New Dragon Boats for Nationals & LB Festival

Here are some pictures of the new dragon boats (total of that we will be using for the USDBF Nationals in Long Beach this month.  Boats are IDBF spec’ed.  Same general design as the maroon boat at Mother’s Beach but with handles and less exposed wood.

That’s Dee (AeroDragons coach) working on the boat with Mike supervising.  I am of no use fixing boats so I’m just taking pictures.

Why is the back of the boat detachable?  So the boats can fit in the shipping containers on the way from the Motherland.

Champion OC1 Prototype!

I got to take a peak at the new Champion OC1 (single-man outrigger canoe) prototype at the ICEA/SCDBC meeting this afternoon .  I made Mike take it off the top of his Element so I could inspect it and snap a few pictures.

The purpose of making this boat was to provide a reasonably priced oc1 for training/testing purposes.   This is NOT a racing boat so speed is not a primary concern in its design.  The projected price will be less than 1/2 the price of a full blown oc1 from Kaku or Huki.  In addition to dragon boats, Champion is known for making kayaks and other canoes.  Taking that knowledge, with the help of Dr. Chen and others, Champion is taking a stab at bringing affordable oc1s to us.

The boat is made of fiberglass and the build appears pretty damn good.  The seam is invisible to the naked eye as it appears the boat was put together then they glassed over the seam.  This boat looks slick!

The boat lenghth is about 15 or 16 feet long – about 5 feet shorter than my Huki V1-X.   The shorter size should make it a bit easier to store than a tradtional oc1.  I didn’t get pictures of the ama and iakus as they were buried in Mike’s Element before I got to the training facility.

Here’s the cockpit area – foam seat.  No tractor-sliding device as on my V1-X, but it’s adjustable using the velcro strips.  No foot drains on the prototype but that’s okay – that’s just one less area the boat can leak.

Here the back end – there’s a screw-in cap that cover the turning mechanism that attaches to the rutter.  The rutter is a surfing rutter.  My suggestion here would be to change it to a much smaller flat water rutter to reduce drag as this boat will likely not be used for open ocean paddling.  But before we do that, I’d like to test it in the surf with the current rutter. 

Here’s a shot of the cockpit from the back – 2 sets of bungees – a little overkill but still great work.

This is rather interesting – it’s the ventilation hole.  There’s no tube – just a hole encased in rubber with no plug (see the photo below, circle on left side).  Not sure if this is going to work or not, but very interesting nonetheless.  The iakus are attached by inserting them into the sleeve and tigthened down by a bolt.  The head of the bolt is in the lower center of the picture below.

That’s it for now.  I plan to paddle it soon – a report (and hopefully pictures of the boat full rigged) will follow.

UPDATE: From Mike B:

“Just a heads up on the new OC-1.  The more I look at it the more impressed I am.  First, the drain hole should have had a vent/plug.  The ama has one and it is very thought out.  Much more than any plug I have seen.  Second, the boat is 17′ long which makes it even more marketable.  The c/l of the foot pedals is 7′2″ from the bow.  Your Huki is 7′9″ The hull volume width (distance around the bottom of the hull) at 3′ is 22 1/2″ the Huki is 23″.  The width under the seat is 14″ the Huki about 14″1/2″

As you can see it may be a much better boat than we first thought.”

Update: Training Facility

I attended the ICEA/SCDBC meeting for the upcoming Long Beach Festival Sunday afternoon.  Here’s a peak at training facility.  Here’s the pool area – dragon boats have not been dropped in yet.

Here are some shots of the storage areas.

Congrats Yonnie & Joe!

FLARD and the Space Dragons celebrated the marriage of Yonnie (LARD) and Joe (Captain/Coach of the Space Dragons and former LARD member) this past Sunday.

With members of both LARD and Space hanging over the Appain Way bridge, both teams paddled up to the bridge surprising Yonnie and Joe with a lot of screaming and banners.  The newlyweds were genuinely surprised and excited.

After watching Joe hook it up (see below), the teams paddled back to Mother’s Beach where wedding dunkings took place, then we had a quick L&L lunch.

Video of the festivities Part I:

Part II – the Dunkings and Speech:

Special thanks to Wade and Will for spearheading the surprise.

Congrats Yonnie and Joe!  You both me so much to our community.

Photos and videos courtesy of the legendary Filosun.

No iphone for Me! (Yet)

I am an absolute failure.  So far, I have been unable to secure a 16GB black iphone.  I even arrived at the local AT&T store an hour before it opened this past Friday.  I get to the front of the line and they are out of black 16gb iphones.

So I ask the guy the easiest way to get one and he tells me that they actually have the phone I want in the back but they aren’t allowed to sell them until the following day (Saturday).  He tells me he’ll hook me up and hold one for me.  Unfortunately, because of dragon boat practice, I can’t get there first thing in the morning.  No worries, he tells me.  He’ll put one aside for me and he’ll call me tomorrow.  SWEET (or so I think).

After practice, I head down to the AT&T store in Long Beach a few miles from Mother’s Beach.  Unfortunately, they JUST sold their last iphone.  I pick up a Jamba and walk to the car head down, feeling like a Laker that just suffered a 39-point blow out by the Celtics.

Driving home from practice, I make contact with the guy from the local AT&T store I went to on Friday (he gave me his mobile number).  He apologizes and says he doesn’t have any black 16gb phones left, but that he has a white one if I want it.  So I say, “Sure, I’ll take it.  I’ll be at the store in 30 minutes.”  “Cool,” he says, “see you when you get here.”

I hang up the phone stoked I won’t have to stand in a 3-5 hour line at the local Apple Store this weekend to secure a phone.  No less than 2 minutes after I get off the phone with the guy, he calls back.  “Oh, sorry, inventory mistake, I don’t have any phones for you.”  WTF?