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I have four stitches on my baby finger

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I have four stitches on my baby finger



Todd has 4 stitches in his pinkie finger after paddling tonight – photo Deb Martin

It was a freak accident.  I was paddling lead stroke on the left side of the
dragon boat.  Since I was also coaching, I looked over my shoulder, and
lost my paddling focus. I must have lost my bottom hand grip on the paddle, because I have a very strong top arm drive… and as my top hand came down,
I smashed my little finger between the paddle handle and the boat. I have never
known anybody to have an injury like this. 

Julie… thank you for suggesting Mt. Saint Joseph's. It is the perfect
hospital for a dragon boat injury. After the stitches were done and
cleaned up – we walked out the door, and noticed a mural with dragon
boaters and the name Saints Preserve Us – which is the name of the
dragon boat team of hospital workers of Providence Health Care.

I always emphasize
paddlers to keep their top arms out of the boat… and bring it down –
outside the boat. Maybe this will serve as a lesson to what happens if
you bring your hand down inside the boat… or take your eyes off the
lead stroke. I should have kept my eyes on Wendy – my bench mate!

Deb has been great – driving me to the hospital and everything… 
There were no line-ups and a very short wait at the emergency room.   Mt. Saint Joseph's. It is the perfect
hospital for a dragon boat injury. After the stitches were done and
cleaned up – we walked out the door, and noticed a mural with dragon
boaters and the name Saints Preserve Us – which is the name of the
dragon boat team of hospital workers of Providence Health Care.  I have been friends with organizer of the team Susan Hyde for several years, and bumped into her at St. Paul's Hospital last week when I went to see leukemia patient James Erlandsen (we taped a City TV interview to help publicize James' need for a Eurasian bone marrow donor).  The “Saints” often practice at the same time on the water as Gung Haggis.

I even had my finger sewn up by a famous doctor.  Dr. Daniel Kalla is author of  Pandemic.  Even then, Deb still wouldn't go get the camera…even after I told her I wanted before and after photos of my finger. Deb is a big fan of television shows such as Gray's Anatomy, House and ER  Upon arrival, I kidded with her asking where were all the great looking doctors and nurses?  She begrudginly agreed that Dr. Kalla fit the bill, in an ER Goran Visnjic kind of way.

I
have to keep the bandage on for at least a day.  But I think I will be
very careful with it.  We shall see how it feels for race day on
Saturday.  Maybe I will steer or drum, or do lead stroke with a rubber
glove on it.

Thank you everybody for your support.  I know Jim thought I should go to the hospital right away… even though the accident happened 2/3 of the way through practice.  My bag was passed up, and I wrapped up my finger in one of my stretchy paddling shirts to keep the tension on my finger, prohibiting the bleeding.  We did some more races pieces, and a cool down – then our regular practice debriefing – before going to the hospital.  Unfortunately, I had to miss Tuesday Night Food Club with the gang.

But I now have a Hello Kitty band-aid on my right shoulder for the tetnus shot…. thank you for the band-aid Julie!

Vancouver Sun: story on James Erlandsen and his search for a Eurasian bone marrow donor

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Vancouver Sun: story on James Erlandsen and his search for a Eurasian bone marrow donor




check out this story in the Vancouver Sun by Pamela
Fayerman.   It's a good story about the need to find Eurasian
donors for bone marrow – because it is so rare.

When I look in my own family.  I have maternal cousins who are
Eurasian, and all of my Chinese maternal cousins  married
Caucasians (except the two who are unmarried) and have had little
Eurasian children including my brother.  That's what happens in a
5th generation Canadian family.  And most of my paternal cousins
married causcasians and had Eurasian children – many of whom are young
adults and starting to get married.

To me James is almost like family… and I was very honoured to meet
his aunt and uncle on Saturday night.  His Auntie Bev gave me a
great big hug, and thanked me for my assistance and support in
spreading the news about James throughout my community network and
media connections, as well as in providing a social support and
resource for her and her family.

