01/09/2026
Congratulations to Jeremy Norton.
Jeremy was key to WYC Paddlers partnering with the WYC, keeping our facility busy all year round.
PETER ECKHARDT AND JEREMY NORTON RECOGNISED WITH LIFE MEMBERSHIP
Last Saturday, at the Paddle Tas AGM, with a unanimous vote of member clubs, Jeremy Norton and Peter Eckhardt were awarded Life Membership.
Both men have made continuous and significant contributions spanning multiple decades in their respective sports; flat water racing / ocean racing for Jeremy, and canoe slalom for Peter. In both cases, the vibrancy of those sports in Tasmania is due in large part to their contributions.
Returning from a three-month training trip to Sydney in the early 80s with a flat water K1, Jeremy arranged for a mould to be taken of his new boat to produce more. These were then on sold to paddlers who started training on the Inglis River at Wynyard, a group which soon became the Burnie Kayak Racing Club, with Jeremy the founding and long-time President. In the subsequent decades, Jeremy established the ‘Winter Series’ of races, still with us today as the ‘WYC Winter Series’. He was instrumental in bringing the 1990 and 1992 Australian Canoe Sprint Championships to Tasmania, chairing the organising committees for these events. The list goes on: a significant part in establishing a kayak and sailing shared-use facility at the Wynyard Yacht Club, arranging numerous visits to Tasmania of high-level coaches… And all this is not even touching Jeremy’s competitive career; 40+ years on and still active (and medalling) in national and international competitions.
Peter’s commitment to canoe slalom in Tasmania started in his early days as a world-class slalom athlete, representing Australia at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Following his retirement from high-level competition, Peter poured his energies into coaching. He coached many young slalom athletes in the following decades, including two more Tasmanian Olympians. In recent years, Peter turned his passion for canoe slalom in a more administrative direction. Peter has been the driving force behind the rapid expansion and success of junior slalom programs, and was the instigator of the State Slalom Coach position, a task that required liaising with multiple organisations for cooperation and funding commitments. This coach model has since been copied by two other states. And again, the list goes on: organising multiple state and national championships, long-time Commodore of the Derwent Canoe Club, overseeing that club’s vibrancy and expansion in recent years.
Please join Paddle Tas in congratulating these two fantastic Tasmanian champions for their sports!
