Back for 2023 with more sports on offer than ever before!

WATERSPORTS INCLUSION GAMES

24th & 25th June 2023, Wexford Harbour Boat and Tennis Club

Watersports Inclusion Games is an award-winning FREE multi-watersport event for all abilities/disabilities from the physical, intellectual, sensory and learning spectrums and those who experience barriers accessing mainstream sport. Aimed especially at young people but catering for ALL ages, participants together with family and friends can access the exciting sports of

Sailing, Canoeing, Kayaking, Rowing, Paddleboarding, Powerboating, Motorboating

Dragonboating, Waterskiing, Snorkelling, Tennis and more!

The event showcases the latest adaptations and innovations for optimised watersports delivery and promotes the benefits to health and wellbeing of accessible inclusive watersports participation.

All activities and equipment are provided and no experience is necessary.

Watersports Inclusion Games is organised by Irish Sailing in association with Canoeing Ireland, Rowing Ireland, Irish Wakeboarding and Waterski Federation, Diving Ireland, Sports Active Wexford, Wexford Harbour Boat and Tennis Club, Spinal Injuries Ireland, Shielbaggan OEC, supported by Sailability Ireland, Sport Inclusion Ireland, Slaney Purple Paddlers, Kinsale OEC, Ramor Watersports Club, Waterabilities, Wet Mongrel Adventure, and many others.

Our landmark multi-activity event, in its 5th year, will be hosted by Wexford Harbour Boat and Tennis club. Located on the Slaney River estuary, this wonderful venue will offer a wide range of watersports and land activity with some additional watersports activities also taking place at the breathtaking Carrigfoyle Lake, 20 minutes from the club. A mini-bus will be organised to transport between activities where required.

There will be all the usual exciting offerings of Sailing, Kayaking, Canoeing, Paddleboarding, Powerboating, Motorboating, Rowing, and Waterskiing, on offer with the new activities of Tennis and Snorkelling joining the schedule for the first time! Dragonboating will also make its much-anticipated debut following its postponement at the Lough Derg Games 2022 due to adverse weather. All in all, there will be a fine spectacle of activity at Wexford over the weekend and a fun-filled event is in store for all participants and volunteers.

Event Flyer

Event Flyer to share (coming soon)

Draft Event Programme

Click here for our proposed Draft Programme of Activity

Lunch, Saturday Dinner & Party

In addition to the exciting line-up of sporting activity on offer, participants can look forward to a free packed lunch available on both days and there will be an Event Party on location at Wexford Harbour Boat and Tennis Club on the Saturday evening after the day activities. More details to follow.

Booking

Participant Booking

Booking will be online via a private Eventbrite link which will be circulated to interested participants soon.

Participant Expressions of Interest

If you are interested in registering your email to be included on the circulation list, please contact wsinclusion@gmail.com and you will be contacted by one of our team to ascertain your qualification for the event. (The event is open to those experiencing barriers accessing mainstream sport and their family and friends).

Volunteer Booking

Volunteer booking will be via private Eventbrite link and will open soon!! Expressions of interest to wsinclusion@gmail.com

Past Events

Watersports Inclusion Games has taken place at various locations around Ireland in Dublin 2017, Galway 2018, Cork (Kinsale) 2019, and Tipperary (Lough Derg) 2022. The inaugural WI Games in 2017 (Dun Laoghaire) was hugely well received and activities were expanded in 2018 with the event winning Project of the Year at the National Inclusion Awards. Watersports Inclusion Games saw exponential growth in numbers in 2019 where we had even more activities on offer than ever before and over 300 participants and 200 volunteers enjoyed two days of fun and sunshine. In its fourth year further activities were offered with the event hosted at the vibrant Lough Derg Yacht Club, Dromineer, Co. Tipperary. 2023 sees the event enjoy its 5th iteration, with yet more new activities on offer. For a taste of the event, view our videos from previous years.

