitewater slalom because he was responsible for bringing slalom to Augsburg, Germany for the 1972 Olympics.  He was the torch carrier in the opening of the slalom in those Olympics.  Karl, it turned out, was to present me with the Lifetime Achievement Award, which I consider a very special honor.

I later got him to tell me the story of how he got the Olympics to Augsburg.  In a nutshell, the organizers of those Munich Olympics wanted to hold the slalom on a temporary course on the Isar River that would be demolished after the Munich Games.

 My lord, if that had happened, we never would have had all those great races that have been held in Augsburg ever since and that have been so integral to the sport’s success!

Also getting into the bus going to the Masia were people who became new friends: Sergey Medvedev, his wife and his dad, who is now the coach of the Russian sprint canoe team.  We were able to communicate in my halting Russian and Sergei’s better English.  Sergey was to win the Media Professional award at the event ceremony.

At the Masia, I saw my old friend, Richard Fox, 5 times individual kayak slalom World Champion--more than anyone in history--who was to be the Master of Ceremonies at the Awards dinner.  Our connection went back to around 1980.  And, as I said in my acceptance speech at the awards dinner, Fox taught me a great deal about whitewater slalom.  He is a first class ambassador for our sport.  It’s always great to see Richard again.

It was Fox’s idea to start the Slalom World Cup in 1988, not mine, but Fox had the last laugh on me my helping make me President of it for 5 years! 

Bill and Abbie Endicott, Katayoon Ashraf and Ali Razeghian.

Also at the Masia I met people like five-time British Olympian and sprint kayak World Champion, Grayson Bourne, with whom I had corresponded in the past, but whom I'd never actually met before.  He is now with the KayakPro ergometer company, winner of WPA's Industry Professional Award.  Grayson is now based in Florida with both his wife and four-month-old son who came with him to Spain. At the Masia, Grayson, Fox and I had a fascinating conversation about the status of ergometers in the sports world and also how they can help recovering cancer patients. 

Another new friend was Martin Dreyer, of South Africa, who won the Foundation Award.  From him I learned a great deal about the state of canoeing and kayaking in South Africa, where marathon kayaking is king and where he is bringing it to disadvantaged young people through his Martin Dreyer Change A Life Academy.

I also had an interesting conversation with Julie Pearce, in charge of physiotherapy for Sport England and also for several British Olympic teams.  She had several tips to help me fend off the various aches and pains I’m acquiring through my own exercise program!

We had to leave early the next morning and in the taxi with us was teenage woman sprint champion Luca Homonnai, from Hungary, who won the Sports Junior award.  in addition to all my wonderful memories of the sport, it was fitting to see that the future of the sport would be in such capable hands!