It's an interesting race start. All the teams are sitting in the boats at the water's edge, held straight by volunteers in wet suits standing in the water. The steersperson of each team, is not in the boat. They are sitting in a chair, located high on the beach. The start is sounded, and the steerspeople leap out of the chair, racing for the boat. They jump into their boat, and the team takes off. All the boats head toward a single huge yellow triangular float, where they have to turn right. All the boats bump and jostle each other, trying to get their first, or to get the better position.   more »

Gung Haggis dragon boaters climb Grouse Grind in less than an hour.

Team members from the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team have been regularly doing the Grouse Grind in North Vancouver this year.  We started as a team event two years ago on Canada Day, and repeated last year.  This year, team members have been making regular treks up the Grind to improve their times and their fitness.

The UBC Day of the Longboat is the largest voyageur canoe race in North America.  Take over 100 teams of university students, staff and community teams, give them one canoe orientation clinic, then put them on the water in heats of ten for a bumper car style race start.  It's crazy!


10 voyageur canoes race towards a single buoy to turn right, The Gung Haggis team is in the foreground. Todd is steering.  Kristine is lead stroke. photo Dave Samis.

The community team event is on Sunday Sept 28th, so this weekend we will do an orientation in the voyageur canoes.  The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat paddlers first entered this race supplementing the Tacoma DBA team in 2004.

read our past adventures at the longboat race:
2007: Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team braved the white cap waves of Sunday's UBC Day of the Long Boats

2006: UBC Day of the Longboat - I paddle the distance equivalent of 16 dragon boat races in one day

2005: UBC Day of the Longboat - Full contact voyageur canoe bumper car race mayhem

2004: Day of the Longboat: voyageur canoe race

Check out the race description from the website:
http://www.rec.ubc.ca/events/page.cfm?filename=race&ActID=27&path=longboat&term=0

Race Route Description

All team members will begin in their boat, except for their runner, who will start in a chair on the beach. Once the starting horn is sounded, the runner will run to and enter their boat, at which point teams will begin to paddle. Teams will head straight for approximately 50m until they reach the first buoy. At the first buoy, teams will make a 90 degree right turn, then race around a rocky point and toward the Baton Pick-up location on the shore. Once the boat reaches the shore, one team member must exit the boat and pick-up one baton from the beach. After that team member has re-entered the boat with the baton, the team will head back out towards the second buoy, where they will make a 90 degree left turn. From there, teams will head to the third and final buoy where they will make their final 90 degree left turn towards the finish line. Upon reaching the shore, the team member wearing the team's race number will jump out of the boat, carrying their baton and run up the beach to hit the gong.

Route Map

Sunday 1:30 Gung Haggis dragon boat practice.
I think we will go back to Sunday afternoons because:
more people had challenges meeting the 10am morning time.
Weather is getting colder too.

UBC Day of the Long boat - CLINIC ORIENTATION
4pm  - same as last year.

We have more men than women wanting to do long boat this year.
I have switched the entry from MIXED to MENS.   Last year we raced 8 men with 2 women, Sarah and Kristine - I am sure that Gayle and Pash will be up to the task.

Last year our Men's team was right behind TD Lightning, and they were surprised when they learned we had 2 women on the boat.  We will certainly surprise them with Gayle and Pash!

UBC Day of the Long Boat is a challenging but fun race.  2 km in a 10 person voyageur canoe, while English Bay waves bounce you up and down.
2 Races - 1st race around 9am, and 2nd race around 2pm (schedule to be confirmed).  There is waiting around between races... and lots of UBC students as there are over 100 teams.

Here is our team roster:

Todd W.
Tzhe L.
Stephen M.
Tony L.
Dan S.
Richard M.
Joe E.

MAYBE LIST
Ernest W.
Jim B.
Hillary W.
Jonas N.

2pm Sunday practice for Gung Haggis dragon boat team

This is because of two reasons:

1)  It's Terry Fox Run Day in Canada.... 

     I encourage everybody to take part in a great Canadian tradition!
     We traditionally do not practice in the morning
     As a Terry's Team member, cancer survivor, I speak at Terry Fox Runs,
     and will be attending the Richmond Run at Garry Point Park 10am.
   
     Check my website for more information on runs www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com
     or check www.terryfoxrun.org

2)  Kelowna Dragon Boat Races - Sat/Sun  Sep 13/14
     Tony is racing with Sudden Impact Blac

3)  BC Seniors Games - Sat/Sun Sep 13/14
Steven Wong and Dave Samis are racing in Prince George for Seniors Games

Future practice Dates.

We will next practice every Tuesday 6pm - until Thanksgiving

Sunday Sep 21st is....practice

Usually we will follow with a voyageur canoe practice for the UBC Day of the Longboat

Sep 28th
No Practice because of:
1) UBC Day of the Long Boat
2) Word on the Street Festival

7 first-time paddlers came out on the dragon boats with the Gung Haggis team, and found themselves doing 3 sprint races.


What is the best way to introduce first-time paddlers to dragon boat racing?

Give them a race!

On Tuesday night, we had six students and one teacher from Killarney Secondary join the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  For the past two years I have coached the Killarney team, with teacher sponsor Stuart Mackinnon, who is also a paddler on the Gung Haggis team.  I asked Gung Haggis paddlers to be good role models and to help mentor the Killarney paddlers.  We had the newbies sitting in the back, and matched with experienced paddlers.

Each boat had 16 paddlers per boat including coach + steers.  I coached one boat with 3 first time paddler students, 1 first-time teacher, 3 experienced students, + 7 experienced Gung Haggis paddlers.  Gayle coached the other boat with 3 first time student paddlers + 1 experienced student + 11 experienced paddlers.

