Kayaking has a long history at Dapto High School. Years ago Mr. Peter Lyall founded a canoe club at the school and promoted the sport very well. Students joining the club had, as one of their first tasks, to make their own kayak in fiberglass materials. The canoe club produced many expert paddlers. Danielle Woodward, winner of an Olympic Silver medal in Barcelona, began her kayaking career at Dapto High School. The fiberglass kayaks have been replaced with plastic boats. We currently don't have a canoe club, but the interest in kayaking is growing again.

A large group of enthusiastic students take to the water each Thursday afternoon for School Sport. The prerequisite for taking this sport is to be competent at swimming at least 200 metres. This ensures that a student would be able to swim to safety in the event of having to exit a kayak and tow it to shore. We do most of our paddling at Mullet Creek due to its proximity to school, but have also been to Belmore Basin in Wollongong, Kangaroo Valley and Macquarie Rivulet at Albion Park. The BEST kayaking venue we have been to is the Penrith Whitewater Stadium (first visit). News of that excursion travelled fast in the school, and as a result there was a much greater interest in the sport.

In 2004... Our focus shifted to learning to play Canoe Polo so we can get 2 or more teams able to compete with other teams from both the Illawarra region and further a field.  We are gradually building our fleet of dedicated polo kayaks.  We now have four plastic and six fibreglass craft.  An essential skill in playing the sport is the ability to "Eskimo roll", and we are teaching that skill as well. As an extra for interested and capable paddlers we try to do one trip away, either to Kangaroo Valley or Penrith Whitewater Stadium.  Mr. J Wilson