Dragon Boat Races 2009

Sorry - I know it seems like I have completely disappeared and neglected my Blog but during these past months I have once again been so busy that it's hard to keep up posting anything - hopefully I will have time to talk about some of my trips and experiences come June.



Currently everything in my life circles around Dragon Boating - once again I am leading the team of the American Women's Association - the AWA Globe Paddlers which requires a lot of work and commitment. We began practicing in early February and were often very unlucky with the weather caprices - HK experiences strong easterly winds this spring, meaning many practices had been canceled, postponed, reduced to 14paddlers who braved white caps and high waves and one time the boat was even tied on shore with ropes and we had to paddle against "dead water" which gave us a muscle ache from hell. We consider ourselves as "The Conquerors of the Winds" this year ;-)

Anyway - during the past weekend our first two races took place - the warm-up race in Stanley with a racecourse length of 250m and the Deep Water Bay Regatta with a racecourse length of 500 m - the latter one was a true challenge for which we signed up for the first time - you can't even begin to imagine how loooong the last 100m are stretching, you're in agony!!

First a video of our final Stanley race (out of 3). This was recorded in high def, so click on the HD button on the bottom right of the video for better quality. It may take a little time to buffer. AWA is wearing sunny yellow race shirts with the AWA logo on our back (a Star) and bandannas with the national flags. By the way it turned out to be an exciting day for our spectators with lots of drama - due to high winds the start was very delayed and it was hard for the steersmen to navigate the boats in a straight line - from collisions, to sinking boats, to broken rudders - nothing was left out this year.



In case anybody is wondering who the "lemony shadow" was who seemingly effortless passed us - that is the Macau Paddle Club and I heard, they're practicing nearly every day - no time to do this, there are also other exciting things to explore in this fantabulous City ;-)

Here's the 2nd video showing the Women's Plate Final in Deep Water Bay, take a look:



We came in 2nd in this race and managed to beat the HK Yachtclub Paddle Club (Royal-X) which was a huge success for our team considering the fact, that we didn't practice much for this distance and were truly expecting to trail all of our competitors by far. Passing Royal-X was our biggest goal for the Tuen Ng Races on May 28th and we did it already, yessss! Now we have to keep up torturing ourselves for 3 more weeks because for sure they want revenge and will also practice even harder for the remaining time. Way to go G-Force, watch out Buzz Ladies!!!!

By the way - in case you're interested, I joined Facebook in the meantime (never wanted to but everyone only posts pictures on FB these days, so no choice). Just type in my name and click on "view friends" and you can see all the albums out there.

I will keep you posted, ciao.