Dropped the ball on posting about CCWC!!

Well... surprise, surprise... I dropped the ball (again) on posting about the Club Crew World Championships held in Ravenna, Italy in September.

To make a very long and drawn out post (that much) shorter, here are the juicy pieces:

2000m - World Champions (Women's Premier)
200m - 2nd place (Women's Premier)
500m - World Champions (Women's Premier)

Not too bad ;)

Plus we got some great media love from the Ottawa Citizen here: http://ottawacitizen.com/sports/local-sports/ottawas-galley-girls-dragon-boat-team-win-big-at-world-event

I don't have many pictures from the first couple of days, but managed to pawn my camera off to Krysta's fiancee (as of a few days ago) to take pictures on the last day - so here goes :)

Medal Winners for the 500m Women's Premier Race

Me and my teammate Dr. Gina

Have to have a picture of my wonderful running buddy Guinness (just before I left) :)

Galley Girls celebrating a world championship in the 500m with a nice champagne toast

Krysta and I 

Getting my 500m medal

Paddling up to the start of the 500m final - I'm seat 7 on the right

Ravenna for IDBF World Club Crew Championships

It's Tuesday and I'm in Ravenna, Italy with my team from Ottawa - The Ottawa Premier Women Galley Girls. We are preparing to race in the 204 IDBF World Club Crew Championships. 

Yesterday, we had a practice scheduled and we got out for about ten minutes before the officials called all of the boats off the water. The course is contained, but still managed to get whitecaps, high winds gusts of 70 km/h, rain and just plain awesome, dirty weather conditions. A few boats tipped and the officials felt it wasn't safe to continue as planned so we returned to our hotel‎. I managed to sneak in a bit of a run around Ravenna, which was nice to burn off some energy because we have been tapering all week.

I walked around yesterday, had some prosciutto melone and then had tuna steak for dinner. The food here is incredible. Everything is fresh, plentiful and tastes so wonderful :)

This morning, we managed to get a full hour session on the course. The boat is feeling good and responding well, so we will see what happens tomorrow during the first race. It's a 2km race, with boats leaving every fifteen seconds. Right now we are slayed to start in the middle.of the pack, which is good because the water won't be as messy as starting at the end of the bunch - less wash to have to contend with. But, instead of hunting the first crew, we will be the hinted, having crews trying to overtake and pass us. 

Here are some pictures of the course - note the massive Canadian flag - just waiting for us ;)

For friends and family at home, our race is at 5pm Europe time, and will (should) be broadcast in IDBF TV.

Some race pics from Fuzhou, China

I still haven't done a re-cap post - BUT - I've come across some pictures from the races that I thought I would share! In the small boats, I sit in the middle seat (ie: seat 3) on the right hand side. The final pic of the set is one of my favorite - capturing some good down time at the course. I am (again) in the middle ;)

Maclean's publication

Hi everyone,

I've been meaning to do a bit of a re-cap of the event in China but haven't yet had the chance.... I had the Ottawa festival right after my return and am gearing up for Nationals in a few days. It's been busy... :)


BUT, I wanted to share some great press that Canadian dragonboat recently received.

Maclean's published an article called "18 Reasons why it's great to be Canadian", and they featured the Canadian National Dragonboat Team, and our results in Hungary 2013 as reason number 2. This is pretty big coverage for such a grassroots effort, so we're trying to share this as broadly as possible.

There is a great picture of the Premier Women's crew in Hungary last summer - see if you can spot me :)

18 Reasons why it's great to be Canadian

World cup done - now to get home...

Updates on this trip haven't exactly been consistent - finding free Wi-Fi has proven difficult, and to be honest, our days have been filled with racing, sleeping and foraging for food I can stomach. Thankfully, I filled my bag with protein bars from Canada - they're almost all gone ;)

Team Canada ended up with a respectable 3rd place overall (based on points) in the world cup - taking home two silver medals and three bronze. Our showing wasn't what the team or the coach wanted, but, considering how the team was brought together to race internationally, never having paddled together, we must accept that our results are good - all things considered. 

