2018 Calgary Festival

Hi Crew - 

What a race weekend it was! 

Here is how things stacked up: 

Angels - Gold A Division

Yahoo - Silver A Division

Evolution - A Division/5th Overall

Angels had a great weekend of racing - finding lots of glide right from the first race and a crew best with a time of 2:13.00 (Race 2). The final might have brought out our devilish sides a little, it was not our best race but it was also the first time a boat got close enough to make a move which may have spooked us a little. Who knows?!  Happy that our halos are still gold! (2:17.86)

Yahoo also raced well!  Alas, the elusive sub-2 was not within our grasp this weekend but we were close in our second race on Saturday (2:00.47).  This dog fight was a great preview of what a potential final might look like against Got Gainz (2:00.09).  

The big story of the weekend was Evolution in the semis! Smashing the crew best from last year by 4 seconds with a time of 2:08.73, racing against the formidable Got Gainz and Quiet Riot and beating out Dragnum, Spartans and Max Storm to earn a spot in the A-Division final! It was an incredibly gutsy race; not the most well-executed but Evo did meet the coaches' objective which was to secure a spot in the A final. 

Mixed A Final - we found ourselves in a tough (but exciting) situation having two crews in the show down but also facing Got Gains, Quiet Riot and Oil City Crew. There was a big delay before the start of the race but it seemed like both crews stayed calm and focused! Finally the boats were lined up, the horn went and everyone was off...both boats were fully energized - there were crazy calls and some wild wake to deal with!  In the end, Yahoo came up a nose short for gold (2:03.45) but walked away with a very respectable silver.  (Got Gainz 2:03.05) Evolution finished last but earned their "5th overall" title and probably some new targets on their backs (at a minimum, Dragnum and Spartans will be looking for redemption next year). No doubt - everyone left it all on the water! 

Thank-you's

Huge applause to our coaching team for getting us race ready throughout the season. This contributed to the successful weekend we had!  The planning efforts the coaches put into our race lineups helped ensure we had a back up plan when we faced off in the A division.

Thank-you to our team captains - Charles, Natasha and Jeanette who attended the team captain’s meeting Friday night on our behalf, for picking up the race packages and helping to keep track of everyone.

Thank-you to the Tyler brothers (Brandon and Devin) for picking up our snacks & Brandon for helping us order our Subway lunch.

Janelle for stepping in as a stroke at the last minute and Kana for racing back to Calgary from Edmonton to step in as a drummer for Angels and Evo for their finals. It was a great first-time drumming effort, especially so last minute. Well done Janelle and Kana!

Not only did Grace step up and paddle and steer; she also gave back to the dragon boat community to help steer for the festival title sponsor Sinopec Energy!  Thank you Grace! You are becoming quite the steering extraordinaire.

Last but not least, a shout out to our guest paddlers: Chelsey, Steph and Leslie.  Thank you ladies ! It was great having you race with us Yahoos again.

That’s a wrap for another YYC festival! Hope you all had a great weekend!

2018 Lethbridge Festival Recap

The 2018 Lethbridge Dragon Boat Festival started out bright and early on Saturday morning with the Red Angels racing in the second race of the day.  The women came out strong winning with their best time of the festival at 2:23.04 and proved that the ladies from CDBC and the Red Eyes were going to be some good competition in the women’s division!   CDBC Crew Yahoo also put in a great first race with a time of 2:10:36 despite some timing issues and a rocky boat.  Later in the day, the women squeaked into first place with a time of 2:28.03 which left them ranked first overall, and the mixed boat also came out on top as well with a time of 2:11.27.  Crew Yahoo got off the water just in time before the sky opened up and everyone all got to have a rather cozy moment inside the tent waiting for the rain to let up.  Unfortunately the 2K Guts’n’Glory race was cancelled due to the weather, but overall a good day was had by all.  

Day two was a beautiful sunny day and started with the women getting to sleep in a bit (yay!).  The Red Angels had some competition in their first race of the day in the dreaded lane 3 and took second place with a time of 2:25.98 behind the Blazing Paddles, which set them up nicely for the finals in lane 4.  CDBC Crew Yahoo‘s first race resulted in a time of 2:10.68, which put them in lane 3 for the final race.   By the afternoon, both teams were ready to earn some hardware and got prepared to kick some a** on the racecourse.  The Red Angels had an amazing start and finish during their final race and skipped down lane 4 to victory with a time of 2:23.67 beating the competition SCS Phoenix by almost two seconds!  Crew Yahoo also put in their best race of the festival and despite the disadvantage of being placed in lane 3, came out on top.  Some serious power and an adrenaline filled finish pulled the crew over the finish line with a time of 2:13.60 beating out EDBRC - Got Pho? by over two seconds!   Some well-deserved celebratory drinks were enjoyed with our medals in the beer gardens at the end of the day, and some of the men were pleased to be able to flex and pose with the Festival’s Fastest Time trophy. 

