On Sunday afternoon - we had a great paddle.

Keng, Gerard, Teresa, Stephen M., Tzhe, Barbara, Steven W., Rita, Joe and myself showed up to paddle, Deb steered.  We went all the way to Cambie St. Bridge - with a short rest to simulate Ernest jumping out of the boat on the beach to grab a traffic cone, then jump back in the boat - then we paddled back to Dragon Zone - all to do a dry run for UBC Day of the Long Boat - about 1500m. 

Coming back to the dock, we found Pirates paddlers Ian and Cory - who had just finished attending "Body Worlds 3" at Science World - stepping onto an Aquabus.  They asked us for a ride to Granville Island (of course we made them paddle), and Dan joined us too!

Again - we paddled all the way to Cambie St. Bridge, paused for a short rest to simulate Ernest hopping out to grab a traffic cone.  Then we paddled all the way to Granville Island.  We made good time with only 13 paddlers.  We are doing a longer stroke with a "kick" before the exit.  Excellent for creating a glide.  These paddlers are going to take it up to the next level for a strong foundation for next year's team!

And then Deb and I hopped back over the The Word on The Street - to check out the displays, say hi to friends, and buy some great books!

The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team had a season wrap up dinner last night. 

Guess what?  We cooked Haggis Won Ton!!!

many hands make haggis won ton	the boiled version	close up
The haggis has been thawed and mixed with chopped celery. Steven, Ernest, Queenie, Angie & Jane...	presentation is everything. Ernest displays the goods.

Check out photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53803790@N00/

A BIG BIG thank you to paddler Dan for hosting the team bbq.  Dan is a 2nd year paddler who has really blossomed as a paddler.  He loves the sport so much now, that last year in his rookie season he joined a team going to San Francisco.  This year, in addition to paddling 7 events with Gung Haggis, he also paddled in Calgary and Kelowna with Acme Dragons, and will soon be going to Philadelphia to paddle dragon boats.  We love Dan, and we are happy to share him.  He has a real big heart!

And that's what we want on our team - good hearted people with big hearts!

It was great that we had 30 people there, with so many absentees sending good wishes.  This year we built up a large roster of paddlers for the team.  We did not have to go outside our roster for races at Lotus Barnet, ADBF Regatta, Alcan, Vancouver Taiwanese, or Vernon races.  We joined up with Tacoma for the False Creek Women's regatta and with the Pirates for Victoria.  In Kent we brought a full crew with paddlers from 4 other teams, but only at the Cultus Lake Women's regatta did we have to "borrow" paddlers for our races.

Deb and I constantly this year, had said - "this is the best Gung Haggis team ever!"  

Unfortunately - no medals for the team this year - but really good friends, great times, overnight road trips (Kent, Vernon, Victoria), lots of paddle events (9).   WOW!

This was the first time we ever cooked haggis at a team event.  Usually we do a wrap up at a Chinese restaurant - but we never ever brought out a haggis other than the BIG Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner.

Special thanks to Deb and Ernest for bringing the haggis and the won-ton wrappings, for everybody pitching in to wrap, and for Jane cooking the won tons, boiled, deep-fried, + boiled haggis (pictures to come).

Special thanks to Julie, for teaching Polynesian Dancing, and to Marian for playing Nova Scotian tunes on my accordion.  We will have to do something for the next kilts night at Doolin's on Oct 5th.  Maybe at 8pm - we can do our singalongs.

Special thanks to Rita for creating the photo montage.  It's a wonderful collection of memories from our paddling summer.  Hopefully we can create a 8 1/2 X 11 photo for everybody.  Deb and I are very thankful to the team for the this gift and the many others, for our efforts in coaching and managing this wonderfully fun dragon boat team.

It was great hearing everybody singing together for "When Asian Eyes Are Smiling" and "My Haggis Lies Over the Ocean", + Loch Lomand (You Take the High Road).  And... wonderful to hear Ernest singing  Auld Lang Syne in mandarin Chinese.

Many many more thanks to everybody for attending, contributing and being a part of our special team spirit.

Peace & Blessings, Todd

Here are some PICTURES of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team taken by Lawrence Lu: Barrel Race; High 5's in the line-up; Todd steering teak boat; Todd providing race commentary. ~~~~ For more pictures of other teams at the festival - check out links!   more »

We did our best.  We showed up as a team, paddled as a team, and celebrated/comiserated as a team.

Lots of Thank yous for everybody being such a great TEAM on the weekend.  I heard from a number of other people that Gung Haggis sounds like such a FUN team, with great people.

We had lots of races, and the heat also took its tow.  We shared our tent with the Phillipines PYROS tent, and it was a delight to be able to welcome back our friends from ALCAN, and see them with a full team.

CBC cameraman Mike Varga also showed up to film footage of Todd and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team in action for an upcoming CBC Generations episode that will feature Todd in late January/ early February.

Our races were good, some were challenging.  We did our best, and we felt good.  What more can we ask for?  a little bling bling? 

Okay... practice on Tuesday.  We will crank it up, and go throughout the fall and winter, through the wind, rain and snow.  And come Alcan in June - we will be more than ready!
I think not....

Keep doing what we are doing.  Having fun, with steady improvement.  We will continue to go through some growing pains, making new dragon boat friends with other teams and the medals will be sweet when they come.

Who wants to go to Saltspring Island?  We now have an invitation to go to Saltspring, paddle with the Saltspring Homegrown paddlers, and be billeted.  Might just be a weekend outing....

Thanks to everybody again, for pulling water, and pulling for the team.  You all make us proud, and we are more than glad for the friendships.

It was especially great to see Pamela and Marion on the weekend.  Hang out with Daming, Natalie and Grace. 