I know that Bev and her daughters have been postering post-secondary
campuses and putting announcements on web discussion boards etc. 
It was her daughter Aynsely who first contacted me about putting a
poster and an announcement about James Erlandsen on
www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com  I was so moved by the story and the
similarites of our life stories – that I just had to do more!

Check out the Vancouver Sun article by Pamela Fayerman:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=290ad3fb-ca5b-47df-adfb-d124170772c4&k=7392

Check out stories in Georgia Straight New Blog
http://www.straight.com/article-91085/young-eurasian-man-urgently-needs-bone-marrow-donor

Check out storis in Ming Pao

http://www.mingpaovan.com/htm/News/20070508/vab1h.htm

http://www.mingpaovan.com/htm/News/20070508/vae1h.htm

Courier: Rally clebrates 60 years of rights – interviews with Gim Wong and Sid Tan

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Courier: Rally clebrates 60 years of rights – interviews with Gim Wong and Sid Tan

Here's a Friday May 11th article in the Vancouver Courier that interviews both Gim Wong, WW2 veteran, and Sid Tan, head tax redress activist.  When Gim rode his motorcycle across Canada in 2005, I blogged the reports that I received from across Canada and from the CCNC. 

Gim Wong, 84, fought in the Second World
War but wasn't allowed to vote. Last year, he rode his motorcycle to
Ottawa to press then prime minister Paul Martin for redress.

Photo by Dan Toulgoet

Rally celebrates 60 years of rights

By Cheryl Rossi-Staff writer

When families who were
affected by the Chinese Head Tax celebrate 60 years of citizenship
Saturday, they'll be recognizing how far they've come in gaining rights
and respect for Chinese people in Canada.

But according to Sid Tan,
co-chair of the Head Tax Families Society of Canada, they'll also
highlight problems migrant workers face today as echoes of what their
families endured.

“The issues of guest
workers, the issues of seasonal and temporary employment, live-in
caregivers and domestics, all these issues are not that different from
what the early Chinese suffered,” said Tan. “These are people that are
good enough to come to Canada and do the dirty and menial work or the
work that a lot of Canadians won't or aren't willing to do, and they
have no rights. There's something wrong with the picture, and a hundred
years ago this is what happened to the Chinese.”

The Head Tax Families
Society is organizing a rally Saturday at the Chinatown Memorial to
Chinese Canadian War Veterans and Railway Workers at the northeast
corner of Keefer and Columbia. The society became a registered
non-profit last August after Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized
to Chinese-Canadians. The apology included a symbolic payment of
$20,000 to those Chinese, or their surviving spouses, who had paid the
head tax.

When the Canadian Pacific
Railway was constructed between 1881 and 1885, more than 15,000 Chinese
came to Canada to help build the railway. But when the track was
completed, the federal government moved to restrict Chinese
immigration. Starting in 1885, people of Chinese origin entering the
country had to pay a $50 head tax, which increased to $100 in 1900. In
1903, it reached $500, the equivalent of two years wages of a Chinese
labourer at the time. Chinese people were denied Canadian citizenship
while the government collected millions.

On July 1, 1923,
Parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Act excluding all but a few
Chinese immigrants from entering Canada. It was repealed in 1947, and
Chinese-Canadians were allowed to vote 60 years ago this May.

Tan said the society formed to tell the federal government its settlement is incomplete.

“They are redressing just a
little under 600 families, that's 0.6 per cent of all the
families-82,000 families paid the tax,” he said. “But what about the
elderly sons and daughters who were separated from their fathers for
25, 30 years? What about elderly seniors who were born in Canada [and
had no rights until 1947]?”

Gim Wong, a Canadian-born
Second World War veteran who was barred from voting until after the
war, says he knows all too well how the head tax hurt families.

His father was 14 when he arrived in Canada in 1906. His mother arrived in 1919. Both of his parents paid the $500 head tax.

In 1937, when his parents
had seven children, they couldn't afford to buy the house they were
renting, which in those days cost $700.

