“What inspired my comeback this year was just my love for the sport, miss being around with friends, being around the club, that’s the biggest thing especially since I stopped training super competitively and racing super competitively. It’s a huge stress off your chest because you just go and have fun with it and when you’re racing you’re not super concerned with how you do, you just want to race because it’s fun. That’s the biggest thing but honestly some of the races I race better just because your just out there like ‘hey whatever I don’t care how I do, I’m just going to go out and put everything on the line and see what happens’. Paddling has shaped my life in so many ways, it’s unbelievable, the sport has been my life for 12 years right. Less so in the past 2 years but up until I was 21, like that was my life, I was a paddler right and that’s another thing about quitting is you got this identity crisis, like ‘what am I now?’ But I mean like honestly, I’m pretty happy about the person I became and all of it is due to paddling, like the attitude, the discipline that comes with it, the friends you make at the club, just being a part of a second family, it just shapes you to become a better person I think because you’ve experienced so many different challenges within the club, and victories even so a sport like this where you dive into and you get into it really hard, it shapes you who you are and usually for the better. It’s been an amazing experience and I’m sad to let it go in the fall but I enjoyed the ride and it’s always going to be here when I come home.” – Lukas Hetzler, Canadian Canoer. (1/4)
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