Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team and supporters:
standing:
Bill Martin (back view) Hillary Wong, Pat martin (peeking), Wendy Lee, Craig Brown, Tzhe Lam, Jim Blatherwick, Todd Wong, Emma Hopkins, Stephen Mirowski, Jonas Ng, Steven Wong, Sandra, Jane Johnson, Dan Seto, Joanne Black, Gerry Black, Richard Montagna
sitting:
Ashleigh Dalton, Deb Martin (steers), Sarah Wong (Remus' daughter), Rebecca Wong (Remus' daughter), Hyuma, Dave Samis, Remus Wong, Leanne Riding, Cheryl McIntosh, Holly Parsons

Gold medals for Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team in Vernon!

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team won Rec B in Vernon Dragon Boat Races today.

On Saturday – we races two 200m sprints + one 500 m race + a demonstration 1000m race – where we got knocked around by a rogue wave, which resulted in a collision.  Another boat hit our drum broadside.  Nobody was hurt.

We had a wonderfu team BBQ + swimming + canoes at Martin's Nest on Kalamalka Lake.

Sunday, we raced hard in the Rec B semi-finals with a time of 2:26. – securing a place in the final.  Sunday afternoon we placed our best time of 2:23 – good enough for 1st place gold medal

Dragon Boat on Kalamalka Lake at Vernon Dragon Boat Race – photo Stephen Mirowski

Gung Haggis paddlers cool off in Kalamalka Lake (l-r) Leanne, Jonas,
Wendy, Ashleigh, Tzhe, Hillary, Todd and Jim – photo Stephen Mirowski

Jonas Ng and Wendy Lee – 2nd year Gung Haggis paddlers – photo Stephen Mirowski

Stephen Mirowski – our captain and drummer – photo Dave Samis courtesy of S. Mirowski

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team in Vernon July 29th, 2007 – photo Raymond Kwong

pictures & more details to follow.

Gung Haggis dragon boat team races Harrison…. cancels Sunday practice

Hi everybody….

Gung Haggis paddlers agreed to cancel Sunday's practice for July 22nd.

If
people would still like to do something… such as paddle canoes… or
watch a movie, or rollerblade or go for lunch…. – I will be there. 
1pm Sunday as normal.

We raced today July 21st at the Fraser Valley Dragon Boat Races, at beautiful Harrison Lake, set beside the town of Harrison Hot Springs.  Everybody had lots of fun.  Good cameraderie all around.  Lots of compliments from team paddlers, and other teams.

We are very tired from a very long day at Harrison.
We raced 4 hard paddled races.
We were up early by 4am to arrive by 7am
There were long delays and the races weren't finished by 7:30 when we had left.

We made it to Rec B division Mixed

There was Comp, Rec A, Rec B, Rec C

We had some great races.
first race – came 1st against lower Rec teams
2nd race – came 4th against higher Rec + Comp teams
3rd
race – very solid race in Rec B semi ( we were 4th in our race) tough
competition – good compliments from people watching the race.
4th race – very tired race in Rec B consolation – we came 3rd…. and have the ribbons to prove it!

Must go to bed now…
See you tomorrow…
We will prepare roster for Vernon July
28/29
and car pools for Vernon etc.

Collisions happen in dragon boats. 

Collisions happen in dragon boats.  Protect your self, and your hands. 
In 2003, Gung Haggis raced in Portland.  A team from LA, had an
inexperienced steersperson that couldn't handle the power of competitve
level paddlers, and she lost control of steering, and turned sharply in
front of us.  We called “Hold the boat” and they called “let it run” –
but we still hit them with a “bump”

This picture is Gung Haggis Fat Choy hitting LARD at the 2003 Portland 6-16 races – photo by Ray Shum and posted on www.dragonboatwest.net

Often
I will coach teams to keep paddling – even if boats come so close that
paddles are hitting each other.  Sometimes we practice these situations
with other teams.  If the paddlers on the “near-collision” side all
stop paddling and all the paddlers on the “clear” side keep paddling –
then the boat will be over-powered to turn towards the “impending
collision”. 

In 1999, Unipharm went head to head, side by side
with another team in the Novice B finals at Alcan.  Paddles collided at
the beginning and the start… but the boats never did.  The race
referees in the chase boat watched them carefully, and told them after
the race not to  protest, because no collisions occured and the teams
finished 1st and 2nd.  It was an exciting race.  Having another team
beside you can push you to give more, or make you over excited and
forget your technique.

