-by Steve Irwin

Sport brings people together. It’s true. Nothing galvanizes like game, professional or in this case surely amateur. But when the outcome is repeated year-after-year for the best reasons, the result is wonderful.

Riding the wave of a much needed surge in national pride, in stereotypical Canadian fashion Colt Creek Tank Jockeys did what the rest of the world now thinks all Canadians do in Winter: jump in a freezing river, push a 12,000 lb. block of ice 2.3 kilometres (miles are so yesterday), navigate the current, and race against other dive clubs’ 15-person teams.

And win. Again. This time improving on the previous-year’s 4-second win margin to own the field by lapping two floes and enjoy a 7-minute, incontestable gap over the nearest team in the Ontario Underwater Council’s Annual Ice Floe Race.

March is a perfect time for this event. The Ottanabee River is wide-open and fast. The water is still cold (it is an enormous ice-luge being used, after all). But the sun, THE SUN! – so nice to feel it again on the back of your neck, the only part of your anatomy exposed below great big smiles.

You can’t find out what makes Coca Cola unique, why the Colonel’s Chicken is so special, or even what’s in most Mask DeFog solutions, and you won’t find revelation of the Tank Jockey’s strategy for on-course success here. There really is a technique to winning this, but it’s safe to say that heart, fellowship, and teamwork were the foundation of a well planned and executed race.

Sport, and Colt Creek Diving. Brings people together.

Read about the event here in the Peterborough Examiner