Mist traced the rolling mountains surrounding Lake Utah State Park as a team of four UF civil engineering students paddled their craft, the Springseeker, to victory. Team Springseeker, made up of UF faculty, students and alumni, worked tirelessly to create a concrete canoe fit to race against other top civil engineering colleges.
The UF concrete canoe team floated to the occasion by winning its fourth national title in the concrete canoe competition at the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships, which took place from June 20 to June 23 in Provo, Utah.
This includes the team’s first place win in 2015 for its Foreverglades canoe, the Tom Petty-inspired canoe named Free Floatin' that was victorious in 2019, and the Polligator canoe that won the virtual competition in 2021.
After building and testing a successful Springseeker prototype, the race-ready canoe was 186 pounds and 251 inches long. Though one wouldn’t think concrete would be a material capable of floating, the canoe was designed with thin layers of concrete combined with carbon fiber to achieve a buoyant product.
Sydney Sutherland, a 22-year-old UF civil engineering alum and co-project manager of the UFCC team, said her team worked hard to achieve the right concrete mix. The goal was to create a design that was lightweight and durable, Sutherland said.
The durability of the Springseeker faced its ultimate test in the middle of the race when Kansas State’s canoe accidentally rammed into it.
Sutherland said seeing the collision from the shore was like watching in slow motion.
Kansas State’s canoe hit the midship of the Springseeker, which was the weakest point of the canoe’s structure, Sutherland said.
“Had our canoe not been durable, it would have crumbled,” Sutherland said. “Usually when a school gets hit, it’s not very common that they get back out and race again, so it was awesome to see that our canoe was durable enough to withstand a collision.”
The Springseeker went on to sustain no water damage for the last six races of the day, Sutherland said.
Abigail Fronk, a 21-year-old UF civil engineering senior and co-project manager of the UFCC team, was one of four people in the boat when the crash occurred. She said Kansas State’s canoe had the heaviest bow in the competition, which made the resilience of the Springseeker even more impressive.
“Obviously being in the boat, it’s scary. It was also a little disheartening, as well, in the moment,” Fronk said. “I think it also proved the attitude and culture of our team.”
The construction of the Springseeker, which spanned from September 2023 to the ASCE regional competition in March, was inspired by the Fountain of Youth. The canoe’s marbled light green and blue marbled interior was speckled with lily pads and flowers.
“When you’re walking up to it, there’s an elaborate stained exterior that has architecture inspired by St. Augustine with brick arches,” Fronk said. “It’s as if you were walking up to the spring.”
Not only did the team have to prepare the canoe for racing, but they also had to prepare for the physicality of it. Fronk said the paddling team had a total of 28 paddling practices at Lake Wauberg while also working out about twice a school week to prepare.
The ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships consist of three different competitions: the concrete canoe competition, the sustainable solutions competition and the surveying competition.
Each competition allowed students to be tested, as well as showcase their capabilities while facing real-life challenges in the civil engineering field.
UF beat 24 teams for the national concrete canoe title.
However, when it came to the UFCC team’s fight for first place overall, it was mainly between top competitors, Universite Laval and California Polytechnic State University, which swept a majority of the races.
UF’s team placed second in the men and women’s slalom races, fifth in the women's sprint, second in the men’s sprint and third place in the co-ed sprint.
For best technical proposal, best technical presentation and best final product, the UFCC team took third place.
Race day may have been stressful for the UFCC team but tension remained until the following day because they wouldn’t know the end results until the awards banquet.
Taylor Nestel, a 22-year-old UF civil engineering senior who served as a construction captain and member of the paddling team for UFCC, said the award banquet was a tense moment but the mutual support all universities had for each other made it a great experience.
Other teams celebrated UF’s win with applause and a Gator chomp.
“It was kind of an unbelievable feeling because you feel that all the work you did all year, it came to fruition and your dreams became realized as you realize you won first place,” Nestel said. “I was crying, just tears of joy. So it was definitely a grand moment that was just something truly special to have experienced.”
Contact Kamala Rossi at krossi@alligator.org. Follow her on X @kamalarossi.
Kamala Rossi is a fourth-year journalism major and the Santa Fe reporter for The Alligator. When she's not writing, Kamala can be found surfing, watching movies and reading.