In January last year, the
Burnaby resident road a motorcycle to Ottawa to appeal to former prime
minister Paul Martin for redress, but the RCMP intervened and he never
got to meet Martin.

Wong wants villages in China that contributed money to send young men to Canada compensated for the head tax.

Saturday's event begins at 9 a.m.

published on 05/11/2007
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Veterans fought for Respect – recognizing the contributions of Chinese Canadians

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Veterans fought for Respect – recognizing the contributions of Chinese Canadians

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/213079
 

News
Features

Veterans fought for respect

News Features By Matthew Burrows

Publish Date: May 10,
2007

A younger George Ing (left) joined the Canadian military in peacetime, and to this day salutes the pioneering Chinese Canadian vets of the Second World War.

A younger George Ing (left) joined the Canadian
military in peacetime, and to this day salutes the pioneering Chinese Canadian
vets of the Second World War.

Retired lieutenant-colonel
George Ing knows how much 2007 means to Chinese Canadians.

On Monday (May 14), the 73-year-old
Richmond resident will join other army, navy, and
air-force veterans at a proclamation ceremony at
Vancouver City Hall
at 10:30 a.m. The day marks the 60th anniversary of the repealing of the
Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 (the Exclusion Act) in 1947, after many Chinese
Canadians had fought in the Second World War on two fronts–to defeat the
spread of fascism and to be recognized as equal citizens in Canadian society.

“I joined in peacetime, 10 years after
the war,” Ing told the Georgia Straight. “When they [Chinese
Canadians] went to war, part of their aim was to show they were worthy
citizens. When they came back, they would take up the task of lobbying to get
us the franchise, which they did. Most of us who weren't around and weren't of
age to do anything are grateful to these guys. We're very aware that it's 62
years now since the end of the Second World War.”

According to Wendy Au, deputy city clerk at
City Hall, the city proclamation Ing has helped organize is not part of Asian
Heritage Month but “coincides with it”.

“This year is significant because of all
the anniversaries,” Au told the Straight. “There will be a dual
ceremony on that day. There will be an official swearing-in
[Canadian-citizenship] ceremony, and we will be honouring
the Chinese Canadian veterans.”

The cities of Burnaby
and Richmond will join
Vancouver in proclaiming May 14 to 21 Chinese
Canadian Citizenship Week. It is 60 years since Chinese Canadians received the
right to vote, and it is also the 50th anniversary of the election of the first
Chinese Canadian MP, Douglas Jung, in Vancouver Centre. In 1907, anti-Chinese
riots took place in Vancouver 's
Chinatown .

Victoria-born Ing said his father died when he
was three, and his family knows little about him. Now a grandfather himself,
Ing said he does not know for sure whether his grandfather, an immigrant from
China , was a head-tax payer on arrival in
Canada . In
1903, the Canadian government raised the head tax on Chinese immigrants to
$500. In 1923, Ottawa prohibited new Chinese
settlement in Canada ,
only lifting the ban in 1947.

“I grew up as a kid in
Victoria , and I think we were all aware of
our status in the community,” Ing said. “We weren't regarded well. I
personally grew up with my family on welfare. I can recall a lot of people
making comments like, 'You're a burden on society.' I was a little bit too
young to do anything about it at that time.

“I did make the vow that this is not
going to happen to my kids,” Ing added. “I had to go and pick up a
welfare cheque as part of my responsibilities. Even
at my age, and I was a teenager, I found it humiliating. Yes, the family had to
survive and that was part of my job, but I did not like doing that. It was just
something inside. But we have broken out of that now. My family has done well
and we have broken out of the cycle. I'm proud of that.”

David Wong, 49, grew up on
Union Street in Strathcona.
He has a Web site (www.generasian.ca/) that neatly documents a rich
family history spanning multiple generations in China and Canada, including the
fact that both sides of his family paid the head tax.

