Gloves, Wax, Bare Hands or Core?

Final Test to Make LARD Nationals Roster

The final test for Nationals is set for this Saturday, 7/5/08.  It will be ERG ONLY.  In order for those who are not currently on the Nationals roster to make the Nationals team, you will have to place in the top 5 if you are male, top 4 if you are female.  Testing will be held during regular practice at 9:00 a.m. at Mother’s Beach.

If you have not tested this year and would like to be considered for the Black squad, you need to test.  There are no makeups as this is a purely optional test.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TEST.

If you are currently on the Nationals roster, you will NOT lose your roster spot even if you don’t test.  As you all know, being on this roster does not guarantee any sum certain amount of races (or any at all).  However, if you have been working hard with the team and improving, you will get your fair share of races.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

ICF Dragon Boat World Championships – Want to Represent the U.S.?

Dr. Chen has asked me to begin mobilizing strong paddlers for the International Canoe Federation (ICF) World Dragonboat Championships in Poznań, Poland. The dates of the races are September 26th-28th, 2008. (The picture above is confusing, but it will be Dragon Boat racing).

Distances include 250m, 500m, 1000m, and 2000m races.

This will be some of the best competition we have ever faced – similar to the ICF World Championships in Taiwan in 2006 that a few of us attended.

More information can be found HERE.

Please let me know if you are interested.

****EDIT***** – there seems to be some confusion regarding this race (2008 ICF World Championships) and the 2009 IDBF World Championships that were also scheduled to be in Poznań, Poland (but a year later). The 2009 IDBF World Championships have been move to the Prague area of the Czech Republic. The 2008 ICF World Championships will be held in Poznań, Poland from September 26th to September 28th, 2008.

The IDBF’s press release on this debacle can be found HERE. Nothing like the IDBF screwing things up.

LARD Paddling Clinic – 100+ In Attendance!

LARD held its annual New Paddlers Clinic earlier today at Mother’s Beach.  The attendance was absolutely amazing – we were fortunate enough to have 61 new paddlers join us and 42 veteran paddlers!  That’s over 100 paddlers!  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  I hope you all enjoyed the day as much as I did!

As a coach that coached two of the six boats we had running today at LARD’s Annual New Paddler Clinic, I was absolutely AMAZED at the level of skill our new paddlers displayed.  Literally, after about 15 minutes of paddling, the boats’ timing cleaned up immensely – you looked better than some of the teams on our beach that have been paddling for many months!  You should be proud.  Everyone of you did a fantastic job!  I cannot believe how quickly you all got the hang of things.

Special thanks to all of those that put the clinic together.  Names that stand out are Jane (for being the mastermind behind all of this), to Bill for the tireless work he does behind the scenes and behind the grill, to Phil for chronicling all with his trusty camera.  Thanks to Will for sharing the knowledge he acquired last year in running such a large paddling clinic.  Thanks to my fellow coaches for your tireless assistance in running the clinic.   Thank you to all of the veterans that helped along our new paddlers.  Perhaps most importantly, thank you to all of the new paddlers that joined us on this very special day.  I truly hope you had as much fun as I had watching you develop into paddling machines!

I hope everyone of you come back and paddle with us some more!

Phil’s photos can be found HERE.

Wake Riding & Its Effect on the Lead Boat

Excellent discussion on wake riding can be found HERE.

What’s Up With Will?

Do you lay awake at night wondering what Will is doing?  Our favorite mid-stroke has been religiously working out (of course, in addition to HPC training   ) preparing himself for the dragon boat season.  He’s logging his workouts for all of the world to see.

Check out what the mad man is up to.  CLICK HERE

“And the Next Thing I Know, LARD was Just Gone.”

A few months back, a few of us ran into BAD’s write up of the Tempe Dragon Boat Tournament that opened our season.  The full article can be found HERE.

My favorite parts:

“ BAD was even leading the mighty LARD after the first day of racing. The tough luck would continue on the second and final day of racing. After an early morning wake up call, BAD once again found the Southern California powerhouse LARD waiting for them in the marshalling area for the semifinal. Many were confused as to why BAD would have to race LARD in the semis instead of the final. The reason was because LARD faltered in its second race on Saturday after having defeated BAD in the first race, giving them a worse average time than BAD and thus sending them to BAD’s semi final heat. USC and Wasabi were also hoping to crash the party.“

…

“Finally, the open final was ready to be run. After two hours of withering in the sun, “Maxy BAD” got the fortunate break of being able to load the boat, paddle to shade below the bridge, and wait while our friendly rivals from San Diego waited at the marshalling area for their boat and then had to paddle out to the start line and then race just moments after the long paddle out to the start line. The odds makers had to like “Maxy BAD’s” chances against an aging, dehydrated, and tired San Diego in lane one. In lane two, LARD was ready to roll; that is, LARD mixed. That’s right; LARD opted to go with its mixed crew in the open final so you had to like “Maxy BAD” in that match up. Lane four featured a very beatable Space Dragons team. The race began with all four teams neck and neck. BAD was going strong, but then seemed to run out of gas. “I called a blend and the next thing I know, LARD was just gone,” said Steve Yan. With 100 meters left in the race, gold and silver were out of the question.”

