Wow .....What a day!....as one of 20 paddler's on our TEAM, i feel humbled by the whole thing. As we paddled out to the staging area on that first race, my heart was pounding with excitement....( old age) ....our steersman was the Best!
I hope i can do this again....it was the best team building exercise i have ever been involved in!

Paddles up!

on the water practice...whoo hoo!!

Sat Sept 6 was a great and exciting day!

most of the paddlers were in attendance, and the seating arrangements were made....(i think we need a bigger boat). Seeing how i had another commitment, i could not be there to enjoy the fun.

paddles up!

First Practice

Well it came at last.... the big day of first paddle practice! the 16 or so of my team-mates show up at the appointed time, like trout at a fish farm. confusion would not be a good word to describe the feeling in the room...more like, AHHHHHHHGGGGGG! we soon lined up our twenty chairs and started to place paddlers. Naturally cause I'm one of the oldest members I got stuck in the back...(coach says it where the best paddlers go) yea...right.....did I mention our paddle coach?he's a veteran of the dragon boat wars...his calm persona and tactful way of encouraging us paddlers is inspiring! why we even nicknamed him "The Drake" because on the surface ...calm, cool, determined..but underneath, holy cow he must be going 60!...look I have a picture of our fearless paddle coach...(we are so gonna win)OK so The Drake was telling us "you only have to paddle for 90 seconds" yea right I don't even walk for 90 seconds, and if I have to go 1oo feet I take the car.

The Drake says that by the time of the race, we'll be able to paddle for 200 seconds....we'll see.Some of the team members are pretty pumped up ...to get out and "paddle like they mean it"Paddles Up!

Oh my God, what have I done?

Anchor here ... first report....
As i clicked the "accept" button on the email to volunteer as a paddler on a DRAGON BOAT, i wondered to my self, " what the heck am i doing?"....as the shock wore off a few days later, we had ....the meeting ... i got to meet my team mates ( man how is an old duffer like me, gonna keep up to these young whippersnappers) i thought. Well, no matter we've got our practice times set., although its going to be interesting at practice.....maybe someone will splash water on us to make it "more realistic".....we'll see.
PADDLES IN THE WATER!!