Overall it was an awesome weekend of paddling and celebrating in Lethbridge – it’s always extra sweet coming home with DOUBLE GOLD!  Congrats to all, especially our first festival paddlers. Thanks to everyone who came out and participated but an extra big thanks to Grace and Brent for steering our teams to victory!  

It’s a pleasure to paddle with all of you and I’m proud to call myself a Yahoo and an Angel!  Thanks to all of you for coming out to Lethbridge, and I look forward to many more festivals in the future.  Paddles up!

Anna.

2017 Season Recap

Thanks to everyone who came out last Saturday to our first ever Halloween wrap up party.  It was a pleasant surprise to see how many of you came dressed up. Yay!  

First things first, because a lot of you have been asking for the year end video!  Here's the link: https://youtu.be/puHiS4DLcNA

Thanks again to Tomi for putting hours upon hours getting this perfect!  

(video best viewed on desktops or on android phones - sorry iPhone users!, videos may not work on your phones)

Award Winners and Nominees

The Most Improved Paddler award typically goes to someone who has made big gains in their stroke technique or paddling performance allowing for greater contribution to the boat.  This year we had a number of paddlers who really showed interest in improving their stroke and who were able to apply feedback and suggestions in practice or after video review - it was really hard to pick only a few people to acknowledge.  

The nominees were: Loni, Karin, Tracy F And Julian. 

This year's Most Improved Paddler is Julian. 

Congratulations to him and the other nominees on a job very well done! 

A special shout out to Grace for being our most-Improved steersperson as well! 

The 'Hammer' award (aka Hardest Working Paddler) saw two nominees this year. 

Both Tracy S and Robert were our go tos for helping to fill any boat when we had spaces available, they both competed for spots on the competitive crews in Calgary and were successful and they both attended all 4 festivals.  Robert is our winner for having attended the most practices as a Paddler this year as well as continually asking himself how to improve his paddling performance in his first year with our club! 

 

This year's Most Valuable Paddler award goes to Brent! After a hiatus from paddling, we were happy to have him back last year and thrilled when he agreed to be the steers' coach this year.  He has shown incredible commitment to this role as well as to the club - literally going anywhere or doing anything that was needed for success.  There were very, very few Tuesdays, Thursdays or Sundays when Brent was not available (and that doesn't include any of his note taking, emailing or scheduling steers outside of reservoir time).  And who can forget his inspiring and motivating "give me one more bench" calls with amazing outcomes.  

Congratulations to all of our nominees and the award winners!  We are so proud of everyone's performance and results this year so thank-you paddlers for putting up with us practice after practice! 

Award pictures attached

Thank-you's

A big thank-you to the new members of the executive team, a few of whom would say they were "voluntold" to take on their positions.  Tomi , Laura, Jeanette and Jenn did an amazing job this year in their new roles.  

Huge thanks to our coaches, who are our mentors and motivators for the entire season - Kevin, Lindsay, Carol and Brent.

To our festival planners - Anita, Lisa, Karen, Jake and Laura.  And those who helped with purchasing of our snacks at these festivals, James, Charles, Grace, Tomi and Jenn!

And Stephen for putting on a great paddle camp for the Calgary Teams - even though it was cold and rainy, we all had great learnings from Scott. 

Costume Winners

Thank-you to those who dressed up for the party and vied for the best costume awards.  Voted by peoples choice:  The best individual costume went to Robin the Shark and best team costume to the Pixie Unicorns, Aaron and Tristan.  Honorable mentions for individual costume is Tracy S (who spent hours into making her leaf dress!) and team costumes, Janelle and Jess for Top Gun.  

Pictures attached (photo courtesy of Tracy's fb page, with her permission of course!)

In the Making for 2018

Dryland Training - will run from January 11th to April 26 for 16 sessions with Chelsey - 7pm to 8pm.  Venue will likely be Eau Claire Y and cost to be $150.  We will send out email once we have everything finalized.  

OC Paddle Camp - put on by Pete Baday in Tarpon Spring, Florida, the week of April 22, 2018.  Pete is Team Canada's Senior B national coach and is one of Stephen's coaches. For more info or to sign up, please contact Stephen spfour@telus.net

Hope you all enjoyed the 2017 season and looking forward to more fun times in 2018. 

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2017 Edmonton Festival Recap

Ay Crew!

Wow well, what to say! It was a strong showing by CDBC Crew Yahoo this weekend at the 2017 Edmonton Dragonboat Festival. Not only did we bring home a medal, we did it while wearing pirate costumes – a first for Yahoo!

The festival took place on the North Saskatchewan River and the river course and shorter length were a change from what we’re used to. However, the team adjusted accordingly after the first race and landed in the A division semi-final with our Albertan A-team comrades, EDBRC Got Gainz. Unfortunately, during the semi-final the dragon head fell off, dragged through the water and finally fell off the boat, causing a bit of chaos and lost seconds! As a team, we powered through it as we've been trained. We filed a formal protest, which was successful, but wasn't enough to get us into the Aurora (A) Final.