“Head tax is a whole other story,”
Wong told the Straight. “Overall, what is really important is that people
know the history of our nation. Whether that's Chinese Canadians or other
community groups, it's important that people realize how the nation got to
where it is today and where it comes from. Younger people take for granted a
lot of the things we have now, such as the ability to become professionals.
This essentially came at a price. These [Chinese Canadian] vets fought for the
right to become full-participating citizens and be accepted.”

http://www.straight.com/article-90243/veterans-fought-for-respect

My Birthday for 2007

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My Birthday for 2007

I spent the afternoon playing with my “almost 4” year old nephew.
We went shopping for a birthday cake “so we can have a feast.”
We went to Earl's Downtown on Hornby St. for dinner
Saw Spiderman 3 at the Paramount
Then off to Bacchus Lounge at the Wedgewood Hotel for desserts, drinks and late night pizza.
Friends and Food – Wonderful!


Todd Wong and Deb Martin celebrating Todd's b-day with wine and bubbly – photo Christine Chin


Buddies Todd Wong and Craig making faces at celebrating yet another birthday – photo Christine Chin


Dessert platter from Bacchus Lounge at Wedgewood Hotel – Anjou Pear
with Lime sorbet, Creme Brulee with Kahlua, Apple/Blackberry Crumble –
photo Todd Wong

Chinese Canadian Veterans dinner May 12 – celebrating 60th anniversary of Canadian Citizenship

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Chinese Canadian Veterans dinner May 12 – celebrating 60th anniversary of Canadian Citizenship

This Saturday I have organized a table for the Chinese Canadian Veterans celebrating 60th anniversary of Canadian Citizenship.

Yes…
it has been 60 years since Chinese Canadians actually have citizenship
and voting rights – largely due to the lobbying and enrollment of
Chinese Canadian veterans of WW2.

Please join me in recognizing the achievements of the vets for our community.

call me to join my table… or so I can make arrangements for another table.

Cheers, Todd
778-846-7090

Below is the invitation from the Chinese Canadian veterans, Pacific Unit 280.

Dear Friends:

For the last several years, I have been the Chaplain for Pacific Unit 280, Chinese Canadian WWII Veterans.  

As we look at the vets now, most in their eighties and nineties, it's
hard to believe that this group of “grumpy old men” helped transform
Canada. Before WWII, Chinese couldn't vote, be a doctor, lawyer – or
even work at the Post Office or go to a public swimming pool.  Worse,
many had immediate family in China that were not allowed to come to
Canada.  All this changed because in WWII, these men and women were
willing to fight and prove themselves honourable to a Canada, that did
not treat Chinese, honourably.

On Saturday, May 12th, as part
of Asian Heritage Month celebrations, the Chinese Canadian Military
Museum and SUCCESS are hosting a citizenship affirmation and dinner to
celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Chinese getting the vote and the
formation of Pacific Unit 280.  It will be held at the Continental
Seafood Restaurant at 11700 Cambie Road, Richmond.   Tickets are $45
which include dinner and a a new DVD of twenty three vignettes of some
of the vets DVD of Heroes Remember, as well as other gifts.

For many, this is a last hurrah and I'm hoping you might be able to
come and say a word of thanks to the vets.   If you are interested, you
can get tickets from me or Lt. Colonel George Ing at (604)271-0197.

Blessings all.

Wesley Lowe (604) 739-9725

explorFILM workshop with Mina Shum and Greg Chan for Asian Heritage Month

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explorFILM workshop with Mina Shum

and Greg Chan for Asian Heritage Month

This
sounds like a fun workshop for Asian Heritage Month.  I loved
Mina's films Double Happiness.  This message is from Don
Montgomery, executive director of explorASIAN.

http://www.explorasian.org/Program%20Guide%202007/May%2012/explorfilm.html

explorFILM: Workshop | Panel Discussion | Film Screening |
Q&A – May 12

Saturday – May 12 – 9:30am to
3:30pm

Vancity Theatre
1181 Seymour Street (at Davie)
Vancouver

Tickets: On sale at the door on the day of the event starting
at 9:00am

FREE admission for explorASIAN Members with presentation of
2007 Membership Card at the door. explorASIAN 2007 Memberships available at the
door (CASH only)

