Meet Navi, the Suncoast Orienteering Gator
Back around 2012-2014, as talk of spinning Suncoast Orienteering (SOAR) out of Florida Orienteering (FLO), the subject of a club name and logo became important. Suncoast Orienteering was natural for a name, After all, we are located in the Suncoast area of Florida, one of the 12 marketing “coasts” in the state.
We then added Adventure Racing to the name partly as we occasionally broaden out from orienteering events and partly because we thought the acronym SOAR would be catchy.
The history of Navi
We did not create Navi (full name: Navi-Gator). Navi came from, of all places, Canada. I guess you could say Navi is a “snow gator”. In Canada, there is a city called Guelph. In the 1970’s, folks in Guelph formed an orienteering club called the Guelph Gators. Someone there came up with the illustration of a running alligator who looked a lot like Navi. I always like it, however, over the years the Guelph club declined until it was dormant. I sought and gained permission to use their gator image for our new club, copied it through an orienteering mapping program, and added the marker and lettering to make Navi truly our own.
We don’t hold them every year but when we do special long-distance events, they are called …
Footnote: Happily, the Guelph Gators orienteering club has made a bit of a rebound so now you may see twin gator logos at orienteering events around North America.
Gord Hunter, Suncoast Orienteering