Above all… watch out for your safety. 
One dragon boat race isn't worth a broken hand or finger. It's been 2
months since my right baby finger was hurt (smashed on the boat gunnel
and requiring 5 stitches), and the pain can still be sharp at times. 
Definitely cramped my musical performing life.

Gung Haggis had what looks like near collisions at the 2007 Alcan Dragon Boat Festival… but it was only steering challenges.  The water had some strange currents and it was difficult for everybody to control their boats on Saturday afternoon.  We chased the CC Dragons, nipping at their tail… then we were asked to let it run… we did a running start, and still finished in third place.  One of our paddlers Sarah posted this video of our Saturday afternoon race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZaJL84YWhg

Check out this Youtube video:
Here's what happens in a collision between two dragon boats…  and nobody holds their boat to stop the impending collision.  Gee… it's a mens' boat loaded with testosterone…
And
the side that gets hit sits up straight – or leans into the middle to
yell at the other boat or to avoid the crash… and the non-collision
side keeps paddling and leaning out…

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZDXWcH3rd9E

This video from the 2007 CDBA Sprint Dragon Boat Regatta Men's Final – that were held last weekend.  CDBA organizes the San Francisco Dragon Boat Races
held at the end of September.  I have raced there in 1999 and 2001.  Our Gung Hagg paddlers
Dan Seto, Pam Huey and Kristine Shum raced there in 2005.  And we all
have medals from those races!

Gung Haggis dragon boat team getting ready for Fraser Valley races at Harrison Lake

Harrison Lake is a beautiful mountain lake with a hot spring rumoured to be somewhere in the middle of the lake.  There is a hot spring pool for the public, and a more luxurious one for hotel resort guests.  There is a lovely sandy beach, with a lagoon.  It's a great place to visit.

In 2005, we were the team with the fastest posted times going into the Recreation Finals at the at inaugural Fraser Valley Dragon Boat Races.  We were pumped.  We felt we had a date with destiny.  We were anticipating medals.  Only 4 boats in the finals.  75% chance of winning a medal.  And we had the fastest posted times.  But it didn't happen.  We fell behind at the midpoint, and chased the other boats in to collect a 4th place ribbon.

Last year, we passed on the FVDBR in favor of the Greater Vernon Dragon Boat Races at Kalamalka Lake. But this year we are returning to Harrison Lake  on July 21st., and will head to Vernon for July 28th and 29th.

We had our final two practices before the race on Sunday July 15th and Tuesday July 17th.  Both practices felt good.  24 paddlers on the boat Sunday – but not everybody is going to races in Harrison or Vernon.  Some will just join us for Vancouver Taiwanese races on Sept 1 & 2.

Each month we are rotating captains for our team.  Stephen Mirowski will captain our team for the two races in July.  He joined the team early last year, and also quickly began learning to steer.  Due to an injury that prevented him from paddling at the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival, Stephen steered for the team.  This time he is our drummer. It's good to learn all the different roles on a dragon boat team, as I help mentor him into a coaching role for our team. 

We are also integrating some new paddlers onto the team.  Gerry and Joanne have 10 years of experience and paddled on seniors teams.  I have known them for many years, and am happy to have them join Gung Haggis.  Andrew and Emma are brand new paddlers and have been making steady improvements with the 2 or 3 practices they have had so far.  I always ask new paddlers to simply focus on the timing, and to keep the paddle stroke short.  After they get the timing down, the next step is to work on their reach and rotation.  Get the paddle in early, then deep, and the power comes naturally.

For Sunday practices we warmed up and moved into working on our starts.  Stephen next had us working on endurance pieces… During the middle of the practice, I moved from paddling lead stroke to a coaching role and helping people improve their paddling technique.  After we finished a final 500m race piece, people felt good.  The boat was moving well, people paddled in time.

As we paddled towards the dock, I asked Stephen to ask each team member to call out their favorite ice cream flavor.  “Chocolate!” I yelled… other flavours soon followed.  Vanilla, Strawberry, Mango, sorbetto, were called out.  “Tequila!” yelled Wendy, followed by quizzical comments and laughs. 