Non-members: $10/person without membership (CASH
only)

Ticket price includes admission to the Greg Chan Acting for
Beginners Workshop (9:30am-10:30am), the Industry Panel Discussion
(11:00am-12:30am), and the film screening/Q&A with Mina Shum (1:00pm to
3:30pm)

JOIN US FOR A FULL DAY OF INFORMATION AND INSIGHT INTO THE
WORLD OF ACTING AND FILM!

ENJOY THE 5th ANNIVERSARY SCREENING OF “LONG
LIFE, HAPPINESS & PROSPERITY” AND
MEET DIRECTOR MINA SHUM AND OTHER
MEMBERS FROM THE INDUSTRY!

> > > > >

explorFILM:
Acting for Beginners Workshop with Greg Chan

9:30am – 10:30am

Greg
got his big break in 1994 when he was cast as Uncle Bing in Mina Shum's first
feature film, Double Happiness. Since then, he's gone on to a number of roles in
television, movies and commercials.

His credits include “Once A Thief”
(1996; dir: John Woo), “Seven Days” (2001), “Dark Angel” (2001), “Da Vinci's
Inquest” (2004), “Intelligence” (2005), “Live Feed” (2006), and “Dragon Boys”
(2007).

In addition to screen and TV acting, Greg has experience doing
voice-overs for animation projects. Hear Greg share his passion for acting and
his strategies for success in the film industry.

> > > >
>

explorFILM: Industry Panel Discussion – “So You Really Want to Get
Into the Film Industry?”

11:00am to 12:30am

Meet some of the Lower
Mainland's leading industry professionals and find out what it really takes to
make it in the film industry. Q&A follows panel
discussion.

Panelists:

Olivia Cheng – Actor/Journalist (Broken
Trail, Entertainment Tonight
Canada )


Jason Furukawa – Director (Robson Arms,
Godiva’s, Cold Squad)

Derek Lowe – Producer/Actor (Dragon
Boys, Romeo Must Die, Crying Freeman)


Andrew Ooi – Talent Management (Echelon
Talent Management)

Darryl Quon – Stuntman/Actor (Alien vs
Predator 2, Night at the Museum, Dragon Boys)

Rick Tae – Actor (Robson Arms,
Intelligence, Godiva’s)

Debbie Walker – Publicist (Translucent
Publicity)

Katie Yu – Still Photographer (Kickin’
It Old School, Dragon Boys, Everything’s Gone Green)


> >
> > >

explorFILM: Mina Shum's “Long Life, Happiness &
Prosperity”

1:00pm to 2:30pm 5th Anniversary Film Screening of “Long
Life, Happiness & Prosperity”

2:30pm to 3:30pm Q&A with Director
Mina Shum and some cast and crew members from the film

> > >
> >

explorFILM 2007 is presented by Shaw Multicultural Channel
(Channel 109)

 
Hope you can join us on Saturday.  Please pass
this email forward to anyone who is thinking of working in the film
industry.  Thanks!
 
 
Don Montgomery
Executive Director

 
explorASIAN
110 Keefer Street
Vancouver, BC   V6A
1X4
Office 604.677.1383
 
MAY is Asian Heritage Month in
Canada!
Celebrating our 11th Anniversary in 2007
www.explorasian.org

Cherry Blossoms at Kogawa House

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Cherry Blossoms at Kogawa House

The cherry blossoms have been out everywhere in Vancouver since late
March.   In mid-April I was driving through Vancouver's
Marpole neighborhood, when I thought I should go visit Joy Kogawa's
childhood home at 1450 West 64th Ave.