I must say though - it was tough standing on that podium and not singing along to the Canadian national anthem. For that reason, I'm going to step up my training to ensure that I'm on the National team for 2015 - and get to sing once more :)

We were supposed to have left yesterday, early morning, but our flight was cancelled and I am now hanging out in Beijing awaiting my outbound flight. If I had more time, I would go to the wall, but it just isn't feasible this trip. I've seen it before, but my travel companions haven't, so that would have been nice :)

Yesterday I spent the day wandering around Fuzhou. I spent a significant amount of time in a park adjacent to the hotel. They had a dragonboat museum there with the traditional teak boats. It was a sight to see, and a bit of an honour to pay homage to my sports beginnings. 

Later that afternoon, I was walking my some locale having tea and they invited me to join. I spent two hours chatting with them using a translation app on an iPad, and drinking white tea. It was possibly one of the coolest experiences I have had while travelling. It was great to have that opportunity because I was alone and not at the whim of travel mates. 

I will post some pictures when I get home, but for now here are some pics of our medals, and the locals who invited me to tea. 

Last day of racing

Today is the last day of racing at the IDBF World Cup in Fuzhou, China. This has been an incredibly interesting experience, and one where I'm learning a lot about team dynamics, managing expectations and kicking negative out of my head (and that of my teammates).

It's tough - our women's crew is not what our coach wanted - but we are doing our best.

This morning, we finished in silver position after the Philippines and before China in the 100m standard boat a final.

We just got off the water from the A final for the 200m relay. This is a tough race because pure putting teammates against teammates. In this case, it's our women who do a 200m race, and when they hit the finish line, the men have to race 200m in the opposite direction. It was head to head against China and we came in second by a few seats.

One of those heartbreaking races/ situations and now the women are psyched out or the final race of the day - a 500m standard boat mixed race.

Right now, we are waiting for the TV crews to ready themselves for our medal presentation ceremony, and trying to stay positive. It's unfortunate really. We are second place in the World Cup, and the mood at our team tent is collective dejection. It's different than my previous experiences - that's for sure.

Another item that we are contending with is having to race around television schedules. In some cases, they load us into the boats and leave us out on the water for twenty minutes before they start the race - this is particularly true whenever we are racing China. It makes it difficult to manage heat, water, mental and physical preparedness, but hey - the way I see it, we have been racing on cray jet-lagged bodies, so we really can't be much worse off ;)

The audience and crowd watching the races is incredible. There are so many people cheering us on, and we have made some friends with the locals. A man even brought us banana leave sticky rice after our last race that he made at home. It was cute.

Alright, enough for now. I will update when we have finished the 500m.

Bronze in the 200m

We have about 12 races today and we started our day off with a bronze medal finish in the 200m. First place went to China and second place went to Philipines.

We just finished our team pursuit race against team China. We won our heat but were assigned a ten second penalty which lands us in the bronze medal race. We are still seeking clarification on why we got a penalty and might end up in the gold medal race. More to one as I've just found out that there is wifi at the race site.

30 hours of travel + 5 hours of sleep + 5 races.....

‎I arrived in Fuzhou around 1am this morning as did my paddles (yay!), and we've hit the ground running. 

The first world cup in dragonboat opened this afternoon, and we have already had five races today including 1000m pursuit style team races around a 250m course, 400m relay races and 200m straight races. 

With each race, we get a bit more confident and comfortable paddling together, and we're hoping that a good night of sleep will help even more. 

The racing is good - very competitive (which is why we are here, really), but the experience is very different racing co-ed than it is single sex. Also, our boat has adopted a different technique for paddling, so it's all about meshing as quickly as we can.

The host hotel is nice enough, but I've been having a hard time finding food I can eat. It's going to be a lot of steamed book chop and protein powder over the next few days, I'm sure. 

It's about 9pm here, and I'm beyond exhausted, so this post is really just to update friends and loved ones that I'm alive and made it.

Going to China... again :)

It's been awhile (ha! I always start my posts off this way!).

This time around, I've been named to the Canadian crew who is going to Fuzhou, China for the inaugural world cup (http://dragonboat.ca/node/789). Initially the competition was to take place during the actual dragon-boat festival in China, however, we'll be attending toward the end of the festival so will miss the majority of the cultural events. 