Despite the adversity (and a minor injury during the dragon head situation), Crew Yahoo pulled it together and agreed to race our race in the Borealis (B) Final and show Edmonton what we're made of. It was a close race between Yahoo and the green-shirted EDBRC Incredible Hulls but Yahoo pressed and powered on to not only score a gold medal finish but also the fastest time out of the Aurora and Borealis finals!

A special shout-out to the coaches Lindsay and Carol (for doing a great job this weekend making the calls and coaching us to an ultimate victory) and to our super skillful steersperson One-More-Bench-Brent (for keeping us straight on that river despite obstructions like dragonheads and for knowing the rules of protesting). Thanks also to those who provided transport for people/equipment/food; these festivals wouldn't be possible without the help that everyone pitches in!

Also, congrats to Krista and Kenny for racing in your first festival. It's great to have you both as part of the crew!

And last but not least, thanks to everyone for the great racing, I hope you all had fun this weekend. Looking forward to seeing you all again on the water!

Paddles up!

Lisa

2017 Lethbridge Festival Recap

Hi crew,

Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather this week - perfect for paddling...and Stampeding!

Our first festival of the season is in the books, and it was a hot one! Lethbridge did not disappoint with two days of sunny weather and some great racing on Henderson Lake.

Our Yahoo Angels partnered up with three paddlers from Catch 22 and were in second place following the first day of racing. Our main competition was the Dragnum Bad Buoys which was made up of the Dragnum ladies and Calgary Policewomen. It was a fierce and fun final on Sunday, with the Yahoo Angels surging in the finish to overtake Dragnum and capture Gold in the Womens A Division by 0.2 seconds! Way to go ladies! Our time was 2:22:85, with second place at 2:23:08. Special shout-out to Grace, who steered us to glory in her first festival as a steersperson!

Crew Yahoo featured a mix of experienced crew members and a few new paddlers from Evolution. We faced off against our hometown rivals, Quiet Riot (the team formerly known as Topmade Black), and Dragnum all weekend. We had our fastest time of the weekend in the final, with 2:12:79 to take the silver medal, while Quiet Riot had the fastest time of the entire festival at 2:09:65 for the win. We're already looking forward to a re-match at the Calgary festival! Crew Yahoo also took second place in the always fun and furious 2km Guts & Glory race with several paddlers racing in the 2km for the first time!

Congratulations to both teams, and especially to the nine first-time CDBC paddlers in Lethbridge on a great showing! Medals for everyone! Hopefully this taste of competition has left you wanting more - the Calgary and Edmonton festivals are coming up soon so don't forget to sign up ASAP on HappyTC.

Special thanks to our Lethbridge planner Anita, and Karen & Lindsay for all their help in getting us organized.

Paddles up!

Jenn

2016 CDBC Wrap Up Party

Thanks to everyone who came out Saturday to celebrate another successful CDBC season. 

For those that did not make it; we're sorry we missed you!

Here are links to all the videos: 

Pre-video: https://youtu.be/2DOWsg6fscc

Year-end video: https://youtu.be/q8n-2V6tAlU

25th Anniversary Slide Show: https://youtu.be/e1dqH7fpZKA

*The videos are best viewed on a desktop or an Android; some may not work on iPhone*

And the winner is...

Most Improved Paddler: There were many 1st year paddlers who could be considered for the award, Albert was the coaches' choice; for always listening and trying to take in coaches' feedback and suggestions with his thoughtful head nod and then working hard to apply that information to his dragon boat technique - the practice paid off!!  

Hardest Working Paddlers: (a.k.a our 'hammers'): Tomi and Alla; between outrigger and dragon boat practice this pair were probably on the water 6-7 times a week (sometimes going out in the OC before or after practice).  They attended more dragon boat practices than other members and they "put it in" for every practice and race - no question.     

Most Valuable Paddler: Grace; contributed to the success of the club by playing multiple roles both on and off the water.  Her attitude and enthusiasm were infectious. She helps make our little dragon boat club such a special organization!

Congratulations! 

This year's CDBC production was brought to you by...(a.k.a THANK-YOU) 

Festival Planners and Supporting Roles: Jennifer, Shannon, Leslie, Karen, Laura, Tara, Charles and Grace

Paddle Camp Coordinator and Supporting Roles: Stephen, Anita, Rachel and James

Equipment managers (a.k.a schleppers and other stuff): Tomi, Grace, James and Jake

Practice Steers: James, Carol, Grace and Brent

Fitness and care team (a.k.a fun warm-ups and post-race massage): Ashley, Anna and Grace

*Special shout-out to the makers of: Advil, KT Tape and anything else people used to get through the season ;) 

Coaches: Jeremy, Kevin and Kelvin

Behind the scenes (a.k.a all the other stuff): Jennifer, Karen, Shannon and Lindsay

Year-end Video and Anniversary slide show: Tomi, Kevin and Rachel 

*Special shout-out to John Birk for capturing CDBC's growth and maturity from early days until present! 

