Another successful and fun day of dragon boat racing for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Kogawa House team!  We raced at the Sunday afternoon sessions of the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival regatta.  It is a good warm-up for the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival which will take place in two weeks.

Race #1
a warm up...  getting use to the format, lots of distractions during marshalling and out on the water.  6 boats in a heat.  This pace may have been our best rate. 
Lots of caterpiller paddling... people were paddling out of time.  We lost some steam in the middel.

Race #2
much better...  we slowed down the pace, and we had much better timing.  People got paddles deeper.  We nailed the start on this race, and the boat really took off.  We lost our steam during the middle, but we surged with strength for a good finish, passing a boat in the process.

Race # 3
We brought the pace up a bit for the starts, but we didn't slow down for the transition to race pace.  But everybody body kept up with the fast pace for most of it.  Unfortunately a faster pace doesn't allow for a longer reach, so paddlers missed some strokes, and we fell behind the team beside us.  We will work on our endurance this week.  But again... a good finish... People really respond to the calls for "More"

We finished 4th or 5th - very close in our final race.  We demonstrated we have good power, but weak endurance.  We look forward to making improvements for the ADBF races in two weeks.


It was wonderful seeing people enjoy themselves, ask questions about dragon boat racing, bring food...  and making suggestions.  Paddlers will giving newbies, tips on how to paddle.  New rookies were asking for assistance as well as questions.  The team cohesion is developing very nicely.

Queenie, Marian, Gurmeet and Teresa were the dragon boat initiates of the day.

We had a different drummer in each race! 
We had a different set of lead strokes for each race.
We had two different steers people.
Some people paddled different sides for different races.
Everybody raced at least 2X - we rotated almost everybody. 

Thank you everybody for being so flexible and adapting to each situation.  It really prepares us for possible circumstances on ADBF weekend.

Deb is now certified for steering races at ADBF, giving us safe straight passage down the race course + before and after.

Natalie came to race with us during her "lunch hour" from work....  Julie came to race with us as soon as she could after her Polynesian dance classes - Great dedication to the team.

From now to ADBF, we will focus on specific race strategies and seat positions, as well as finding out what worked best for you on Reggata weekend. 

Rotating paddlers...
We rotate everybody - except key positions to develop consistency.
If you sat out the first race - it was because we wanted to ensure that you were in our race finals - because we value your experience and strength.  Newer and less experienced paddlers were rotated out during the last race.

We feel that rotating everybody is fair for everybody.  If you did not rotate out during the regatta - expect to be rotated out during race weekend.

See you Tuesday...  6pm  @ Dragon Zone.