The Chinese government has decided to host us, and will be televising the event (although, not entirely sure if that extends to international broadcast) - still... pretty cool! This will be the first time I have had costs covered by a host organization, and the ability to win money to boot!

However, as with most things in my life these days - I feel like this trip is one big rush... I leave Ottawa on Sunday morning, arrive in Fuzhou just before midnight on Monday, and begin racing on Tuesday. Considering the calibre of competition, I would have hoped for at least one day to acclimate and prepare for a serious time zone disruption - alas, it wasn't meant to be. 

I'm racing in Montreal on Saturday which didn't exactly leave me a whole lot of time to transition from racing with my club crew to getting into a "world cup" mode, however, I'm going for the racing and the experience - and hoping that our crew (who hasn't really ever paddled together), quickly finds our groove. To top it all off, because I'm working full time and on limited vacation time, I'm working right up until Friday evening - making preparations a bit more stressful than I would have liked.

The race format is very different than my previous attendance at world level events. I will be racing standard mixed crew, as well as small boat single sex (women) crew. I've got a total of 10 minutes of experience in a small boat, so again... the dice will land where they land during those races ;)

I will attempt to update as much as possible - though, I've heard that can be difficult due to the "great firewall" of China...

Canada Premier Women dominated the 500m

‎I know that this post is delayed, but for what it's worth.....

Our 500m‎ races were fantastic. Wonderful. Powerful yet not panicked. Oh - and Premier Women came out on top or the podium - by a rather large margin of about 1 second!! 

Our first heat was exactly how a heat should be. Fast enough to get you top position in the final, but not so fast that you risk burning out. My nerves were on fire because I knew that after the 200m performance we had the day before(for which I still can't stop smiling)‎ - we had to prove that our win was not an accident - that we were meant to be on top. 

Needless to say, the heat was great and seeded us against China and US as our main competitors in the final. We had a very strong start and apparently we lead the race out of the starting gate and then turned on the power for our finish. Our caller kept saying "China is making their move, I need you now" and the boat responded right away with pure force of will striving to get us to the end of the race. With every stroke, our caller would yell "give me another seat" and the boat would respond. It was fantastic. 

In the end I believe we finished 1/2 a boat length ahead, which is huge in the main distance of a Premier boat at the ‎world championships. Our coach was ecstatic, as was the entire team. It's probably one of the best races I have had in my life, and I'm absolutely honored to have been a part of this National team experience in Hungary. 

Right now, I am in Budapest taking in the sites and the atmosphere. This city is quickly becoming one of my favorite in the world - more on that to come.

----

In case you are interested in a little read, myself and two of my teammates were featured in a two page article in the Ottawa Citizen : http://www2.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/sports/story.html?id=ad94ad56-6fa3-47e7-b383-9b47641656a8

Canada Premier Women made history

The Canadian Premier Women made history today, beating team China for the first time in the 200m sprint distance!!

This adds another gold medal to the coffers - which places us with two gold and one bronze overall. Today has been a fantastic day!

In addition, teams are starting to get penalties for wash riding (after the 1000m fiascos, something had to be done - too bad it wasn't called during our race!!). 

So, this had been an incredible day of racing again. We managed to get our stroke rate up around 110 strokes per minute in the preliminary heat - it was fast but spinny so we decided to take it down for the final - which really benefited us in the end. It felt great, the boat felt awesome and everyone felt connected. We didn't know who won and had to wait for the replay to know for sure, but once we saw with proof that gold was ours, the boat erupted in celebration. There is really no other way to describe it. 

You see, the 200m has always been a dream to win - and we finally did it!

Tomorrow is the last day of racing where we will focus on the 500m distance. I will update later tomorrow or Monday with our standings. 

Go Canada!!!! 

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

Adventures in 1000m racing

Yesterday we raced the 1000m sprints. 

In our heat, our strategy was to come in first so that we could go directly to the finals, but not to exhaust ourselves doing it. We made that plan work and ended up seeding in the preferred lane for the final race - which might have been a detriment to our outcome. 