…

“At long last it was time for the BAD special: the 250 meter sprints. For the past five years BAD has simply been unbeatable in this event as a veritable smorgasbord of world class dragon boat teams have been defeated by BAD in this race. Arizona would be no different. BAD mixed things up for the 250 as the women’s masters and the BAD portion of “Maxy BAD” came together for a little fusion action. The result: instant chemistry baby! BAD’s 250 meter heat featured Space Dragons and, yes that’s right, LARD. This time it would be BAD’s turn to shine.”

There are other gems in there I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

The bad news is that as of today, BAD did not register for U.S. Nationals or the Long Beach Festival as they will be heading for Penang for the Club Crew World Championships.  Too bad, I’d love the honor of racing them again.

Train hard.  Stay motivated.

New Paddler Clinic Tomorrow!

It’s time to get excited!  Tomorrow morning we will resume Nationals practice beginning at 7:00 a.m.  At 9:00 a.m., LARD will be conducting a New Paddler Clinic.

If you haven’t RSVP’ed yet, CLICK HERE to go to the evite.

An unprecedented number of people have signed up – almost 40 new paddlers – so we are going to need your help!  We’ll have the new paddlers in dragon boats with current LARD members, we’ll be on oc1s and an oc6 to accomodate the overflow.

This is going to be a good time.  We’ll have an opportunity to share our wonderful sport and meet a few new friends.

After practice, we’ll have a BBQ down at the lagoon.  I hope to see you all out there!

LARD Black Chilling in Vancouver

Mixed Guts & Glory

A photo of the Mixed Guts & Glory race by our very own Phil.  This is what dragon boating is all about.

I absolutely love LARD’s calm and focus.
Phenomenal.

LARD Black Ranked 7th In Dragon Boat West Rankings

According to DragonBoatWest.net, LARD Black is now ranked 7th, LARD Red is ranked 48th.

Here’s the link: CLICK HERE

Neither of te LARD teams were ranked last year.

2008 Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Tournament LARD Syle

Going into this tournament, LARD was the 2-time defending Comp C Division Champions.  Not bad for a bunch of pencil-pushers that practice 1 to 2 times per week.

LARD’s performance was truly amazing this year in Alcan.  As one of the coaches, I could not wait to see LARD’s progress going into our target races in July – US Nationals, Club Crew Championships and our very own Long Beach Festival.  I was hopeful, but realistic as we were not able to bring up some of our top paddlers, we were breaking in two new callers and we have yet to peak in our training.  Nevertheless, I thought we’d do reasonably well as the team was in really good physical condition from all of the weekend grinding we have been doing.

Unfortunately, I could not attend the tournament this year do to family obligations (wedding), but luckily, fellow paddlers and coaches kept me updated as the weekend progressed.  Special thanks to Phil for getting video footage of a race on youtube Saturday night.  I spent some time reviewing the clip with a fellow coach late Saturday night over google chat.

I was absolutely stunned when I heard that our squad advanced to the Competitive A Finals.   I was at a Carribean restaurant at the time I heard the news and began yelling like a moron.  I was so pumped.  I only wish I could have been there to witness the mayhem as LARD learned their fate and what they have accomplished.

Here’s some video from some of the races.

Comp A Final

Lanes:
1  Pemberton
2  LARD Black (2nd boat from left of screen)
3  Gorging Dragons
4  Kai Ikaika
5  FRCRCC Mixed A
6  Muana Hale
7  FCRCC Mixed B
8  Edgewater Casino – Without Warning

Placings:
1  FCRCC Mixed A  1:55.150
2  Mauna Hale  1:55.920
3  Kai Ikaika  1:56.840
4  Gorging Dragons  1:59.280
5  Pemberton  2:00.590
6  FCRCC Mixed B 2:00.630
7  LARD Black  2:00.920
8  Edgewater Casino – Without Warning  2:01.560

Here’s Phil’s footage of LARD Black’s first race Saturday:

Mixed Guts & Glory:

Women’s Guts & Glory

You Do Not Row a Dragon Boat, You Paddle One

This is probably one of the biggest pet peeves I have in paddle sports – people saying that they “row” a dragon boat.

Follow the logic below and never make the mistake of rowing a dragon boat again.

“Rowing” is defined propelling (a vessel) by the leverage of an oar or the like.

An “oar” is an implement used for water-borne propulsion. Oars have a flat blade at one end. The oarsmen grasp the oar at the other end. What distinguishes oars from paddles is that paddles are held by the paddler, and are not connected with the vessel. Oars generally are fastened to the vessel.

In a dragon boat (or outrigger canoe) we use paddles to propel the boat.  An oar is used to steer the boat (in outrigger, you use a steering paddle).  You use an oar to propel a row boat/skull or whatever they call those backward moving boats.

Therefore, you do not ROW a dragon boat, you PADDLE one.

Memorize that and never make a mistake again!

Hola

Hopefully, this is the start of something at least mildly entertaining as I will blog on what moves me – mostly about paddling (dragon boat and outrigger) but also about anything else that consumes me.