Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team practices in the sunshine this week.

We meet Sundays 1:30
Tuesday 6pm
Wednesday 6pm
All practices at Dragon Zone @ Creekside Park
just south of Science World
meet above the Dragon Boat/ Aqua Ferry docks
at the green trailer building that is Dragon Zone club house

Practices this past week.

Sunday March 30, we had 19 paddlers
GREAT PRACTICE in the sunshine.  This is what dragon boat practices are all about… great people, great weather, great
experience paddling on a Sunday afternoon.  We did our usual paddle around East Basin, then up to David Lam Park.

Tuesday Beginner night
14
paddlers out on the water Tuesday… and the boat felt strong, even
with 3 new rookies.  Joe Easton, a 6 year veteran on the Gung Haggis
team says the team is way ahead of where we were this time last year.

We
had the second Gung Haggis Food & Social Club after-practice meal
at Congee House on Broadway.  A great way to introduce non-Asian
paddlers to lots of Chinese food.

Wednesday Rec night
The
Killarney Cougar Dragons had their first practice with teacher sponsor
manager Stuart Mackinnon.  Coaches were Todd Wong, Gayle Gordon and
Kimm Mitchell, and steers Steven Wong.

These high school
students had 20 paddlers out on the boat.  After some confusing paddle
clashing at the beginning, we soon had them paddling in time and having
fun.  Gayle remarked that they were remarkably good for their first
time, and easy to see how the team won Junior D silver last year, when
we had only the veteran paddlers paddling.

Gung Haggis practice had only 10 paddlers out tonight.
We
waited for our 10th paddler to show up, so we could take a Gemini boat
out.  We transformed the disappointment of a small turn-out into a
positive experience with more one-to-one coaching.  We rotated two
paddlers to do some lead stroke work with Gayle Gordon, and Todd moved
from seat to seat, working with different paddlers.

We did some
4 person quad sections (much easier with less people)… but that's all
we had… a front half of  4 and a back half of 5.  We did some good
paddling work, and brought in some intensity pieces of 10 and 20
strokes. GOOD workout tonight.

SPECIAL
EVENTS

Thursday April 3rd – 1pm
TARTAN DAY PROCLAMATION
at Vancouver City Hall
Come join me for a ceremonial reading as the mayor proclaims  April 6th as Tartan Day in the City of Vancouver.
Bagpipe ceremony with Allan McMordie.  I snuck in the words “Gung Haggis Fat Choy tartan” into the proclamation – see www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com

Thursday, April 3rd
8pm-8:30pm meeting time
Doolin's Irish Pub
KILTS NIGHT – 1st Thursday of each month.
9:30pm – live music with Halifax Wharf Rats.
This is an optional social event. 

FREE pint of Guinness if you wear a kilt.
We have 5 kilts for the team.  Tzhe Lam will have the Kilt bag, as I am working until 9pm.
This is a special Tartan Day event,

SUNDAY, April 6th.1:30
Dragon Zone @ Creekside Park
just south of SCIENCE WORLD

TARTAN DAY dragon boat paddle.
We will invite people to wear their tartans for paddling
invite your friends to join us for practice
hopefully we can have two boats on the water, for a photo opportunity for Tartan Day…. always good for recruiting!

This Sunday is TARTAN DAY. 
see www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com for details.

TARTAN DAY
celebrates the Scottish ancestry and contributions to Canada… and is
a good excuse for getting a free beer and a photo opportunity. See  The next celebration: Wearing the tartan

We
invite people to wear their polyviscous kilts, invite their friends to
come join us for paddling… and hopefully have a photo opportunity
with the media.  (all part of good community work and sets us up for
that very pretty Alcan Sustainability Award – cultural sustainability
is good).

We
will follow up a hard practice with well-earned carbohydrate
re-loading.  Sugars are carbohydrates.  Alcohol is a sugar.  Beer and
scotch are alcohols – a good way to replenish the body's carbohydrates
and celebrate Tartan Day.

APRIL 11th. 6pm-8:30pm
Dragon Zone
Special paddling clinic with Kamini Jain – 2 time Olympic paddler and coach of the False Creek Racing Canoe Club.
I
took a similar paddling clinic with Kamini last October and liked it so
much, I have signed up our team.  Kamini will give paddle instruction,
and we will video the team.  Then will watch the team, and Kamini will
critique each paddler.  Video can be a powerful tool.

Cost is
$400 for the team… so participants please bring $20 each. This is a
GREAT price.  I paid $75 for the workshop last year.

