It was an exciting day... lots of smiles on faces... lots of learning experiences on both teams... lots of achievements too!
That we could come together not only as two individual teams, but also as one team on two boats... There was no separation between paddlers as evidenced by our "team picture."
Thank you to Cheryl Ing, Charlie Cho, and Alexei who paddled with Gung Haggis for the first time - who answered the call this week to join us.
Thank you to Remus Wong, Raphael Fang, Teresa Plesner for joining us again, also answering the call to paddler with us this week.
Thank you to our Gung Haggis core and family paddlers: Dave, Arthur, Georgia, Dan, Sarah. Stuart, Adam, Nicole, Kristine, Keng, Cindy, Leanne... who have paddled with Gung Haggis at race events from April and May, through to September and October.
Everybody worked well together and supported each other. We didn't yell or criticize each other when things went off-track. We learned how challenging it is to steer voyageur canoes, turn around pylons, and get knocked off course by other boats. We assessed the problems, worked on solutions, and succeeded by coming 1st and 3rd in the B Final.
Gung Haggis Fat Choy paddlers raced two team: Gung Haggis FUN Choy and Gung Haggis & Friends...
front row crouching: Raphael, Kristine, Keng, Leanne, Sarah, Rebecca, Cheryl
Standing Adam (back) Deb, Dave, Arthur (back) Charlie, Nicole, Alexei, Georgia, Stuart (back), Remus, Cindy, Teresa, Dan, Todd + race organizer Cheryl Macintosh
missing (Sarah)
It WAS fun... and I hope everybody can come back and do it with us again for next year. SMILES on faces, and the cameraderie at the pub was great, a true testament to Gung Haggis spirit. People like Manfred Preuss of the Fraser Valley Dragon Boat Club, and Ian Paul of the Pirates, all said hello and congratulatd us... as well as paddlers from other teams such as Saints Preserve us, as we said hello and congratulated them.
We all paddled hard. It was amazing to watch the power in the Gung Haggis & Friends boat, as you came into each corner, bumping boats out of your way.... correcting your course, then catching up to other teams.
Gung Haggis Fun Choy was inspiring, taking good leads in our races... especially the B Final... as well as showing what NOT to do in our first race, by missing a pylon, and having to go back. You really showed what a boat of rookies (Cindy, Adam, Nicole, Leanne, Raphael) can do.
We all were suprised by the jostling and colliding of boats. I overheard Cheryl telling a friend, "It's like a demolition derby!"
But no boats tipped over. Aside from an unmentioned team, that cussed and jabbed some paddles at the GH&F team... I think everybody handled themselves very well. GH Fun Choy had good spirits... raising and waving their paddles whenever we heard the announcer call our name, calling out "Hello - How Are you... Nice to meet you..." as we bumped into other teams... and cheering on the other teams as they finished.
Steering techniques really play an important role in this race, as well as steering strategies, being able to recover from being bumped, and managing to avoid collisions with other teams. It was wonderful to watch team members, as they commented on one 2nd heat race, where 4 boats all got jammed up on a corner, stopping dead and getting pushed down stream as they had to paddle upstream to get around a buoy marker for a turn. CRAZY!!!
Check out pictures by Deb Martin, Dave Samis and Todd Wong
- loaded onto Todd's Flickr account.
