Bluewater History The history of Tug-of-War in the Dashwood area dates back as far as the mid 50's. Sid Neeb of Dashwood recalls the days when his brothers would halt field work to go to town and participate in the annual Tug-of-War tournament in conjunction with other festivities. Many other local mighty men would themselves show their strength on a length of manilla rope over the years. It was in 1974 that the Friedsburg Days first hosted its annual Tug-of-War tournament. Many local teams contested in the tournament and over the years teams from Lucan, Ilderton, Shipka and Mount Carmel came to Dashwood to compete. In 1982 a local farm club team banded together to form the 14th Sodbusters (all participants came from the 14th Concession of Hay and Stephen Townships and everyone was engaged in farming). 14th Sodbusters Harold Hendrick, Erich Freiter, Brad Willert, Willis Walper, Doug Weigand, Lorne Miller Bill Hoffman, Paul Grebb, Don Weigand, Al Hendrick, Glenn Restemayer go to the Photo Album for more historic photos Other teams from that time were Becker's Red Power, Mount Carmel and Gardiner Farms. The 14th Sodbusters disbanded in 1986 following sickness and retirement of members. In 1992 Erich Freiter recruited some new, younger, local fellows and they named themselves the "14th Sodbusters the Next Generation". In 1992 they became affiliated members of the Ontario Amateur Tug-of-War Association. In 1994 the club restructured once more and amalgamated with the members of the Dashwood Pioneer Club and the McCann Redy-Mix Team. The name Bluewater Tug-of-War Club was then decided upon, representing the local geographic area. The first few years, because of the many light weight team members, the club did not perform very well against the much heavier Catch Weight teams. The Bluewater Team was instrumental in getting a 720kg class established in Ontario. Since 1997 the Bluewater Team leads all weight classes, which now include a 720kg, 680kg and a 640kg Class. The next big step in our clubs history was the addition of a womens team. In 1997 nine women formed the Bluewater Ladies Team, the first Women's team to join the Ontario Amateur Tug-of-War Association. In 1998 the Bluewater Club traveled to Rochester, Minnesota to represent Canada at the World Championships in the mens 640kg, mens 680kg, mens 720 and womens 560kg classes. The Bluewater Club represented Canada again, at the World Championships in Blackpool, England in September 2000 Pretoria, South Africa in 2002 Rochester MN in 2004. We also competed at the European Championships in Assen (2003) and in Cento, Italy (2005)