Huh?Huh?The Concrete Canoe Competition is held annually by the American Society of Civil Engineers(ASCE). Each participating student chapter of ASCE builds, you guessed it, a canoe out of concrete.
Where Is the Competition Held?Last year, the competition was held at CSUSacramento. The year before, it was held at our beloved Lake Lagunita. This spring, the competition will be at UOP.
Do They Float?Of course they float! There are plenty of metal boats that float, so why not concrete? The problem exists in getting them sturdy enough to displace water and hold passengers while also making them light enough to paddle and race without the paddlers dying from exhaustion.
Who Wins?Well, hopefully we do. But, seriously, each team is judged according to two days of activities. The first day is the presentation day. Teams are judged on an oral report and question session, as well as their theme presentation. The second day is race day.
What About Your Theme?Our theme in 1996-97 was "Greased Lightning." Everybody loves Grease.
In 1995-96, our theme was the "Tiger-Salamander." Here's the story: For a long
time (since about 1910) Stanford has held a huge bonfire every
November in the dry bed of Lake Lagunita. This is to get everybody
psyched about Big Game (us vs. kal-berzerkly). A few years ago the
bonfire was stopped when it was found that part of the endangered
tiger-salamander population was living in Lake Lag. Since Stanford was
hosting the competition this year, and the races were to be held on
Lake Lag (don't worry, it's full in the springtime) we decided to go
with the Tigermander theme.
Check out a canoe <-> tiger salamander morph!
Ooh, Lemme See!Please visit the (Un-official) Stanford Concrete Canoe photo gallery.
If you're from Stanford, you can view our 1996 Canoe Report (Warning: Big pictures).