Peace & Blessings, Todd

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team Saturday results

It's the Vancouver Taiwanese Dragon Boat Races, on a beautiful sunny labour day weekend.  There are 36 teams jockeying for bragging rights.  They each have to race 5 races over 2 days, before they are able to claim a medal on the podium.

There is a team from Chilliwack, and Salmon Arm.  There is a team from Calgary, Alberta.  There is even a team from the Phillipines - the Phillipine Youth Rowing Society.  Yes, our friends that we hosted at the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival have returned to dragon boat again in Canada.

But how did Gung Haggis do today?

I am steering the team, this also allows me to watch the team's performance during the race.  If I am paddling, I really want to keep my eyes on our lead strokes, and give the best strokes that I can paddle.  My girlfriend Deb is drumming for the team.  She constantly monitors the teams rate and performance, giving them encouragement and direction.  Ernest is captain for our team's entry at this race.  He is doing a good job keeping the team in order and providing leadership and guidance.

Our first race was in Race 5 (aprox 11am) in a teak boat.  We raced our friends Saints Preserve Us, and Fort Langley Canoe Club.  It was an exciting race, as both Scotiabank 2 and Just Dragon Along pulled ahead of us.  But we were leading the rest of the field, at least that's how it looked.  Sometimes paddlers get discouraged when they can see other boats get ahead and leave you behind.  I yelled to the team "We're in third" keep going.  It was tight all the way to the end.  Naruwan beat us by 1.6 seconds for 3rd place.  And we beat Saints Preserve us for 4th place by .10 seconds. Ft. Langley came 6th,

Our 2nd race of the day was race 14 (aprox 2:15) in a Tawiwanese Flag pulling boat.  We got off to a good start.  I was surprised by how even most of the boats were for an early preliminary race.  We were solidly in 4th place, not too far behind the front 3.  We were in lane 2, with boat 1 close behind us.  I could see their dragon boat head creeping up beside me.  Our drummer Deb, called a power piece, and 18 paddles moved as one, deep stroke.  "Use your legs," I yelled.  "Kick it!" I screamed.  And boat 1 was farther behind us.

Deb called our third power piece, and Ashleigh rose from her crouching position behind the dragon head.  She had practiced climbing onto the head in practice on Tuesday evening, but now she was going to grab the flag for real.  She pulled herself up onto the dragon boat head, and locked her legs into place.  I steered the boat straight for flag 2, aiming so that the boat would be left of the flag, so that Ashleigh could grab it with her right hand.  We got closer, and Ashleigh pulled herself farther up on the head, and reached out her hand.  The boat bounced a bit on the water, and we went straight for the flag.  Ashleigh grabbed the flag, and our boat went over the flag pole. 

"Finish!" yelled Deb, and the boat surged forward for the final 10 metres to the finish line.  "Let it ride," I called, after we crossed over the line.  Ashleigh waved the colourful flag in the air before climbing off the head.  I asked her how it was.  "It was easy, you steered right to it!" she happily exclaimed.  We were the 4th boat to cross the finish line, but we actually came in 3rd because another boat missed their flag, and had to go back for it.  This was our best race of the day.

Our third race of the day was in a teak boat in race 20 at 4pm, as we advanced to the mid qualifiers.  This was our worst race of the day.  Giddy with having fun, we relaxed.  Two of our paddlers went off to help paddle on another boat.  I went to check with the Race commentators, as I would be doing commentating for Sunday.  We didn't pay as much attention to race preparation as we could have.  One paddler was missing while we were being marshalled.  I spied our paddler Wendy, who was being spared out for this race, and called her over.  We were the last boat, going to the start line, so we had to hurry over.  We backed in and picked up the tether.  The referee boat came buzzing over as we lined up.  The race was quickly called, and we paddled through the residue wake of the referee boat.  After a great 2nd race earlier in the day, somehow we couldn't keep up with the pack and we fell behind.  Almost all the other boat finished ahead of us together, and we came 6th about 10 seconds slower.

Our team stayed in the marshalling area for a quick debrief, then 12 of us went back to the dock to try our hand at barrel racing - dragon boat style.  You have to go around 3 buoys, in a clover leaf pattern similar to a rodeo style barrel race.  It involves 3 turns.  Remember that dragon boats are designed to go straight.  This takes a lot of special effort to slow down the boat, and make the very sharp turns.  Only 10 paddlers are used to underpower the boat, and keep it from moving too fast to turn.  We all changed positions for this race for a little more fun and variety.  Julie sat behind the drum.  I became lead stroke.  Jim sat behind me, Steven Wong sat behind him.  Drummer Deb was now paddling.  Dave steered and directed the team.  It was fun trying to go around the buoys... but we knew we didn't do so hot.  We finished the barrel race in 3:30.  Fresh Off the Dragon Boat made their attempt following our try.  They did a good run, coming in at about 2:30.  On their return to the dock, we walked over, gave them a round of applause and a cheer.

And that was it for paddling... Seven of us then went over to New India Buffet for some dinner.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy team races Sunday morning in race 25 at 10:30am in a teak dragon boat. 

The team is meeting at 9:15 at the team tent at the far end of the racer's village - just past the Azure restaurant near the performance sport centre.  We are on the south side with a great view of the finish line.

11:45  - Nogard Race (Dragon spelled backwards)
The team paddles past the flag in a Taiwanese boat, then paddles backwards/ or turns around a paddles forward going backward - then the flag grabber grabs the flag.  Today somebody missed their flag.

If we finish 1, 2, 3, or 4 in Race 25 at 10:30am, then we will advance to the Rec D finals in Race 37 at 3pm.

If we finish 5 or 6, then we end up in Lower Consolation race #36.