Duncan paddler Ellashani George barely has time to relish the five medals she earned in canoe racing at the 2023 North American Indigenous Games in Halifax, which wrapped up July 23, before she heads out again, destined for another major paddling event.
Though George made it back to the Cowichan Valley in time to celebrate her 19th birthday with friends and family, she is home for just two weeks before taking off yet again, this time to the central South Pacific to represent Team Canada at the IVF World Distance Outrigger Championships in Samoa on Aug. 7.
“I’m one of the youngest, if not the youngest from Canada going to compete,” she admitted. “Everyone in my V6 crew is 10-plus years older than me.”
That doesn’t faze her though, nor does the fact she’s only been paddling outriggers for around a year.
George said she began war canoe pulling in 2019 when she was 14 and would only occasionally paddle in an outrigger. The 2022 Cowichan Secondary graduate didn’t become fully involved with outriggers until she moved to Victoria to study for a combined degree in biology and psychology at the University of Victoria. It was in Victoria that she joined Latitude 48 Paddling Club.
“Now I do war canoe pulling with some outrigger in the summer and outrigger only in the winter,” George explained.
It’s worked well for her. She can really paddle whatever boat she gets into.
At the North American Indigenous Games, George took gold in the 19U female MC2 1000m and 19U female MC2 6000m, silver in the 19U mix MC2 1000m with Noah Gray, and bronze in the 19U female MC2 3000m and 19U mix MC2 6000m, also with Gray.
They raced clipper canoes at NAIG.
“Those are so different and weird but not everywhere has war canoes,” she said.
As for outriggers, “they are still very new to me. I’m constantly learning new things about how to paddle in an outrigger. I had been in six-man and single outriggers before but not as often as I am now,” George said. “Joining an outrigger club really opened my eyes to a new world of paddling.”
It’s a new world that is about to get even bigger with an 8,400-kilometre 17-hour trip to Samoa.
“Competing at NAIG has prepared me for the experience at Samoa,” she said. “Knowing how I may feel, the jet lag, meeting new people, how to prepare for another big trip, et cetera.”
Competing at NAIG and in Samoa also pushed her to double her training efforts as well.
She hopes the work will pay off in her two events at the World Championships.
She’ll be racing individually in her age category for the V1 15-kilometre race as well as with five other women in the open V6 24-kilometre race.
Making the Canadian team was “definitely a huge long process,” said George.
She’d only been paddling with Latitude 48 for a couple of weeks when they encouraged her try out for the World Distance Outrigger Championships.
She signed up for the U19 V1 spot and wanted to try out for the V6 as well but there weren’t enough U19 participants to complete a crew.
Come October, 2022, when the tryouts took place in Vancouver, the unthinkable happened.
“The other competitors were too sick to race, and of course I was also sick,” George explained. “I still showed up, but I only completed eight out of 15 kilometres due to being too sick to complete the race. They ended up booking a race off for later in the year.”
Impressed with the young paddler, the Canadian Outrigger Racing Association invited her to try out for the V6 open woman spot at a camp in January.
“The camp was a lot of fun and I got to meet a lot of paddlers from around B.C.,” George said. “I also met some of the other open woman trying out for the spot.”
When George arrived to the race-off in March 2023, she learned her competitors did not. Thus, she received the Team Canada U19 V1 spot.
“Later on I had also found out that I earned a spot on the open woman V6 spot,” she said.
George is registered with Oneida Nation of the Thames in Ontario and her mom is Kwakwaka’wakw from Gilford Island and Kingcome Inlet but they’ve lived in Cowichan since 2014. She attended Khowhemun Elementary and Quamichan Middle School before graduating from Cowichan Secondary. She aims to represent all with pride in Samoa Aug. 10-19.
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