It had been back the summer of 2005, when I had received an e-mail from
Ann-Marie Metten that Joy Kogawa's beloved cherry tree was diseased and
dying.  She and a group that included then Vancouver city councillor
Jim Green, gathered grafts from the cherry tree to try to preserve it
for future incarnations – because it was feared that the owner would
not give up the house.

This was the house that the Save Kogawa House Committee,
which I was part of, had worked so hard to save from demolition, when
the owner decided to draw up plans to demolish the house and build a
new one.  It was an intensive awareness campaign from September to
December when The Land Conservancy of BC decided
to step in and take on this project, deeming it a worthy Vancouver
landmark of cultural and historical importance.  Then it was from
December until May, as we tried to raise funds to save the house…
almost taking a mortgage out before an anomynous donor stepped in with
almost $300,000 to allow TLC to purchase the house. 

But now the task is to continue raising funds and awareness to both
renovate the home and restore it to the qualities it had before Joy and
her family were forced to leave their house due to enforced internment
of Japanese Canadians during WW2 – even though they were born in
Canada!  We also want to build an endowment and create a
writers-in-residence program as well as community programming.

Last spring, Joy was living in Vancouver, and she went to visit the
cherry tree to find a few spare blossoms.  The tree was
sickly.  At the open house in September – Joy placed manure around
the tree's base, spoke kind words and blessings for the tree.  Joy
soon returned to Toronto, but has returned to Vancouver briefly for
Christmas with her daughter and grandchildren and recently at the end
of March to see relatives and to give a reading for the Alcuin Society
at Kogawa House on March 30th.

I drove past the front of the house… everything looks nice, except the white picket fence has fallen down. 

I drove around the back of the house… and saw a most beautiful sight.  The cherry tree was in full bloom.

It is like the tree (and the house) knows it has a new life.  It is an old tree but heavy and full with blossoms.
Beautiful… I know if Joy saw the tree with its blossoms, there would be tears of happiness in her eyes.




Jen Sookfong Lee featured at CBC Radio Studio One Book Club – we check it out!

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Jen Sookfong Lee featured at CBC Radio Studio One Book Club
– we check it out!
 



Jen
Sookfong Lee holds her first novel “The End of East”, after signing
copies for Dan Seto, Christine Lee and Todd Wong – photo by Julie Wong
  

Jen Sookfong Lee – CBC Studio One Book Club
May 2nd, 2007
CBC Studios

Each month CBC Radio Studio One Book Club features a different author
and book.  The hosts are Sheryl Mackay, host of CBC Radio's North
By Northwest, and John Burns, book editor for the Georgia Straight.

I have attended past Studio One Book Clubs featuring writers such as Douglas
Coupland with Terry and

Paul
Yee with Saltwater City: The Story of Vancouver’s
Chinese Community which actually contains a picture of me performing at the 2003 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner.


Host Sheryl Mackay with the Ricepaper/ explorASIAN crew – Don Montgomery, Krystal and Annabelle – photo Todd Wong

On May 2nd, Wednesday, Jen Sookfong Lee
was the featured guest, to help CBC Radio celebrate Asian Heritage Month, so explorASIAN was one of the sponsors.  The book club took place in one of the tv
studios – I guess Studio One is part of the renovations as the CBC
building is being dug up along Hamilton St. 

The format is this:
Sheryl and John introduce the show, talk about their guest, then
introduced Jen, and invited her up from the audience.  They ask
Jen a number of questions and discussed her book.

It's about Samantha Chan who tries to run away from Vancouver to Montreal to
escape her “Chinese-ness” but ends up returning when she discovers her
grandfather's head tax certificate.  Her novel tells a dual story of the early Chinese pioneers
to Vancouver during the time of head tax (1895-1923) and the 1923
exclusion act while also telling a contemporary story of present
day Samantha Chan dealing with her identity and family history. 

