The rowing scene in Victoria
Victoria, BC has two distinct rowing venues: Elk Lake - a calm, 4 km freshwater lake used by the Victoria City Rowing Club, the University of Victoria and Canadian national team training camps - and the Gorge Waterway, a tidal inlet through the city's inner suburbs where the Gorge Narrows Rowing Club runs community programmes. Together they make Victoria one of the most active rowing cities in western Canada.
Key numbers
Elk Lake is a sheltered, wind-protected freshwater lake in Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park, 12 km north of downtown Victoria. Its calm 4 km length makes it the premier sprint-race venue on Vancouver Island and the regular training site for the Canadian national team. The Gorge Waterway is a narrow tidal channel running east from the Inner Harbour through Vic West and Saanich, providing urban waterway rowing with challenging currents at the Gorge Narrows.
All 2 rowing clubs in Victoria
Sorted by founding year. Every entry links to the club's own website; we verified all URLs in May 2026. If you spot an error or your club is missing, let us know.
| Club | Founded | Location | Reach | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Victoria City Rowing Club
Founded in 1952 at Elk Lake, Victoria City Rowing Club is one of the four member groups of the Victoria Rowing Society that share the Elk Lake facility. The club serves as a practice venue for the University of Victoria team and Canadian National Rowing Team training camps, alongside its own competitive, masters and recreational membership programmes. |
1952 | Elk Lake, Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park, Saanich, BC | Elk Lake | Senior community / competitive / masters |
|
Gorge Narrows Rowing Club
The Gorge Narrows Rowing Club became independent from St. Michaels University School in 2017 and has run community rowing programmes on the Gorge Waterway ever since. Offers recreational, competitive, para and casual rowing for youth and adults on Victoria's distinctive tidal urban waterway. Hosts the annual Head of the Gorge Regatta each October. |
2017 | Gorge Waterway, Victoria, BC | Gorge Waterway | Senior community / recreational |
Major regattas in or near Victoria
Late March
October (Halloween weekend)
Late spring
Software for Victoria rowing clubs
Most of the 2 clubs above still run their boat booking, member admin, session attendance and crew lineups on a combination of spreadsheets, WhatsApp groups and printed sheets on the boathouse wall. Row HQ is rowing-club management software built specifically for clubs like these.
If your committee is hitting the predictable problems - lineups in the wrong file, fees uncollected, attendance unrecorded, captain on holiday with the password - book a 30-minute demo. We've ported clubs from spreadsheets in a weekend.
See Row HQ for your club
Free forever for clubs of up to 20 active members. No card needed.
Other rowing-club cities
Looking at the wider regional scene? Here are the other cities we have full directories for.
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Vancouver's rowing scene spans two distinct waterways: the historic Coal Harbour in Stanley Park, ho...
Hamilton Harbour has been a competitive rowing venue since the early twentieth century. The Leander...
From the blog
If you're researching the rowing scene in Victoria as a club admin or captain, these are the most useful pieces we've written.