The Edmonton Tsunami Water Polo Club is excited to announce that we will be restructuring for the 2020-21 season and transitioning away from the community and provincial divisions to fully focus on NCL programming. It is with great excitement that Tsunami endorses and introduces the Edmonton Riptides Water Polo Club! The Edmonton Riptides will take over the U8, U10, U12 and U14 programming from Tsunami to support the continued growth of water polo in the Edmonton zone.

Tsunami has experienced growth in our membership numbers as a result of the incredible efforts of our athletes, families, coaches and volunteers. Growing from 57 to 129 members (2016 – 2020) Tsunami has experienced great success, but also faced new challenges. With this growth Tsunami has needed to adjust our financial structure to keep water polo affordable and accessible to our membership. This growth has been the direct result of the outstanding efforts of the Tsunami volunteers. As the club has continued to grow our volunteers have also seen the workload increase in order to support quality programming at all levels. Introducing the Riptides and restructuring Tsunami will implement a framework that will support growth in our community for seasons to come.

 

Benefits to Creation of the Edmonton Riptides:

  1. Financial stability for both clubs
  2. Optimization of volunteer roles
  3. Creating space for both clubs to grow

The Riptides is excited to announce Raine Paul as our Head Coach. Raine will be joined by many of the Tsunami coaches in this inaugural season for the Edmonton Riptides Water Polo Club (full coaching announcement to come later this spring).

“The vision for Riptides has been in the works for the past few seasons. It is an exciting time to be involved in water polo in Edmonton and I can’t wait to be a part of this new chapter for both clubs! Separating the two clubs will allow Edmonton to continue to grow as a strong water polo hub in Alberta. On behalf of all the Tsunami coaches, we are honored to join the Riptides coaching staff and look forward to seeing you all back at the pool soon!”

– Raine Paul, Edmonton Riptides Water Polo Club Head Coach

“We are very excited to be able to develop a program together that has been a dream of many for years. We have discussed it with tenured Tsunami members that had previously dedicated endless hours to the club with the end goal always being to create a water polo experience catered to all families, clubs and athletes in Edmonton. To be effective with the launch, we went through many experiences which we can now look back on as learning opportunities that have led to the exciting launch of an amazing program and great things to come for water polo as we know it here in Edmonton.”

– Kelly Thorne, Edmont Tsunami Water Polo Club President

“I am honoured and excited to be a part of this next chapter for Tsunami. Riptides is a great initiative to grow our sport and support our families. These are exciting times for water polo in Edmonton and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for both clubs.”

– Natasja Treiberg, Edmonton Riptides Water Polo Club President

As we enter this new chapter we understand families may have questions about what next season will look like for both clubs. The Tsunami and Riptides boards welcome your questions and will work together to sort out the details of this restructuring. Please join us as we select the final logo for the Edmonton Riptides! Vote for as many colour options as you would like in this first round of voting and we look forward to seeing everyone back at the pool soon!

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