Delta Proud

Delta Deas Rowing Club is located within Deas Island Regional Park in Delta, British Columbia. ​Rowing takes place on the waterway of Deas Slough, where all practices and several annual regattas are held.

The organization is a member in good standing of Rowing Canada Aviron (RCA) and competes in RCA sanctioned events, as well as other events sponsored by high schools and rowing clubs. Club staff, members, parents, volunteers and coaches are dedicated to help participants, and each other, realize their dreams and potential in a positive, constructive environment.

Our History

The first rowing event on the Deas Slough was a BC Championship held May 10 and 11, 1986, and was a resounding success. As a result, retired rowing Olympians Lyle Gatley, Joy Fera, and Bill McKerlich worked with other eager volunteers to form a Society, and the Delta Deas Rowing Club was incorporated on December 3, 1986. Coaches Murray Johnson and Lyle Gatley prepared students for the 1987 B.C. Summer Games hosted by Delta Deas Rowing Club, with West Shore terminals providing a dock for the event.

The following year, the GVRD gave approval for DDRC to operate in Deas Park. With the help of a "Go B.C." grant and donations from the Delta Credit Union and Delta Cablevision, groundbreaking for the boathouse took place in March 1988. South Delta Secondary School students from Mr. Gatley’s Building Construction class, along with others, worked for many months on the project, completing it in time to host the B.C. Youth Championships in 1989.

In 1995 the DDRC members expanded the dock to reduce the impact on the foreshore and to meet the growing needs of the rowing club and ​the community. Subsequently, DDRC completed construction of a 1500 square foot boat-shed for external storage of shells, and dressed up the rowing site by placing paving stones on the water-side of the boathouse and inside the gated compound. The summer of 2015 saw us once again working on the dock, when the GVRD supplied lumber with which we capped the dock, hoping for a bit more life out of the it while we await confirmed plans for its replacement.

DDRC has hosted an annual High School Regatta for the past 26 years, and a Masters regatta for the past 18 years.

Club staff, members, parents, volunteers and coaches are dedicated to help participants, and each other, realize their dreams and potential in a positive, constructive environment.