We started off the final race ahead by a half boat length and maintained that lead for what spectators say was 3/4 of the course - however, for anyone who is familiar with racing in a man made basin, sometimes what will happen is the crews who are beside and behind you can get on your wave (almost like surfing), which means they will expend less energy keeping up with you, giving them a surge at the end of the race. This is precisely what happened. 

Canadian Premier Women received the bronze medal, behind Thailand and China. The spread between first and third place was 0.15 seconds. Not even a paddle stroke. Our coach firmly believes that we carried the two other crews (who were on either side of us) down the course. Whatever the reason, I can say that our race plan was executed perfectly, and it wasn't for lack of trying or for lack of effort that we weren't on the top of the podium. 

Coming off the water was emotional. To have worked so hard, knowing you couldn't have done anything differently to affect the outcome (ie: paddle harder, sit up straighter, respond to calls for more power, etc.), that was what hurt the most. But - we have to keep in mind that at the world level, this is what we ask for. The best competition in the world - this is what we got yesterday. 

From my perspective, our team was humbled. This is a good thing. When you are used to winning all the time, sometimes you need to come second (or third) to remind you of the hunger, drive and sheer ballsy-ness it takes to win first place. 

Canadian Premier Women will be back for the 200m on Saturday - there is no doubt about that. 

The race was streamed live (as all the races have been so far), the commentators saying that ours was one of the closest races of the day, and at one point, the commentator was heard to say "look at those Canadian women, they are looking exceptionally strong this year. Muscles like that don't just happen by accident". Later, when we were on the podium receiving our medals, the organizers told us that they hit 80,000 spectators on the live coverage - and that over 60% were from Canada. 

Hearing that, and knowing that our friends and family in Canada are behind us is pretty fantastic. I know the Canadian media has shunned our efforts to engage, and so I know how much it takes for those of you at home to sign on and follow our races - we sincerely appreciate it!! We really do. Knowing th at I have loved ones back home that are watching, cheering and crying along with me is the best feeling in the world. 

Be sure to tune in on Saturday - I'm aiming for tears of joy and hoping to beat China for the first time in the 200m. 

Canadian teams cleaned up on the first day of racing (2000m course)

The opening ceremonies were a great time this year - I missed them in Tampa and always regretted it, so I decided to attend this year. There was a parade of athletes through the streets of Szeged - locals and supporters alike lined the streets and were cheering us on (kind of a really cool feeling!). There were even some local children who were waving mini Canadian flags... :)

At the opening ceremonies, there was a guest appearance from the Red Bull stunt pilot who entertained us with a 10-15 minute air show - I left shortly after and missed the concert and the opening speeches. On our way out Krysta and I were pulled aside by some athletes from the Polish team and were asked to pose for a pic.

Some Galley Girls representing in Szeged

Galley Girl contingent (minus Emilie) in Szeged at the opening ceremonies

Team Canada - walking proud

Posing with our competitors

The first day of racing has come and gone and Canadian teams have been very well represented on the podium so far.

12 gold medals, 5  silver medals and 1 bronze medal - that is almost 1 medal per race - a fantastic first start to what will hopefully be a consistent week of racing from all Canadian teams.

Canadian Premier Women (the team that I paddle with) won our race by a whopping 9 second margin - so start our collection off with this year. We were not racing at the Szeged Olympic paddling facility, rather the Tisza river - where we could benefit from the current in one direction which helped us to attain top speeds of over 20 km/h. It doesn't seem fast - but in a dragonboat, that's pretty fast (especially for a long distance race).

The Chinese are historically a very strong team, and we were concerned that we might not be able to compete against them, but we fared very well in the end.

Today we are racing the 1000m sprints. If we win our heat, we will go straight to the grand final. If we don't we will have to go to a reperchage (sp?) where the fastest teams will go to the grand final. Wish us luck!!

Race Schedule for Canadian Premier Women

 The following is the race schedule for Canadian Premier Women (my team), however, there are lots of talented Canadian teams competing this year. Be sure to check the Hungarian event website for live video feed of the races:

http://www.hungary2013.dragonboat.hu/

There have been some.recent changed to the schedule that have been published on thr.main site - I'm hopeful that the times are still the same. 