Don't forget to thank your personal supports - spouses, family, friends etc. that might have helped make your season possible. 

Without our members, CDBC would not be the club it is today.  

To all our paddlers: for your commitment and dedication; no matter the weather; drill after drill; week after week; race after race - you keep coming back for more!  Thank-you!!!

...and that's a wrap; folks!  See you next season!  

2016 Montreal Festival Recap

Hey team,

It’s hard to believe that our last festival of the 2016 season is behind us! Twenty-nine of us headed to Montreal for the Quebec Cup (Sept 17-18) held at the Olympic Basin. For the local teams, this was the 3rd and final event of a circuit called the “Triple Crown”. A lot of the registered teams compete at the national level so the competition was fierce to say the least!  CDBC entered two teams in the festival. Our mixed team was part of Mixed Division 1 which had a total of 20 teams. Our open team, which included Jerwin and 5 local paddlers from the 22Dragons host Club, was part of Men’s Division 1 that had a total of 9 teams. There were over 80 teams in total at the festival. All the races were filmed and can be found here if you are interested (search by race number per summary below): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiAALMqIKHm9ngCehWk-0JKtv55dN9UYL

Day 1 Summary:

500 m D1 Mixed (races #9 and #25) : CDBC Crew Yahoo was in the fourth and final 500 m D1 qualifier race. To the awe of the crowd, the Calgary boat edged a victory by one hundredth of a second with a time of 2:10.54. A very close and exciting race to start the festival with 3.5 seconds between first and fifth place. To add to the good news, as the winner of this heat, the team was awarded a flat of local beer! From here, the 500 m finals were decided with the qualifier times. Even though Yahoo won their heat, their time was 10th best which landed them in the B Final. They went on to obtain a hard fought 5th place in that B Final with a time of 2:11.18. No beer, but 10th place in the presence of such fierce competition was more than respectable!

500 m D1 Open (races #17 and #34): After a very eventful journey to the start line which included hitting the dock and a parked boat as well as losing the dragon head, 22 Yahoos managed to claim 3rd place in their first heat with a time of 2:07.38 - good enough for a berth in the Open A final. We tried an all-male line-up for the A final (and changed the steers person for some reason...) Despite these changes, 22 Yahoos finished last (5th) in the A final with an impressive time of 2:06.90; one tenth of a second behind the 4th place finishers!

2000 m D1 Open (race #37): A rainy, 9-boat, 7-turn, gutsy 2000 m race in increasingly violent waters capped the day. The starting position was 5th based on the 500 m results and a 7th place finish was obtained with a time of 11:05.95. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the prettiest race for 22 Yahoos with a few boats overtaking them and a LOT of water collected in the boat during the multiple turns. Most paddlers did have fun however...

Day 2 Summary:

200 m D1 Mixed (races #7 and #25): No sleeping in for Crew Yahoo! First race time was 0:50.77. An excellent time but we missed the A final by one tenth of a second! Something odd happened in the 200 m mixed B final. Crew Yahoo appeared to have finished third with a time of 0:51.91, but the team was awarded a hefty 1 second penalty for not being in the center of the lane! Even after an inconclusive video review, the end result was fifth place in the B finals with a “time” of 0:52.91.

500 m D1 Open (races #17 and #33): 22 Yahoos' first race was one of two 200 m qualifier races. With a time of 0:50.55 and a 5th place finish, 22 Yahoos were not able to qualify for the Open A final. This led to an exciting Open B final in which 22 Yahoos dominated from the start and crossed the finish line with a very respectable time of 0:50.06. A famous video of this race is available on Youtube (https://youtu.be/kM8EecAzU0I) - the best part was when the boat was greeted at the dock with not one but two flats of beer for the victory!

2000 m D1 Mixed B Final (race #37):  To cap off this intense weekend of racing, CDBC Crew Yahoo was seeded in the mixed B final for the 2000 m race based on previous race results. Starting 9th out of 10 boats, Crew Yahoo maintained their place throughout the race for a second place finish with a very good time of 10:39.44 - somehow we avoided all penalties!

Overall Results:

Officials use a fancy points system that cumulates through all the events (200m, 500m and 2000m) Crew Yahoo got 11th overall out of 20 mixed D1 teams and 22 Yahoos got 6th overall out of 9 open D1 teams.

Festivities:

As you know, what happens in Montreal stays in Montreal. Although it has to be mentioned that for the first time in team dinner history, someone installed a stripper pole in the middle of the dining room. What happened after that is pretty unbelievable… Might have to come to the wrap-up party to see some photos?

Until next time, your planners, Charles and Lindsay!

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2016 Lethbridge Festival Recap

Hey Crew

Hope everyone had an excellent long weekend and a good start to Stampede!  It was admittedly nice after two big weekends of paddling to take a break from practice and meet up with a bunch of you at Aussie Rules.  Thanks to everyone who came out and to Shannon for organizing...