May 17th. Saturday Victoria Day weekend
Lotus Sports Club dragon boat regatta
Barnett Marine Park
Cost is $20 per person
I
have registered our team.  We will paddle some some friendly rivalries
with the Chilliwack Pirates.  Last year we came 1st in our final
race… but we didn't have the third fastest combined time – the
Pirates did.  Dinner Party at Raphael's in Port Moody following the
race.

Cheers, Todd
h: 604-987-7124
c: 778-846-7090

Join a dragon boat team that specializes in multicultural and community activities:
Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team

Emilie grabs the flag at the 2007 Vancouver Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race. – photo VFK

Hope you can join us for a wonderful
season of dragon boat paddling.  2007 was an AWESOME year for the
Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  Our vision is to expand to 2 teams for twice as much fun for 2008.  We welcome our new and old paddler friends from CC Dragons to add lots of experience and fun to our team.

Our highlights from 2007 included winning a gold medal in B division at
the 3rd annual Greater Vernon Dragon Boat Festival, held on Kalamalka
Lake.  This is one of our favorite races, and we plan to be returning
to “lake of many colours.”

Other 2007 highlights include:


In 2007, we raced 7 dragon boat races + 2 voyageur canoe races.  We were filmed for German Public Television ZDF for the program “Toronto to Vancouver by Train” http://wstreaming.zdf.de/zdf/veryhigh/071219_toronto_vancouver.asx

a) We became the poster faces for Kilts Night at Doolin's Irish Pub, every 1st Thursday each month.
b) We raced at the Lotus Sports Club dragon boat regatta at Burnaby's Barnet Marine Park
c) UBC Day of the Long Boat – 8 voyageur canoes bumping into each other
d) Two Gung Haggis teams at the Ft. Langley Cranberry Festival Canoe regatta – our beginner/fun team beat our advanced paddlers!

Some of our activities so far for 2008! 

On February 25 2008, we were featured on Global News as part of a news series highlighting what makes BC world class.  We represented cultural diversity!
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2008/2/28/3551687.html
You can see the Global News feature on the web
http://www.canada.com/globaltv/bc/video/index.html


One March 16th, we put some Chinese dragons and lions into the Celtic Fest's St. Patrick's Day Parade.  In the first three years of the St. Patrick's Day parade, we have put a Taiwanese dragon boat into the parade, but we had some technical challenges getting a dragon boat for the 2008 parade so Stuart Mackinnon and I paddled the car.




Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team practices 


Sundays 1:30 pm – 3pm  (Recreation & Beginner team)
Tuesdays at 6:00 sharp to 7:45 pm (Beginner + technique practice)
Wednesday at 6:00pm to 7:45pm (Recreation + advanced practice)


All practices are from Dragon Zone, at Creekside Park
Southeast corner of False Creek
look for Green trailer building
South of Science World – just above aqua bus ferries.

Parking – park on the street. Try Quebec or 2nd Ave.
pay parking available at Science World – no parking on city lot anymore.

Price for Spring paddling is $180 each, and will cover boat rental, coaching, and registration in Alcan Dragon Boat Festival races June 21 & 22.  Other races cost additional.

Price for Summer paddling is aproximately $120 each, and
will cover boat rental, coaching, plus registration for one summer
race.  Additional summer races are aproximately $30 each.


Other possible races are:
May 20       Lotus Sports Club “Bill Alley Memorial Dragon Boat Regatta” (Burnaby)
July 15th    Kent-Seattle
Dragon Boat Races (Lake Meridien, Kent WA),
July 22/23 GreaterVernon Dragon Boat Festival (Kalamalka Lake, Vernon BC)
July 22       Fraser Valley Dragon Boat Festival (Harrison Lake, BC)
Sept 2/3    Vancouver
International Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race (Vancouver)

other races may be considered, depending on interest

Will we have 1 or 2 teams?
One
team is now confirmed for the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival – but if
enough new people come on board, we can expand to two teams –
Recreation and Beginner.

We
have a lot of people returning + paddler friends from CC Dragons, and we have lots of
interest from wanna-be paddlers.