“Hold the boat!” Stephen yelled.  I told the team, that I wanted one more practice start. We were now relaxed and happy.  Thinking about ice cream does that to a person.  I told the the team, I wanted an explosive start, with a big yell, deep paddles, and the best start of our day.  The team readied itself, and on Stephen's call the boat jumped forward, leaping with each stroke, lifting with our faster “Up” strokes.

“Hold the boat!” Stephen called… before we raced past the barge at the entrance to the South East harbour area.  We all patted each other for a job well done.  It was a really good start.  We were tired, but we pulled it off.

On Tuesday, we had another good practice.  Stephen was sick, so steersperson Deb Martin came up to drum to start off our practice (Deb drummed for us at Alcan, and for the two previous years and wants to steer this year).  Steven Wong steered and I did lead stroke as we worked on starts and a practice race.  I moved to the back and coached paddlers there to help build more cohesion, as our timing was off.  We did some group drills with paddlers working in groups of 4 or 6 at at time, to build timing cohesion and for resistance training.  It all came together for a final race piece.  It felt good. 

After practice we went for dinner at Congee House Restaurant where our team prides itself on fitting as many people around a single table as possible.  Tuesday the count was 15.  We ordered about 10 different dishes including sweet & sour pork, buddha's feast, salt and chili dry ribs, chicken chow mein, and cantonese steak.  Our bill came to less than $10 per person with tip.  Our team likes to eat.  Hopefully we won't be too fat to paddle dragon boat races for two weekends in a row.

Here's directions to get to Harrison Lake
http://www.fraservalleydragonboatclub.com/location.html

Gung Haggis dragon boat team races in Sunday sessions for Alcan DBF regatta


2007 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team at the June 3 ADBF regatta – photo Richard Montagna

The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team had a great time racing today in the ADBF regatta, Sunday afternoon session.

Great captaincy by Jim Blatherwick.  He really stepped
up to the plate when Stephen Mirowski had to go travel back home to
Thunder Bay.  Thank you for the hard work Jim did in organizing the
team, making the rosters and leading the warm-ups. 

Great job by Deb, our steersperson… She steered us straight and true.

Great job by our lead strokes, Wendy and Marlene.  They made
adjustments from race to race and set good paces and kept time with
each other to lead us.

Great job by all our paddlers, keeping your heads up, watching our lead
strokes, and getting a good pull on the blades.  You worked together,
didn't criticize each other, and looked for improvements to help us
all! 

omigod…
we were seeded 3rd or 4th in our first race… and we finished 2nd!!! 
Wow! That bumped us immediately up to the top half of the race grid. 
Well done!

Our second race we came 5th (?) which pushed into the B final.  We didn't feel it was a good race and we made adjustments.

Third race we were seeded 5th or 6th… and we were pushing hard for
4th place!  And we almost had it… darn if I haven't been coaching
that UA Power Dragons team that beat us by about .35 second.  Very very very close 

We also had 2 brand new paddlers Hillary and Arthur who only had 3 practices previously with us.  They did really well today.  Peggy and Alex had just come back from vacation for their first times in a dragon boat in a month!

Comparing our June 3rd regatta team to the April 14th sprint regatta team.
Missing were experienced paddlers Todd (14 years), Stephen (3), Ernest
(4), Kristine (14), Ian (6), Cory (2), and Craig (10).  Each race and
each year of experience really makes a big difference… that is why we
were right on Concord's tail at the sprint regatta.

For ADBF, our team will not be as powerful as the team for the sprint
regatta, but we are improving steadily with each practice.  Our paddles
are getting a better reach, and our veteran paddlers are getting deep
longer strokes with a kick.  Our rookies are learning fast, and staying
in time perfectly.  We are blending very well together and haing lots
of fun.  This is important.  It is great to see the chemistry of the
team grow.

We are off to a great start for ADBF.  We have an honourary drummer for
inspiration – James Erlandsen (Hillary's cousin) and we have a
honourary mascot (pending) – Stuart's shiba inu named Kikujiro.  And we
have been asked to take part in ADBF;s opening ceremonies… truly an
honour!!!!

Congratulations, Todd

pictures taken by friend Nick at
http://www.flickr.com/gp/24064901@N00/aL7726