On to Lethbridge recap.  Where to start?!  In my roughly 8 years of paddling with CDBC I've never encountered bad weather in Lethbridge (to be fair, I missed the one year it poured) so you can imagine my chagrin when we pulled in Friday to lots of wind and rain.  Not the best way to start a weekend. In addition to the poor weather, it seemed like many paddlers were either just coming down with or getting over colds.  Yuck! 

Despite the double dose of cold(s) we persevered... 

Yahoo Angels paired up with Catch 22 to form C22 Angels.  It was a match made in heaven!  Despite never having paddled together, the ladies hit together and came out strong right from the very first race.  The boat felt really great and comments from the shoreline were that we "looked awesome" and "timing was excellent"!  C22 Angels efforts earned them a Gold in the Women's A Division with a time of 2:19.22.  The next closest time was 2:27.39 - so quite an impressive lead.   

Crew Yahoo was a bit shakier out of the gate.  At first, we had some trouble nailing our starts.  We were still fast enough to be 3rd after the first day of racing and get into in the A Division semi finals.  We maintained that 3rd place position moving into the A Division Final but it was a real dog fight to secure a silver medal! Got Gainz edged us out of gold by roughly a second (Gainz 2:08.41; Yahoo 2:09.38).  Catch 22 was also hot on our tail in the final (2:10.21) followed very closely by Top Made Black (2:10.51).  Only 2 seconds between the 1st and 4th place team...congratulations to everyone on a well-fought battle!

...I forgot to mention that the sun came out intermittently on Race Day 2 but really shone in time for us to convene for a post-racing beverage and to enjoy the medal presentation.  

Hopefully everyone that attended enjoyed the festival. 

Stay healthy - a little over a month to go before Calgary!  

Cheers, 

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2016 Vancouver Festival Recap

Hello team!

It's hard to believe our first two festivals of the season have already come and gone! The team headed off to Vancouver from June 18-19 to race against the top teams in Western Canada and the US at the Concord Pacific Vancouver Dragon Boat Festival. The competition there is always tough and it was a great opportunity for members of the competitive crew and some of the club's newer paddlers to experience racing against these top teams.

The team did well, paddling through the rain and cold to bring home two medals: a bronze in the Visiting Championship (a nice reward for an 8AM race) and a silver in the Competitive B final, for a 10th place finish overall out of 95 Mixed Division teams. Pretty impressive! Our fastest time of the weekend was 2:05:61, with a crew of 10 women and 10 men. We capped off the weekend with a 10th place finish in the always exciting 2000m Guts & Glory race.

In addition to the tough competition, we had an equally tough time deciding which of the many delicious Vancouver restaurants to eat at! Good thing we had all that racing to work it off!

All in all, this was a great festival and an awesome way to start off the season; thanks to everyone who helped make it possible. Now that we've gotten a taste of competition (and motivation to beat a certain team from Edmonton), I'm looking forward to what the rest of the season has in store.

Paddles up!

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2015 Season Recap

You may have noticed we did not send out any festival recaps this season, which is usually part of our process.  I don’t know how many people read the summaries but some have mentioned it’s a nice way of keeping our teammates in the loop about how we did and also fun to re-live some of those intense racing moments!

I’ve sat at my computer a couple of times this week with the intention of writing a summary of the season and admittedly I’m finding it overwhelming. 

This was a season of firsts for the Calgary Dragon Boat Club and I am hopefully not alone in my thinking that our few short months of paddling seemed to go by very quickly - likely attributable to the large volume of paddling we did in the early months. 

April saw 17 of our members travel down to Florida for the Bow Wave Dragon Boat Camp.  It was a rigid schedule – yoga at sunrise, a team paddling session followed by one-on-ones, stretching, a coaches talk and then an afternoon team paddling session.  I think everyone that attended found at least one aspect of technique to focus on, based on the video reviews.  This is also where “two feet forward” and some of those coaching terms we’ve heard so frequently this season came from – “more hang” “find the glide” and “press”.   (They don’t just make things up on the fly, well, except maybe Kevin…JK)

We were lucky with the weather this year and we got on the reservoir at the beginning of May. This set us up for a 2-day training camp in Edmonton and a 1-day regatta in Calgary.  Based on the feedback, both of these events were extremely well received by our club (and other clubs) and I anticipate it could turn into something that occurs annually.  It was also great to practice in side-by-sides with two CDBC crews on Tuesday nights in those first couple of months.  Having a boat right beside you in practice makes it much easier in those neck and neck race situations – and we did find ourselves in some tight heats this year! 

Vancouver was our first festival this season and the first (only) opportunity for the crew heading to Nationals to try and put our race together against some very tough competition.  I think we did very well at meeting our race targets and we were rewarded with our first sub-2 minute time of the season in the Competitive A Final (1:56.745).   We also won the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office Visiting Cup and finished a grueling Guts and Glory race (10:31.197) without any major mishaps.