Please
invite friends to come out to try dragon boating over the next two
weeks, before the boat starts going TOO FAST!

contact me by e-mail:    gunghaggis at yahoo dot ca
home phone: 604-987-7124

Cheers, Todd Wong

 www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/GungHaggisdragonboatteaminformation


Pictures from 2005
1) Drummer Todd with Flag Grabber Ed on The Eh? Team at Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race, featured in a 2007 scholastic textbook – “Literacy in Action”
2) Todd with Dave Samis, at Sea Vancouver Festival for dragon head carving tent

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team grabs flag at Taiwanese Dragon Boat Races

Emilie Bourque-Quevillon grabs the flag for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team an instant before the Splash Test Dragons grab their flag.  It was a tight race for 4th place.  Drumming for Gung Haggis is coach Todd Wong, right side paddlers are (r-l) Wendy Lee, Hillary Wong, Julie Wong, Stephen Wong.  left side paddlers (hidden r-l) are Marlene Chamberlain, Tzhe Lam and Georgia Thorburn.

Great team work on the weekend at the Vancouver International Taiwanese Dragon Boat Races.

It was good to see so many people working together, making new friends, renewing old friendships, and meeting new challenges.

BIG
Thank yous to Captains Marlene and Julie for helping lead us into the
races… and providing and making our new team hats (that were under
constant threat of being stolen, as a pirate bounty had been put on
them).

Thank you Deb and Dave Samis for steering races for us on Sat and Sun (steering is notoriously difficult in Taiwanese boats).

OUR RACES

We
competed well.  It was a tough race field, with many comp and upper Rec
teams.  As a lower end Rec team, we matched very well against other
teams in the Nogard race, and I don't think we ever crossed a finish
line last including the Nogard.  And our barrel race was one of our
best ever!

We had good starts and grabbed our flag in our ONE
Taiwanese 500m race and although we demonstrated how challenging
steering backwards and forwards could be… there were other teams in
subsequent races, who NEVER grabbed their flag.

OUR ROSTER

A
special achievement is that our team did NOT borrow or supplement our
roster with paddlers from other teams.  Every one of our racers on the
weekend was a bonafide Gung Haggis paddler in good standing.  No drop
ins or substitutions.  This shows the levels of depth and loyalty that
our team has.  Hopefully next year, we can run two teams in the
Taiwanese Dragon Boat races.

TEAM SPORTING
ATTITUDE + TEAM BUILDING

Other
teams and DBA staff were friendly to us.  DBA dock workers Wally and Francis helped us
load/unload our disabled drummer on the dock.  And the race commentary
of Kim Tomkins gave good mention of our team.

On Sunday night,
many of us met at Doolin's Irish Pub for our FREE drink + 25% off
food.  We were served by Rachelle, and also joined by dragon boat
friends from Fluid Motion and Calgary's Draco Stealth.

more photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24064901@N00/sets/72157601815097689/

NEXT PRACTICE

No practice this Tuesday… stay at home and rest…  I need to rest my back. 

But if you are going to Penticton to race with GVRD – there is a practice with them on Tuesday Night and Thursday night.

Tzhe is organizing a social and cultural outing to the Vancouver Art Gallery to go see Monet to Dali
http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_monet.html
It
sounds great!!!  And if you ever come to race in San Francisco with
me… I will show you the Rodin sculture “The Thinker” and Monet
“Waterlilies” at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

Next Sunday's practice on Sep 9th is canceled because of “Paddle for Kids” – volunteers are welcome for this event.

Next official Gung Haggis practice is Tuesday Sept 11th. 6pm.

GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY DRAGON BOAT TEAM WRAP UP PARTY

Coming soon for September???  watch for details!!!
Awards for paddler achievements ?!?!?

volunteer organizers needed!!!

This
is the event where we created home-made haggis won-tons last year at
Dan's apartment.  We will also teach people the words to Robbie Burns
immortal poem “Address to a Haggis.”

And begin planning for
the 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese
New Year Dinner, set for January 27th, 2008, Sunday.

NEXT RACE EVENTS

Sep 30 – UBC REC – Day of the Longboat
            
This is a fun but brutally competitive race that can be like contact
bumper boats. 2 km races from Jericho beach around a pylon, East to
grab a pylon from the beach, out to English Bay, around a pylon, then
west, turn left at the last pylon and race to the sand, send your
runner to bang the gong.

Oct 7 – Ft. Langley Cranberry Festival Canoe Regatta
          
This is a much friendlier version of the above race.  Only about 16 to
20 teams.  An oval to race around 2x that adds to about 1.75 km.  Plus
an obstacle race that includes chasing and grabbing a pumpkin, turning
around pylons, dropping a paddler off to balance cranberry wine on a
paddle without spilling as they walk along the beach, picking up the
paddler, more turns around pylons, then a sprint to a finish!