Jen says that her first novel took 7
years to completion.  She took the Master of Fine Arts for
Creative Writing at UBC and was writing a lot of poetry.  Soon she
got a job in Chinatown.  She walked its streets and breathed its
history.  She photocopied her grandfather's head tax certificate
and hung it up on the wall.  At the time, the head tax redress
movement had been rearing its head here and there, but gained steam as
Jen was refining her final drafts.  As head tax redress became an
exciting election issue during the 2005 federal election, she was
finishing her seventh and final draft.  She decided that the novel
was finishing itself and would not be influenced by the current events. 

As usual, audience members are invited to ask the author
questions.  I introduced myself, and told Jen I had written about
her novel on my blog.  She said she had been reading my
articles.  I told her that like her, I am also a head tax
descendent.  And then I asked her my question…. You can hear my
question on the upcoming Jen Sookfong Lee CBC Studio One Book Club event, part of Vancouver's Asian Heritage Month celebrations, will be broadcast the third and fourth Sundays of this month, on May 20 and 27 in British Columbia on the North by Northwest program between 8:00am and 9:00am.



Author Jen Sookfong Lee signs a copy of “The End of East” for Julie Wong – photo Todd Wong

Check out some reviews of “The End of East”

March 23, 2007
“The End of East is just her start”
Jen Sookfong Lee profiled in 7 section of The Globe and Mail

March 22, 2007
“End of East chronicles immigrants' gamble”
The End of East reviewed in The Georgia Straight

March 22, 2007
“Vivid Vancouver”
The End of East reviewed in NOW Magazine

March 17, 2007
“Uprooted from Vancouver”
The End of East reviewed in The Globe and Mail

March 10, 2007
Listen
to the archived conversation of SPiN talking with Sheryl
MacKay on North by Northwest at CBC Radio One's archive, www.cbc.ca/nxnw

Wind on False Creek makes white capped waves for dragon boat practice

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Wind on False Creek makes white capped waves for dragon boat practice

 

We had a wonderful practice tonight….
Paddlers said it was one of the best.
The sun was out… the wind was up, whitecaps in False Creek – YIKES!

All
our paddlers rose to the challenge.  Waves hit the sides of the boat,
and sometimes came in.  People got wet… some the wettest ever at a
practice.  But it was a great practice.  20 paddlers in a Gemini boat.  We started with a warm-up paddle to Cambie St. Bridge.  We did a 500m race piece to prepare for the May 19th Bill Alley memorial dragon boat regatta organized by the Lotus Sports Club.

We raced practice starts with a team that was
Rec B last year… And we stayed right with them for a start.  After the start we were about 6 to 10 feet behind. This was the closest we had been to them all Spring… up to now, they usually left us way behind. And we had 3 newbie paddlers + 3 rookies on the boat!  Last
year we were Rec E.  We want to be Rec B this year… and we are well on
our way.

After the race pieces we looked at correcting things that needed improving such as our timing, and technique.  We did some speed drills, some small group work, then worked on our starts. 

We have a good dedicated core crew who come every practice on Tuesday 6pm, and Sunday 1pm.
Some of the paddlers have been with us 3 years.  Our drummer/steers will have her 5th year with us.  Ex-paddlers still come to race with us.  It's good to have friends.

Last
year we raced 9 dragon boat race + 2 voyageur canoe races.  We love to
race… and we travelled to Seattle, Victoria, Vernon, Cultus Lake, and
Burnaby.  We raced in teak, 6-16, and Gemini boats, Dynasty boats in
Vernon, Millenium boats in Victoria, and Taiwanese Cedar boats in
Vancouver.

And we love to eat… We
have a Tuesday Night Food Club after practice.  Each week we try to go to a different restaurant.  Usually we go out for Chinese food… we like Foo's Ho Ho and Hon's Won Ton House in Chinatown… Sometimes we go to Congee House on Broadway and Main St.  But tonight we went the The Clubhouse Japanese restaurant, and were promptly greeted by the manager Karen.  She remembered us from last year and welcomed us back. 

 

Join the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat food and social club.

Todd Wong
coach and clan chieftain
gunghaggis @ yahoo dot ca
778-846-7090