 

It’s a shame Nationals had to follow so quickly on Vancouver’s heels but a few short days later we were off!  Our first appearance on such a competitive stage – it felt pretty surreal to be there after months of planning and hard work.  We were very consistently “not last” and it was a humbling experience to race against so many incredibly strong teams.  I’d like to highlight that we did set some CDBC records at Nationals – we raced our best time ever in 200m (00:47.56) and although sub-2 remained elusive for 500m we did have our fastest time ever on a true 500m course, in freshwater, with 10 women and 10 men (2:00.35).   Finally, we had a club best for the 2k (9:56. 83)! This earned us a round of celebratory shots later that night from the coaches!  In all, Nationals was a great experience for CDBC – with a little more hard racing experience and a longer pre-race season, I think we might have found ourselves in the middle of the pack instead of in the bottom half (14 out of 18).  I look forward to seeing what our team can do when we go back in 2017. 

After Nationals, I think a few people were “paddled out” but it was a great opportunity to re-group, welcome some new paddlers to the club/sport and start ramping up for the final weeks of the season.  Before we knew it, Calgary Festival was upon us…

This year our rosters for Calgary were the tightest I can recall ever being for paddlers and it took some real magic on the part of the planners and the coaches to make sure we had paddlers in all the seats.  We did not have any spares and there was some creative boat hopping between our drummers/steers and paddlers.  I am so proud of Yahoo Evolution for getting into the A-Division (and they did it with 2-fewer guys than Crew Yahoo) and predict it will only be a matter of time before our two mixed crews end up meeting in the A-final!  Crew Yahoo came up just short of gold for the 3rd straight year – but it was some very close racing against EDBRC Molasses (2:03.85 vs. 2.03:48).  Yahoo Angels scored some gold (2:19.98) and a bigger target to replace their wings ;)

And then – Penticton.  What can I say?! The September festival always ends up being my favorite, partially because we are performing so well but also because the season is winding down and we can let loose a little bit.  This festival was no exception – both teams had some of their fastest times of the season (Yahoo – 1:57.33 and Angels – 2:14.96; nevermind that the course was only 470m long and thanks to the coaches for so quickly pointing that out…).  We raced hard and Yahoo walked away with gold and Red Angels with silver!  The rest of the festival highlights cannot be reported here but if you ever want to know what happens on a Sunday after an out-of-town race you’ll have to sign-up…

That’s all for now - the season highlights as I recall them!   

Hopefully enough sunshine and memories to hold you over until next May.

Until then, 

Paddles up!

Good Luck!

Best of Luck to our CDBC Yahoo members, Stephen and Jordan, at the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Welland, August 18-23.   They both have worked very hard for their journey to the Worlds and we are very proud to have them representing our club and Canada!

GO Team Canada!

Crew Yahoo featured on CBC Radio's Outdoor Report

On August 2nd, Paul Karchut from CBC radio came out to practice with Crew Yahoo for an outdoor report on Dragon Boating.

The Report was was featured this morning (Aug 16th) on CBC radio 99.1am at 7:40am.

In case you missed the report today - Kelvin sounds just as ominous on the radio as he does on the boat!!

There's also our video of the race we did in Calgary last year and a few other dragon boat items.  Tracy will be the most sought-after drummer in the history of dragon boating!!

You can go to the below link for the report: 

http://www.cbc.ca/calgary/features/outdoor-report/

Click on Dragon Boating on the Reservoir Aug 16 and you'll find the clip

Or directly to: http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=2268853338

Looking forward to this year's Calgary Festival!


Lindsay

2014 Portland Festival Recap

Hello Crew

It has been a little over a week since our return from a very successful festival in Portland!  It was a weekend of lots of exciting racing for everyone…I know my voice was still pretty hoarse from all the yelling for several days afterwards!  It’s a long wrap-up but when there’s so many exciting things to report on – what can you do?!

Yahoo Angels

The Angels won their first two races handily and found themselves sitting in 2nd place in the women’s division after the first day of racing. Sunday’s races also proved fruitful – we were the underdog going into the finals based on the morning, semi-final times but we had a spectacular final race for a silver-medal finish in the Women’s A-Division (2:23.09)! 

*A big thanks to the NAVY Dragon Anchors women who rotated 4 paddlers (out of 6) for each of our races.  We could not have done it without you!

Crew Yahoo

The Yahoos also won their first two races on Saturday – busting out one of the fastest race times on the mixed boat this season, (2:00.76) in the morning race.  A win and equally fast time was also the result of the Mixed A Semi-Final (2:01.38)!  We were all looking forward to meeting up with Kai Ikaika in the final – they had already posted times sub-2 minutes twice through the weekend.   It was an exciting final with roughly four and a half seconds separating the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams.  Crew Yahoo earned a silver medal (2:25.95)!

* This may be the only time ever that I will get to point something like this out:  Angels posted a faster time than Yahoo in their final…I’m sure water conditions had something to do with it but on paper it still looks pretty darn good :)

NAVY Yahoo

Our men joined with some of the NAVY Dragon Anchors men to form a team with a semi-final race Saturday and a final race on Sunday.  The “NAV-Yoo’s” stepped it up and beat the home-town favorite, Kai Ikaika, in a photo finish, semi-final race (1:56.27 and 1:57.0 respectively).  The big question going into the open final was whether we could do it again?!  It was a battle of wills but Kai Ikaika somehow got the edge on the NAVY Yahoos in another photo finish – a few more meters and it might have been a different tale (1:57.57 and 1:57.67 respectively).  NAVY Yahoo with a very respectable silver medal finish!

* A shout out to coach Rob for helping to arrange the NAVY Yahoo mix-up and a big thanks to all the NAVY men for joining our ranks (no pun intended).  It was some great racing!!

Bridge Races (aka Guts and Glory or 2000m)

I’m not sure if everyone felt the same way but I really wondered where on earth I was going to find the energy to paddle 2000m with the other ladies at the end of the first day!  I needn’t have worried!  Angels were the 7th boat out of 8 to pass the start line and then we were off!  We had to take a pretty wide turn at the first marker thanks to another boat and we passed a crew that lost their drummer on the course but roughly 25 powers later, it was all over…We finished the race 2nd overall with a time of 10:30.0. 

The racing did not end with a medal for Yahoo on Sunday - we still had the bridge race to contend with.  This race was the highlight of my weekend and probably one of the most memorable I’ve ever been in! The boat felt strong right off the start line – the boat was surging, adrenaline was pumping, boats on either side of us created a ‘Yahoo sandwich’, paddles were clanging, water was coming in from all directions…it was crazy fun!  We finished in 2nd place with a time of 8:44.96.

A solid end to a really great weekend of racing!! 

*A big THANK-YOU to Team Fusion for hosting us and providing us with such a great seating area and amazing food! 

*A big thanks also to the other crew members who helped contribute to this festival:

Jake, Laura, Kevin, Rachel, Yun, Evan and Tara for making sure all our paddles/gear got to and from the festival in one piece.

Karen for making arrangements at the Rose as well as assisting with gear.

Shannon for planning the team dinner at PokPok.

I hope I didn’t miss anyone…forgive me if I did.  It felt like there was lots to keep track of!!

_________________________

Whew.  I think that’s a wrap! 

Congrats to all of our paddlers.  I hope you enjoyed Portland and all it had to offer. 

Cheers,
Lindsay   

2014 Lethbridge Festival Recap

For those who don't know yet, CDBC did exceptionally well in the Festival with CDBC Crew Yahoo (Mixed team) capturing GOLD and Yahoo Angels (women's team) capturing SILVER!

Congratulations to our medalist! Both teams showed incredible improvement, team spirit and the CDBC competitive drive throughout the weekend.

We posted updates and photos to our Facebook page throughout the weekend for those who were following us on Facebook. For those who did not, here is a quick recap of what went down in the windy city:

CDBC CREW YAHOO:

Our mixed crew faced intense competition all weekend, racing against teams who will be representing Canada in the World Club Crew Dragon Boat races in Italy. A word that can describe the team that weekend? CONSISTENT. The team consistently pulled off race times of 2:10 the entire weekend while our competition fluctuated with the water conditions and lane assignments. 2:10:08 was our best time to pull ahead on the favored team (EDBRC Storm) with an incredible finish (check out the finish line video on our Facebook page).

CDBC YAHOO ANGELS:

As always, our Angels continue to impress us with their stamina and gumption! The team was comprised of women from both the Competitive and Semi-Competitive teams. With only one women's practice under our belt, we were able to capture Silver with a time of 2:27:78 in the women's division and were ranked 12th overall for the entire festival out of 61 mixed and women's teams! Fantastic work ladies!

We are incredibly proud of everyone who competed in Lethbridge. Thank you to everyone who helped make the festival possible, to the countless volunteers at the Lethbridge Festival, the Executive team who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make each festival run smoothly for the team, the Coaches who dedicate their time on and off the boat to help us achieve success, and to the paddlers who helped create some unforgettable memories for us. We hope this festival stoked the flames of passion within each of you - passion for dragon boating that is. Racing is an extraordinary feeling and it makes every minute of practicing worth while. When the hard work is rewarded by excellent race results, that's icing on the cake.

Photos from the weekend will be posted in the upcoming weeks, please follow us on Facebook for updates. We gained a little publicity that weekend as well, check out the article on the Lethbridge Herald: http://lethbridgeherald.com/news/local-news/2014/06/29/festival-earns-rave-reviews/


Paddles up,

Shannon 

Calgary Festival 2011

With the season starting to gear up (in theory…) it’s time to look ahead and start thinking about the Calgary Festival.