Testimonials

“An excellent event, we all enjoyed so much. Volunteers were so lovely and warm. My daughter progressed from paddle boarding in a wheelchair to on her own over the 2 days and that was down to volunteers, Lorna and Nico. Having her siblings and parents in activities with her made it so much easier and also allowed siblings to have a great time. A wonderful weekend for all the family”

“…..it was truly fantastic event. Probably the best organized, with the most helpful, kind and caring volunteers I have ever come across. I worked for a huge Corporate Company as Event Manager for years & I was blown away with how fantastically this was run. Well done & Thank you so much”

“Overall I thought it was such an amazing event. I volunteered to bring one young man with an ID on the Saturday. He loved the whole day as did I. I got to take part in some of the sports, chatted with family members, instructors and volunteers and had an amazing day. lunch was great, venue was perfect and the sun shone. I cannot commend the organisation, volunteers and staff enough. Well done to all. I just wish it was in Galway more often. Thank you to everyone involved”

“Thought it was very well organized and volunteers were excellent , really really enjoyed the day”

Thank you to all the 2023 supporters

The Watersports Inclusion Games is supported by the Sport Ireland Dormant Accounts Sports Inclusion Fund

Ambassadors

John Twomey: Paralympic Sailor

John Twomey is an Irish Paralympic athlete and sailor. He has represented Ireland at 11 consecutive Paralympic games winning medals at three of them.

Recently elected President of Irish Sailing (March 2022), John has been a member of the board since the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. He is also Chairperson of the board of Spinal Injuries Ireland.

John has been the helmsman in the Mixed Three Person Sonar, a 23-foot two sail keelboat in the 2000 Sydney Games, 2004 Athens Games, 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio Games and the Mixed Two Person SKUD18 in 2008 Beijing Games. At the 2013 ISAF World Championships in Weymouth, he teamed with Ian Costelloe and Austin O’Carroll to win the bronze medal in the Sonar Class. They finished sixth in the Miami event.

John was elected President of the International Association for Disabled Sailing in 2012. He was responsible for helping the IFDS through three major challenges which occurred after that including a court case related to the 2012 Paralympics, the merger of the IFDS and the ISAF as well as the loss of sailing as a paralympic sport in the 2020 Paralympics. Twomey lead the Ireland team out during the opening ceremony as the National Flag Bearer of the Rio 2016 Games.

Oisín Feery – Special Olympian Kayaker

Oisín Feery is from Ballycommon in the Parish of Daingean, Co. Offaly. He has kayaked with the Tullamore Canoe Club since the age of 9. He also represents Ballinamere Special Olympics Club. He is the current Leinster and Ireland Special Olympics Gold medalist in the 200mtr and 500mtr sprint kayak discipline. In March 2019 he won a Gold and Bronze medal in the 200mtr and 500mtr, respectively at the Special Olympics World Games in Abu Dhabi just one week before his 18th birthday. He is currently a Level 2 kayaking instructor and has participated in the Special Olympics Athlete Leadership programme. He was awarded a An Garda Síochána Youth Award (Leinster) in the same year.

Oisín is Canoeing Ireland Autism Ambassador and is currently working part time delivering outdoor recreational therapy programmes to youths and young adults with neuro-diverse diagnosis and is also studying digital media.

Bryan Dobson – RTE Journalist / Presenter / Newscaster /Sailor

Bryan Dobson is known by most as the long-time popular lead news anchor for RTÉ 1 main evening news, Bryan is now presenter of RTÉ’s News at One, and prior to that, Morning Ireland for RTE Radio 1. An ardent sailor, Bryan spends much of his free time sailing Irish coastal waters onboard his cruiser Mawal, and abroad doing the odd ‘delivery trip’! Bryan is an Irish Sailing Keelboat Instructor who trained extensively and volunteered often with the famous Glenans Irish Sailing Club (Baltimore Base) prior to its closure in 2012.

Bryan has been most enthusiastic about the Watersports Inclusion Games for some time now and was on board from early 2019. Bryan volunteered his time to launch our 2019 Kinsale Inclusion Games and volunteered at the event skippering a Sonar keelboat. Bryan is passionate about advocating for Inclusion in his role as Event Ambassador for the Games.