We each circled The North Side of East Basin, then headed towards Cambie St. Bridge, and caught up at David Lam Park.
We did a mini race piece with Hon's Won Ton team.  They only had 8 paddlers in a 6-16 and were very surprised they stayed even with our lead boat, especially since they are a first year team.  But a lighter weight in a 6-16 against heavily loaded Gemini boat that sit deeper and heavier in the water... is what happens.

We paddled almost to the Granville St. Bridge,then turned around and came beside the house boats on Granville Island where our paddlers switched sides, to help exercise both sides of their bodies.

After the races, I asked some of the experienced students, if we ever had races like that on their first day in the boat.

"Nooooo...." was the answer. 

Did the first-time paddlers enjoy the race?

"Yesssss....." was the answer.  I think they are still shy.

Trying to coach 20 brand new paddlers at the same time, can be a very frustrating experience, as much of the time is spent trying to teach people how to put their paddle in and out of the water at the same time.  But by introducing the first time paddlers onto boats where they were partnered with experienced paddlers, they could watch the paddlers and feel how the boat surged with each stroke of the paddle.  With only 3 paddles going out of time on each boat, the boats really flew much faster than any of the earlier Killarney practices back in the Spring.  Hopefully we have inspired the new paddlers to tell their friends to come join the dragon boat team at Killarney.  And after the students graduate, they can join the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  Hmmm... maybe we now have a dragon boat farm team!

After a brief warm-up, we did another race piece... to the Cambie St. Bridge.  The other team won again, by about 3/4 boat length.  same as before.  We picked a paddler off their team... Dan Seto.

Another Race... switch sides... back on the good side for most.
We won by about 4 seats.... VERY CLOSE!!

LOTS of FUN!

NEXT Practice Sunday 2pm (not 1:30pm)
Because lunch at Hillary's + Terry Fox Run Day....

Paddle for Kids raises money for BC Children's Hospital

No Gung Haggis dragon boat team practice this Sunday, because Dragon Zone is closed for Sept 7th, to host "Paddle for Kids"

Next Gung Haggis dragon boat team practice on Tuesday, 6pm, Sept 9th.

Here are the details from the www.paddleforkids.org website

Gung Haggis team paddling in a barrel race (10 paddlers) on Saturday.  Wendy is drummer and Todd is steering.  Lead strokes are Colleen and Hillary, followed by Sher & Raphael, Brooke and Cindy, Dave & Tony, Jonas & Devon.  photo courtesy of Ben Lee

It was our final dragon boat event of the season (sniff, sniff).

Special thanks to Captain Ernest for leading our team for the Vancouver International Taiwanese Dragon Boat Races.  We had a good core of paddlers and some good developing paddlers + some guest paddlers. 

Future races are:
Sep 28th, Sunday, UBC Day of the Long Boat - 10 paddlers
Oct 11th, Saturday Ft. Langley Cranberry Canoe Regatta  - 10 paddlers

TAIWANESE RACE REVIEW:

We performed well on Saturday and Sunday, posting 2nd, 3rd and 3rd in our preliminary and semi-final races.  We made it to the top 3 finals out of 5 heats.  We raced against some pretty experienced recreational teams and paddlers in C Group, such as Elephant & Castle, Draco Stealth (Calgary + Vancouver paddlers), Synergy Rice Rockets.

We had fun racing the fun races... It's always good to get extra time in the boats.  On Saturday, we did a barrel race and had good compliments from other paddlers.  Our time of  2.33.46 made us 7th of 12 teams.  Fastest was FCRCC at  2.01.06 Slowest was The Eh Team 2.53.52

On Sunday we had a good Nogard race too... coming the closest ever to grabbing the flag on the way back.  We weren't the fastest team to the flag, but we had one of the fastest turnarounds, and when we changed direction we were very close to the flag.  Our team switched seats, started paddling.  We kept the flag close to the boat, but we were too close to the flag.  Paddles hit the flag, and when Jane reached to grab the flag, it dipped down out of her reach.... by inches...   We turned everybody around in the boat, and went to go pick up our flag.  Then we grabbed the last remaining flag, and handed it to the boat that forgot to get their flag.

With a time of  3.58.94 we were 11th out of 15 boats, probably the fastest of the teams who missed their flags.  Fastest time was FCRCC at 2.58.27 Flying Butts were 4.18.84 and Race Face United was DNF.

Unfortunately for us at year's Taiwanese Dragon Boat Races, we didn't have much paddler depth. Usually we always have at least 2 extra paddlers.  But Labour Day weekend holidays and work schedules took their toll.  We rotated 2 Saturday only paddlers for 2 Sunday only paddlers.  This race, we almost always raced with 18 paddlers - no spares.  And once on Sunday morning - we were waiting for a missing paddler because we had no spares. 

With so many new and smaller paddlers on our team, we were only 10 seconds slower than Scaly Justice Bytes' 3rd in B Division, 7 seconds slower than Eh Team's 3rd place in our final, 3 1/2 seconds than Naluwan Lightning Silver's 3rd place in the D final.  Resting tired paddlers and having more experienced veteran paddlers for depth could easily have made up 5 seconds or so that is needed to catch a medal.

But that's racing... We can't control the other teams, but we can control our own abilities on the boat.  We had fun, we felt good, and we can be proud of our accomplishments this weekend.

Final rankings and times are posted on www.dragonboatwest.net

You can see our final race here (we are at the end at the 1:15 mark):


see other races: