Gung Haggis dragon boat team paddles under the new Harvest Moon


Steersperson Adam Purvis waves from the back of the boat, while Gung Haggis team paddlers stretch during a break - photo Todd Wong

The Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat team, is preparing for the Sept 30th UBC Day of the Long Boat Race.  It is the largest voyageur canoe race in North America, and designed as a recreation event for UBC students, faculty and staff.  But... there are division for community teams too!  It is a 2km course with 3 big turns.  A normal dragon boat race is only 500m.  So we are now training paddlers for endurance with 2km pieces.

We took out 2 Gemini dragon boats last night, and ran races from Dragon Zone to Cambie St. Bridge where we took a short break to simulate a paddler jumping out to the beach during the actual Day of the Long Boat race, where they would grab a baton.

After our quick break where some paddlers shed some extra clothes, we then raced up to David Lam Park and to the point.  Along the way we set up some obstacles for turning, like the sculpture, the buoy markers and boats.  After a short rest to change sides, we raced back to Cambie Street Bridge, and all the way back to Dragon Zone.

Longest race pieces we've ever done... lots of fun.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team practices on Sundays 1pm and Tuesday 6pm. If you would like to join the team - contact Coach Todd Wong
email gunghaggis at yahoo dot ca

We have participated in this event before with the Tacoma Dragon Boat Association Destiny Dragons:

See my past stories:

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!

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VIDEO FROM IAN THE PIRATE
Enjoy Watch Out !! Pirates About!!!
www.piratepaddlers.co