Wednesday July 24 (2000m)

Race # 18 @ 16h30

Last boat to start.

Thursday July 25 (1000m)

Race # 59 @ 15h10 (heat)

Race#67 @ 16h30 (semi final)

Race # 75 @ 17h50 (grand final)

Saturday July 27 (200m)

Race # 197 @ 14h40 (heat)

Race # 215 @ 16h15 (semi final)

Race # 240 @ 18h20 (grand final)

Sunday July 28 (500m)

RAce # 260 @ 11h40 (heat)

Race # 280 @ 14h30 (semi final)

Race # 298 @ 17h00 (grand final)

Szeged and a paddlers dream course

It's been a few days since my last update...

On Sunday July 21 (my mothers birthday - happy birthday mom!), the women paddled a 2km exhibition race (with turns every 500m) on the Tisza river in Szeged. This was a chance not only to check out the race course for the world championships, but to work out the inevitable kinks caused by travel, adaption to a new routine and boatmates. The race went well - we were in a heat with mens crews and we didn't come last !! Plus, we had an unofficial sub 9 minute time (8:40 ish), which is a great time for a 2km race. The officiating wasn't exactly on par with what we are used to, however, so we aren't quite sure how we finished relative to the other teams, and how quickly we finished. But... we finished.

That afternoon we ended up at the racecourse where we will be competing for the rest of the week. The course is BEAUTIFUL!!! It's got a great set up for paddlers, spectators, racers, everyone!! It really is a dream course, and I'm counting myself very lucky that I have had the opportunity to paddle on it!

Below is a picture of the course.

Below is a picture of the athletes area - where a bunch of athletes are warming up.

Today, we had two practices where we focused on our starts and our sprint pieces. Each practice gets better and better and the boat is really starting to come together. Krysta and I walked around the city a bit during our lunch break, but I have a feeling we won't be exploring much of Szeged because we are really trying to focus on practice and racing.

Our hotel - I haven't spoken to that yet. The hotel is owned by a man who used to live in Canada, and he is very happy and excited to be hosting Canadians at his hotel. He held a team dinner for us last night in his courtyard - the dinner was fantastic and very well received. The owner and his staff have been really incredible to us - providing a home away from home to the premier womens, mens and mixed crews. The hotel itself is in a rather interesting building featuring castle turrets and the like. In general, the architecture here is really quite interesting - a blend of pre-communist Autrich-Hongrie and communist style buildings - side by side. Ornate flanked by bland - really neat to see. 

That's all for now - I will post our race dates/times as I get more info.

First day of practice under our belts and litres upon litres of sparkling water

Womens premier had our first two practices today and the boat is feeling good already. We had an early morning and late afternoon practice totaling about 10 kms. Nothing too strenuous as we were using the time in the boat to flush out the jet lag, but the boat is feeling good already!

We explored the hotel surroundings a bit, but the highlight of the off time for the day involved many bottles of water. Krysta and I went grocery shopping to find veggies, fruit and meats. At the same time, we stocked up on bottled water (very unsure of whether we will be physically ok to drink the tap water). We each got a case of six two-litre bottles and brought them back to our hotel. We went to open the bottles to add our electrolyte mixes for thé afternoon practice, and it turns out we bought fizzy water. We now have a total of 24 L of heavily carbonated water lying around that we can't seem to pass off to anyone. 

I tried to use one of the carbonated waters in practice, but it exploded on me, so, no-go. It's too bad this wasn't Ottawa, because my husband would take it off our hands in an instant!! 

Anyway - more to come tomorrow. We are racing an exhibition 2km race tomorrow and then a practice at night at the race course. I'm very much looking forward to racing at the course. Apparently they have paddling starting gates that corral you in, within your lane, and then drop when the horn is blared. Different than we are used to, but should be good!

In other news, because of the weather that Ottawa has been experiencing, some of our teammates from the Galley Girls have gotten stuck in transit. Here is hoping they get here safe with all of their gear!

