Host Andre Santos talks about the World Paddle Awards in February 2017
Writer: Rosalyn Lawrence - The 2016 World Paddle Awards will be hosted by Nelo in Portugal 18 February 2017. Five months after the Olympic Games and the Paralympics, this will be the second biggest event in the 2016 paddling calendar.
The WPA is evolving year by year, and the Portuguese edition promises to be the biggest so far. Andre Santos, CEO of Nelo and WPA academy member, spoke to us about his vision for the ceremony, which will be held at the Montebelo Acquieira Lake Resort.
‘The biggest thing we want to do and the biggest change we want to input is to bring the community together at the ceremony and have a big crowd’
Andre wants to ‘give our sport and fans, canoeing fans, the opportunity to see their heroes getting rewarded in a more formal way’.
Nelo needs no introduction as one of the foremost manufacturers of canoes and kayaks in the world, and a long-term supporter of the WPA. Nelo and the Portuguese national federation will once again place Portugal at the center of the paddlesports world by hosting this event.
This time the WPA will announce the winners of four extra categories on top of the previous eight awarded in Barcelona.
Nominations are open here CLOSED
According to Andre many members of the paddling community will be based in Portugal at that time of year, so it is a great opportunity to have everybody involved in the ceremony, ramping up the atmosphere and giving the community a chance to applaud the achievements of their champions.
This will give the award winners ‘that great feeling of recognition by having a big crowd of their counterparts, people that know them, that paddle with them, the guys that want to be like them when they grow up, or the coaches that used to be like them’.
Previous WPA ceremonies have been held in the Goldener Saal, Augsburg, and Sant Pere de Ribes near Barcelona and WPA Founder Rob van Bommel is pleased to add the Montebelo Aguieira Lake Resort to this prestigious list of venues.