This year marks the return of the full 2-day festival to Calgary, which will be on August 6 and 7th. This is our home turf and we have a title to defend from last year’s one-day festival. 
We would like to see everyone come out and participate. It will be a great way to get the whole team together to paddle and support Dragon Boating in Calgary.
Everyone who wishes to participate will have the opportunity to do so. The goal is to have 2 mixed teams and 1 women’s team entered this year.

The cost of the festival will be $65/person, please pay upfront and make the cheque payable to Calgary Dragon Boat Club. Note that coaches discretion will determine who will be racing on each team. If ladies are selected to race on multiple boats there will be an additional $40/person fee. Let me know if you do not want to pay this so we will not select you for multiple teams.

Please RSVP to Rachel by June 28th.

The Calgary Festival is going to make for an awesome weekend, so I hope EVERYONE can come out and show just how amazing we are.

Victoria Festival 2011

The Victoria Dragon boat Festival is one of my favourites! The planning committee puts on a great event, and the whole city gets behind the festival. In addition to this, you get to race in one of the greatest venues in Canada, inside the Victoria Harbour, racing directly toward the Princess Hotel Downtown, right next to the legislative building. You couldn’t ask for a better venue! In 2009 Crew Yahoo came Third in the highest division Platinum division), only to lose in a photo finish to the Canadian Navy, and a team of Portland firefighters! I think a re-match may be in order!!

Note - Replying "yes, I want to come to race in Victoria" does not guarantee you a spot on the roster, however the coaches will do their best to accommodate everyone who is interested. DO NOT BOOK ANY FLIGHTS OR HOTELS PRIOR TO HEARING FROM ME AS TO WHETHER YOU HAVE MADE THE ROSTER. Once we have a better idea of who is going, I will pass along further details on accommodations, etc.

When: August 12, 13 and 14th (Racing only 13th and 14th)

Accommodations: We have tentatively procured spacious condo-style apartments at the brand new Parkside Victoria (under "Crew Yahoo") which you will have the option of utilizing; however, you will not be restricted to this lodging. You may stay at any location of your choice, we only try and help. The rates run from $75 to $100/night per person, depending on your desired occupancy (the smallest suites fit 4 people in a 1-bedroom, and all rooms have kitchenettes).

Travel: You should arrive the evening of August 12, so that you can be at the race site early enough on Saturday, August 13. Flights via West Jet currently are $460.


Cost: The cost to paddle in the festival is $ 65/person. Please pay upfront so we can cover the cost of the registration. If you do not make the team, you will be refunded.

If you are interested and will be committed to paddling in the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival please RSVP to Claire before June 15. Because these festivals take a lot of time and money to plan, if you RSVP for the race, we will assume you have committed the time and resources to attend the festival.

Paddles Up!!!!

Claire

2010 Executive Team Announcement

Hello everyone,
It's awesome to see the number of members from the Club who have shown interest in helping out and we are excited to announce a few additions to the executive team.

Sue will be the Club's new Communications gal. She will be performing the role while Shannon gets her much needed break from answering all those emails. On top of the communications duties, Sue will also be taking on as VP Membership. 

Tracy will be accountable for Fundraising/ Sponsorship and getting us geared up for the season with our new Jerseys !

Also new to the executive committee:
Ashley - will be putting together some fun team building activities
Marc - will be organizing the Lethbridge festival and helping Tracy with fundraising.
Lindsay - will be organizing one of the out of town festivals and helping out with fundraising events
Stephen - will be helping Karen out with some budgets and helping Sue with membership recruitment plans.

…and our Paddler of the Year, Dustin, has taken on the challenge of coaching along side Kelvin (head coach), Jeremy & Carol. This year, Jeremy & Kelvin will split the task of scheduling the practices as they both will be embarking on fatherhood shortly.

As for myself, I will still be the Treasurer & President.
James , Shannon & Claire will remain on board as directors helping out where ever they can.

Please help me welcome all the new executives in transitioning into their new positions,
& thanking them for committing the time to help out the Club! 
It's gonna be another exciting year!

Cheers~
Karen

2009 Most Improved & Most Valuable Paddler

Every year the coaching staff picks the most improved paddler (MIP) and the most valuable paddler (MVP) from the team. These awards are meant represent an individual's outstanding achievement throughout the season. In 2009, we introduced a nomination structure to the selection process. Here are the results:

Most Improved Paddler (MIP)

Nomination:

1. Kevin Ruddell

2. Yunjin Liu

3. James Voo

Winner: James Voo

Most Valuable Paddler (MVP)

Nomination:

1. Dustin Wilkes

2. Stephen Fournier

3. James Voo

Winner: Dustin Wilkes

The Hammer award (New) - Awarded to the hardest working individual for the season, Stephen Fournier.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners this year. It was a great season because we had so many great individuals such as the ones mentioned above making up the team.

 cheers,

The Yahoo Coaching Staff