24 hours later and we've made it to Hungary

Ottawa - Toronto - Paris - Munich - Budapest - Szeged.

We are tired, but we are here. It's been a long haul - 24 hours of travelling all said, but we are in Hungary.

Prior to leaving, I had to print off a list of ingredients and foods that I can't eat in Hungarian - and I'm happy to say that it has helped me already. Krysta and I went for dinner tonight on the recommendation from the hotel staff who read the list and told us where we could go to get food. Super happy that I printed off the list - one thing though vegetables are pretty hard to come by - should get interesting as the weeks progress!

Well, I've been up for 36 hours so I'm going to bed. We have two practices tomorrow with the National Team - will update later with pictures and content.

Preparing for a trip across the pond...

So... it's been awhile. That tends to be a trend with me and this blog :)

This time, my next big adventure will bring me to Szeged, Hungary for the 2013 World Dragonboat Championships - I'm one of the lucky 24 who, through inhumane amounts of training, sweat, tears, torn muscles and rehab, has been selected to represent Canada on the Women's Premier National Dragonboat Team.

The final roster was released in May, 2013 and I cried when I saw my name on the list. This will be my second opportunity to represent the country that I love in the sport that I love - and I only hope that I can do both justice! The team has been put together with a group of women from Vancouver to Montreal (and parts in between) - we have had the opportunity to paddle a spring training camp together, and we intend on arriving earlier to adjust to the time, temperature and our boat colleagues. You see - blending 20 people in a boat can be a struggle, let alone when you're dealing with technique from 10 different teams (and a time/humidity change to boot).

At my last world championships in 2011, Canadian Premier did very well, with the following results:
- 2000m, 1000m, 500m, Gold
- 200m, Silver
- 500m small boat, Gold

It was a fantastic experience, however, this time around we will be the hunted (for lack of a better euphemism). Not only are other teams trying to beat us, but, you see - paddling in Hungary and in Hungarian culture is a big deal. European teams will often throw together crews of ex-Olympic paddlers - which means we will be competing against the best of the best - not to mention all the other talent worldwide that exists for this sport. For example, the Chinese teams are paid to train dragonboat, year round. And, if they bring home the gold, it's been rumored that the Chinese government will pay competitors the equivalent of one year's salary per medal.

In any case, I'm doing the final prep and getting ready to leave tomorrow. I arrive in Szeged around 7pm (Hungarian time) on Friday July 19 - expect plenty of posts from there forward.

In the meantime, have a look around the competition website - rumor has it that the competition will be broadcast live.

http://www.hungary2013.dragonboat.hu/

Incredible women's start to the 2012 Na Wahine O Ke Kai race

 All I can say is..... WOW!!!



Na Wahine O Ke Kai 2012

Home safe, sound and delayed....

 My husband reminded me the other night that I failed to blog about my return to Canada and to discuss the experience while I was paddling the big waters of Hawaii.

So... needless to say, I've returned in one piece. No shark attacks (thank God!!), no broken bones and a minimal amount of self respect lost (primarily to do with the consumption of distilled grains...).

Coming back to Canada was a bit of a whirlwhind, and I always say that after any trip, take 1-2 days off to sit and reflect on the experience. Unfortunately, this time around, I didn't have that luxury. I was back at work the next day, followed by a house sale and move on the weekend..... and a hometown race to boot. 

Since returning, I've paddled in three more races, and just came back from a grueling weekend of tryouts for the Canadian national women's premier dragonboat team. The women competing for seats in the boat are stronger this showing compared to previous years, so there is some stiff competition. My goal is to be one of the stronger contenders and make the team to compete at the World Championships in Hungary, 2013.

Here are some photos of the trip and the racing to cap things off...

 Above: A photo of part of the OPAdvantage crew practicing out of Anueanue Canoe Club in Honolulu (http://www.anuenuecanoeclub.org/) before the race. The rest of our team met us on Kauai island.

Above: A photo of the mens half of the OPAdvantage crew, somewhere around the 3-4th leg of the 41 mile race.

Above: A photo of the womens half of the OPAdvantage crew during the NaPali Challenge. I'm in seat 4.